MINA KIMES on the Detroit Lions Offseason and What’s Ahead

MINA KIMES on the Detroit Lions Offseason and What’s Ahead

what up welcome back to worldwe live world sports.com I’m easy joined by spin MOX up though and we are also joined by NFL lives and ESPN’s one of my favorite NFL analyst to listen to Mina [Applause] kimes I apologize hey I appreciate you uh coming on to uh repent for the the Green Bay Packers offense comments uh I just want to um set the table here we’re talking about whether the Lions are like the fourth or fifth best offense like that is the debate here so I understand that there could be some difference of opinion about the rankings but uh that is very very high uh jumping in right here we’re talking about a podcast I did M K Show featuring Lenny we predicted the top 10 offenses for 2024 um and yeah the Lions I think I think we ended up putting them fourth fourth Yes we finally have something good to hold on to here and Detroit so we don’t like to take any shots now but I appreciate you joining us and and one thing you did mention to about the Lions offense and what could take it to the next level is Jameson Williams being that guy in this offense I have high expectations for him what are your expectations and what would he need to do for the Lions to hit that next level yeah so part of the reason why I talked about Williams and and this offense going from extremely good to potentially being top three top to whatever um is because this offense is such a load on the ground uh they face a lot of single High coverage there’s opportunities downfield it’s a very efficient offense but as you guys know um it’s not a very explosive one through the air it’s explosive on the ground but there are those opportunities exist and so the point I was making on my podcast and I think this is true is Jameson Williams is like the answer to that it’s not a problem but I would say that opportunity uh the prospect that he was in college I I was I he was my favorite wide receiver in that draft I think he’s he was so unbelievably gifted uh in school and obviously he’s battled some injuries since then and uh suspension and whatnot but if he can be even 80% of the guy I thought he was coming out of college to me that’s a massive ad for this offense because of how they already threaten defenses and the way that uh defenses have to play them mean know for some of the Casual viewers or casual Lions fans are listening who may think Jared G is the second coming of Moses can you kind of speak to this Detroit Line’s offense and Ben Johnson and what makes it so special even before Jameson Williams oh my goodness yeah I mean I think Ben Johnson’s amazing I love watching the offense um not just because of how unique it is and and all of the uh creativity on the ground but I I think as a play caller he has such an incredible touch for sequencing the way he sets up defenses over the course of a game the way he figures out uh the concept that I a singular run concept for example that works and then just pushes that button over and over and sort of bends defenses into submission obviously with the help of the best offensive line in football I I think he’s really really talented and to get him back is a massive massive coup um I I think something that he’s done also that is really special is um made the most out of the skill players on the roster like Alan Ross Brown and Sam Le Porter are fantastic but I do think if they had ended up with the different offensive coordinator they wouldn’t be the players that they are in Detroit but I think Johnson has such a fine eye for how to use him with his the way he uses Personnel groupings and formations so creatively it’s really special another weapon that uh Brad Holmes gave to Ben Johnson over the last year was jir Gibbs and that pick didn’t settle well with a lot of lions fans at first but we saw what he was capable of and we’ve just did our top 10 running back rankings and he was in the top six of both of our lists is that too much too fast or like we saw what he can do out there I you know I really liked Gibbs coming out of college but I I will say this I thought he ran better between the tackles than I expected um in the NFL and again obviously he’s he’s helped by the aforementioned offensive line but um I you know that was my biggest question okay you know yes he’s so explosive and he can catch passes and um you know running off tackle and and when he has wide open lanes he will turn them into explosives but uh I thought he ran with a lot more physicality frankly than I expected and he he is more of a Balan and complete running back I think then um maybe it would have seemed just based on his college tape so Testament or I mean yeah that’s um I just really really really really an impressive rookie season top six I don’t know I’d have to sit back down and think about all the backs but I don’t that doesn’t sound crazy to me off the top of my head I’m I’m glad to hear somebody who covers I guess the entire league as a whole say that cuz I do feel a bit homerest talking about this Lions team at times cuz I just we’ve never witnessed this stuff in our lifetime I can criticize it we can talk about the negative stuff if you want really positive thus far you know yeah oh how about the how about the defense yeah I know obviously defense been a question mark for us uh we finally addressed it with some rookies as well as a trade from my guys kind of been on a I guess a downtrend in his career in Carlton Davis Jr what do you make of those secondary additions and could you see that bu of Detroit Lions to top 15ish respectable yeah uh well yeah I mean I think this is already an average defense because the run defense was so phenomenal um it was the pass defense that was the issue and even if Carlton Davis isn’t exactly who he was you know Super Bowl season he’s still probably an upgrade for you over what you got last year which was really ugly um I loved the Arnold pick you know talked about it a lot on NFL live my podcast um I loved it too because it just it to me was really just a perfect fit for what I what we know Aaron Glenn wants to do on defense he wants to play more man coverage he wants Corners depressed they had to back off of that because of the Personnel last year I think I might have mentioned this on live the day after um but uh Arnold is so big for this unit and I think about um Glenn in particular and why he was um thought of as you know a rising uh star uh obviously he’s gotten head coaching interviews but going from New Orleans and it was a lot of it had to do with the work he did with Marshall and Latimore you guys remember was a Defensive Rookie of the Year in that scheme and if he can get similar I mean I that that would be amazing but you know he has a proven track record my point is of developing young quarterbacks and getting them to play at a high level and I think these additions should allow him to call defense a little bit closer to what he wants to do and that whole defense really is centered and revolves around one player and that is our Blue Chip face of the defense in Aiden Hutchinson last year he had a better season especially towards the end of the year where and in the playoffs he was getting sack after sack what is his ceiling next year you bring in a DJ reader to put in the middle of that of that defensive line who helped Trey Hendrickson get 17 and a half sack what can Aiden Hutchinson do now that he’s fully Unleashed well I I don’t know if he’s fully Unleashed guys because I love the DJ reader signing I think he he is one of those like NFL players favorite play he you know what I mean like kind of like a hip like people who watch football are like yeah DJ reader he’s like really really good that’s a big loss for Cincinnati he was when they signed him out from Houston I remember thinking oh my God that’s a really good player and as I mentioned this L Grand defense is already really Stout and he’s very good against the Run um I do feel like there’s still another Edge rusher away to be honest uh and so I think naturally because of that I understand what you know with reader and we’ll see what you get out of the Interior outside of him but um you know Hutchinson is going to face a fair amount of double teams he’s not going to be fully it’s not going to be as easy for him as it is for I think defensive lines where they have like a you know like a 1 a 1B or like another top 15 to 20 ad rusher opposite them um but uh if you get even the play you got last year that’s certainly enough uh given the improvements that you’ve made in the secondary yeah the player I truly think is unlocked in that situation is Lee mcneel because obviously you’re going to prioritize double teaming Hutch and reader Le going be the one running free doing damage yeah when he got hurt that was a big deal and I don’t think people appreciated that he’s a really really really talented player I agree what do you think of uh Jack Campbell I I feel like DJ bre is going to help him flourish a little bit here too obviously second year for him as well is there a hope that he could look like the first rounder he was drafted to be yeah um I uh did not love his tape last season to be honest so I guess this is where we get to the negative part right um yeah no I me just to be honest like I didn’t think he had a great Wick year but I think it’s worth mentioning very few offb linebackers seem to do well when they come into the NFL these days and I think a lot of that has to do because of Ben for me offensive coordinators like Ben Johnson who really isolate them and make their lives hell it’s very hard to play linebacker right now in the NFL because of all the motions and the RPO Centric offenses and and everything that offensive coordinators do on that front um there’s very few examples of guys who have come in and played that position at a high level early so I think to your to answer your question I I think the hope is like this is a very hard position and year to you’re going to make a step because of that experience and the mental adjustment and that development curve which is again something we’ve just see across the NFL right now at that position and you mentioned the second Ed Edge rusher to go opposite of Aiden Hudson at the trade deadline Last year me easy we we got upset a little bit when we saw Chase Young go to the 49ers instead of the Lions and they didn’t our chat did not like that as much but how I see it now is the Lions we’re at the big boy table we are a top four team in the NFL as of last year I think they’re going to go all in and make one of those deadline deals to improve that defensive front do you see something like that happening at the deadline it’s plausible I think it’s going to really they’re going to really see okay how improved are we on the back end right how much is uh the reader how much of an impact do you have there but really like what kind of player are we getting from the secondary will go a long way towards determining whether they feel uh I wouldn’t call it desperation but that sort of like you know desire to be opportunistic at the deadline when it comes to the pass rush um they are a team that should have that does have and should have Championship aspirations uh and that would be a position I would Target the other one though you know depending on what happens with Jameson is wide receiver I still feel like is an area that they could add um just to be more complete in the passing attack uh but you know uh for me for both of those positions I really feel like it’s going to be wait and see to see what kind of contributions you get early on you know you talk about you know possibly getting to the negative stuff and I don’t necess see this as negative more than it is truth I’ve caught a lot of flack recently because I placed Jordan love as a starting quarterback on my all NFC North team where are you at with the Jordan love versus Jared gol Deb I mean come on you guys we watched on Thanksgiving let’s be real like you got to you got to be honest and like the lions are a better team I’m looking at my power rankings I have them over the Packers so I just want to say this is like we’re being calm down tell Thursday like you got to be you you know you can’t you can’t just be all sunshine and roses and pandering and it would be lying to pretend like Jordan love didn’t fall out in the second half of last season um I know it was just half a season but that was a very young receiving group uh which I think kind of explains in part some of the adjustment period early on um yeah he he’s to me right now the best quarterback back in the division I think he’s one of the best quarterbacks in the NFC the NFL and that sucks right because it’s like God damn it how they do it again that sucks that’s got to be so infuriating as an NC North fan but the good news for you is you have a ton of other pieces in place that are not only going to be good this year but are going to be good for a long time this team was built in the trenches it was built extremely well and you have a head coach in GM uh that appeared to be amongst the NFL’s best and B know we appreciate you so much for joining us and and spend I know you have a very busy schedule and breaking off some of that time to share with us before we let you go Dan Campbell he is the face of this team honestly he is a media darling I wanted to know if you had a specific campellis that is your favorite or or something that he’s done out of all of his quotables that you like more than the rest two things I love I’ll come to mine I love that he has two teacup yorkies I saw that phot I was like like whatever like this is like a green flag this is a confident man he is not embarrassed of his two tiny dogs that he’ll purch on his shoulder um but the other thing is like I I mentioned this I did a top 10 coaches pod and he finished in the top 10 for both of our rankings I Kevin Clark on and I talked about this a little bit then um you know it’s with a head coach sometimes it can be like hard to pinpoint especially if they’re not the play caller what is he doing and I think with Campbell it’s very easy because he’s obviously established a c the way people talk about him it makes it very obvious the impact that he has on the organization but something that I really loved last year um you know the Lions drew some criticism for the aggression and I know sometimes with people like me who like using analytics we can be um people are like you just love everyone who goes for fourth down that’s not true it’s there you know it really comes down to like situation but also I love it when it’s obvious that it’s that the coach not only knows why they’re doing it he sticks to his guns but he gets organizational buyin I think uh it was after was I I don’t know if it was after it was I don’t think it was after the playoff loss I think it was after the um famous did not report game uh where was I know sorry but I think it was Alex anzelone who wrote a piece or something about it and he was like you know this is he was like yeah we’ve gotten some criticism for you know going for it or going for whatever and he was like like dude this is who we are this is who we’ve been this is how we got here like we’re not changing now and I love that because what that told me was like oh this is not just a coach coming down from on high and saying oh I’m gonna do this now it’s a coach who has instilled a belief in his process across the entire team and if that’s not leadership I don’t know what is Mina again I appreciate taking the time guys if you haven’t checked it out already it’s the Mina Pine Mina K’s Show featuring Lenny there’s always a little pun in there every time that begins top 10 defenses this week what do you guys got coming out next week uh next week we have my first Power Hour uh Power Rankings pods goingon to be start dropping every Monday spoiler alert the Lions finish very high uh so you can tune in that Lions fans uh and then we start division previews so we’re getting those kicked off uh good chance to learn about uh teams across the NFL Mina appreciate you again hopefully get you on during the season and uh we’ll see you Monday Night Football maybe get you on that week yeah thanks much oh God yeah we’re finally beating the Seahawks dude these lion Seahawks games last couple years have been wild so we’ll see how that goes yeah you guys own us I it well you’ve owned our defense too they’ve been high-scoring insane games but uh yeah I’m looking forward to that it was nice to meet you guys take care thank you so much there have mea K being generous enough to like you said break off some time turn the Heavies talk some ball the lead NFL analyst for ESPN we got she’s goed it’s awesome goed very cool person and knows your stff knows ball [Music]

Award winning national football analyst for NFL Live, ESPN, host of her self titled show and much more, Mina Kimes joins Spencer Raxter and EZ to discuss the all things Detroit Lions, between, the good and the bad. Which part of this interview brought out your inner fandom the most?. Like, Subscribe and leave your comment below!

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