Dec 16, 2022
Detroit sports bloggers and podcasters Greg Eno and Big Al Beaton are The Knee Jerks!
This week, Greg returns from his hiatus and is ready to start airing his grievances!
This week's topics include:
Playoffs? Thanks to a 5-1 tear, the post season may still be a longshot, but is no longer out of the Lions' realm of possibility.
In 2 months, head coach Dan Campbell has gone from a kneecap biting meathead needing a vote of confidence from Sheila Ford Hamp to being considered crazy like a fox, receiving mea culpas from the national media and is in the thick of the NFL Coach of the Year race.
Campbell's protégé Ben Johnson may have a future as an NFL head coach. His offense has been fun and unpredictable, and has Jared Goff playing the best QB of his career.
No matter how the next month plays out, the foundation is laid for a Lions “playoffs or bust” 2023 season.
Tigers GM Scott Harris says the team plans to “earmark at-bats and innings” for young players. In other words - how to say we need to rebuild the rebuild without saying the word “rebuild.”
Harris' first major deal is sending 2 time All Star and former "closer of the future" Joe Jiménez to Atlanta for 22 year old, RH hitting OF/3B prospect Justyn-Henry Malloy.
Barring a few significant (and unlikely) trades, the Tigers' offense is tracking to be putrid in 2023. There are just too many roster holes with too few major league caliber players to fix the lineup in one off season.
From the "You can't have enough starting pitching" department: In a pair of low risk, high reward free agent signings, Harris brought back former Tigers starter Matthew Boyd on a 1-year, $10 million deal and inked Angels starter Michael Lorenzen to a 1 year, $8.5 million deal.
What once looked like free agency overpays by the Tigers now seem reasonable once the market for pitching turned expensively volatile.
After a nice start to the season, the Red Wings are returning back to earth as injuries mount and the schedule toughens.
The Red Wings' goalie rotation has gone out the window. Ville
Husso is playing well, but Alex Nedeljkovic's season has gone off
the rails.
Yes, the game has changed. But the Red Wings still looked soft for not immediately standing up to the Wilds' Ryan Reaves after his huge hit injured Filip Hronek.
Cade Cunningham will have season ending shin surgery. May just as well fire up the tank one more time.
Two silver linings to Cunningham's extended absence - Forced to step up, Killian Hayes is playing like a legit NBA point guard and with a little lottery luck, the franchise has a shot at drafting either euro unicorn Victor Wembanyama or G-League wunderkind guard Scoot Henderson
We also play the Birthday Game and name our respective Jerk of the Week!
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Greg's Twitter: @GregEno
Greg's blog - Out of Bounds