What do the Detroit Lions think of this possible prospect?
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It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. How much will character play a factor when the Lions pick at number 28? You are Locked On Lions, your daily Detroit Lions podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day.

Oh, Hey, Oh, what's happening to everybody. Matt Derry with you. It is locked on lines. I'm locked on podcast network. Your team every day today is Tuesday. Yes. Tuesday, March 18th and a Wednesday, March 19th. Thanks for making us your first listen and checking us out wherever you get your podcast. Thank you to those every dayers that are out there that watch and listen to the podcast daily, whether it's on YouTube or on Spotify, Apple podcasts. We appreciate you guys. Uh,

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And plenty more of our everydayers are out there, including our call of the day. Today, we will have a call of the day. If you want to participate, be on the show. Leave us a voicemail at speakpipe.com slash dairy podcast page. That's speakpipe.com slash dairy podcast page. And you too can be on the show. We'll play our call of the day coming up momentarily.

Coming up on the show today, a bunch of players have re-signed. A lot of bit players for the Lions are back. We will explain some of those names coming up. Also, one of our season ticket holders, one of the Lions season ticket holders that we have talked to and reached out to, Tony Stevenson, who's on the show, I believe it was a week from last Monday.

He got some news about his season tickets. We will share that with you coming up momentarily as well. But I want to start with this. A lot of talk about the latest. Oh, before I do that, Lockdown Lions today brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. Thank you to our friends at FanDuel. All right.

All right, so it's mock draft season, right? We had the mock draft Monday, yesterday. Dave Burkett's mock draft from the Free Press. We talked about it. Go back and listen or watch if you missed yesterday's show. And we discussed the possibility of Alabama linebacker and kind of a do-everything Swiss Army knife type of defender, Jihad Campbell, coming to the Lions. Yes, that would be Dan Campbell. Dan! Jack Campbell. And then Jihad Campbell.

All if the Lions take Campbell at 28. This is a kid that's an absolute stud, can really run, can rush the passer, can play inside linebacker, Sam linebacker, all of them.

Dave Burkett had that Lions mocking him at 28 in his mock 2.0 yesterday. Today, Mel Kuyper's latest mock draft came out from ESPN.com and the player that he chose, and this isn't Mock Draft Monday, so I'm not going to go through top fives. I'm not going to talk about what Kuyper said. I'm just, I want to get on a bigger point here, and that is character.

If you've noticed one thing about Brad Holmes and his reign here, four plus years in as general manager. And look, I think we can say it. Brad Holmes has been maybe the best GM to ever be with the Lions. He and his staff do a fantastic job. It's that whole crew, Chris Spielman and Brad Holmes and Ray Agnew and everybody involved that puts this outfit together. They do a great, great job. And we've seen it.

Brad Holmes took over. The team won three games and they won nine games and they won 12 games and they won 15 games. It's quite a remarkable jump to say the least. But one thing that we have noticed under Bradley Holmes as general manager is that he drafts, signs, trades for whatever it is, high character players. He does not want any, and Dan Campbell used this term years ago, doesn't want any turds in the room.

He doesn't want any bad guys in the room. For the most part over the last four years, the Lions have had really good soldiers and really good guys and clean as a whistle type character down at 222 Rodwood Drive. And there have been some players, Jalen Carter was one, that I was stumping four years ago for the Lions draft. And there were reports that Sheila Hamp and Brad Holmes, they weren't going there.

They were going to push that button. They're going to stay with guys that they know in that locker room they don't have to worry about. Jamison Williams is a player that they've had to worry about a little bit, but for the most part, he's been a model teammate. And anytime he's messed up off the field, Dan Campbell's defended him. They've handled it in-house. And J-Mo seems to have grown up a little bit and is a vital part of this team. So now here comes James Pierce Jr.,

the defensive end and edge rusher from Tennessee, whom Mel Kuyper Jr. mocks to the Lions at number 28. James Pierce is a heck of an edge rusher from Tennessee. Really, really good player. Last year, didn't have his best year as a junior, seven and a half sacks. But in his career, going back to freshman year, he had nine and a half sacks as a sophomore. Guy has had over 17 sacks in his career.

ran a four, four, seven 40 at the combine and was determined at the combine to answer any questions about his character. Because according to multiple reports, some NFL teams have quote unquote character concerns about Pierce Walter football.com. Charlie Campbell even wrote one AFC playoff team is even considering dropping Pierce off of their draft board. Um,

Pierce is an excellent player. He really is. And there are a lot of mock drafts that have him going a lot earlier than number 28. Again, what did Pierce do? What's the issue there? Well, he was arrested in December 2023 during a traffic stop in Knoxville, but those charges were dropped two weeks after the incident and ended up playing in the Citrus Bowl that year right after this incident.

According to the police report, I'm not going to get into every detail, but it sounded like he was pulled over late night on a Monday night for going 53 to 35. And his license was suspended. And he was told multiple times by cops to turn off his car. He didn't do it. They arrested him and they dropped the charges. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be any other documented off the field issues, but multiple reports have said that James Pierce died.

Has some off field issues, whether it's as a teammate, whatever it is. Here's the thing. This is a guy that talent wise. All right. Is just as good. And if not better than Mike Green, Shamar Stewart, Jack Sawyer, any of these other edge rushers, Pierce can really get to the quarterback and can really play.

And there's no wonder why a guy like Mel Kiper Jr. put in his mock draft today at ESPN.com that he would be a great fit across the aisle here, down the aisle from Aiden Hutchinson. Hutchinson on one side, Pierce on the other. Lions, of course, are looking for an edge rusher. Zedarius Smith is no longer on the team. That was the guy that came in to fill the Hutch role last year. They've got Josh Paschal, who I think is more of a third edge rusher.

And they really haven't addressed that edge position in free agency other than re-signing Marcus Davenport, who, as we know, can never, ever, ever, ever, ever stay healthy. Marcus Davenport healthy? Sign me up. But he never plays. He's always hurt. And last year he played a couple games and was missed for the season. Lions need help on the edge, and I get it. So the question is, will Brad Holmes and his team and Sheila Hamp

Look at James Pierce or is, are they one of the teams that says we're good? We're not going to bring that into this.

They, I haven't, I do not have it on record yet. If the Lions talked to him at the combine, I'll have to look that up and see, but I don't believe I've seen that anywhere yet. This is a kid with a, with a high level of just athleticism. And like I said, ran a four, four, seven 40 and had nearly 20 sacks in three years in college, but Holmes doesn't take these types of players. He just doesn't.

And look, one traffic stop is not going to, should not squash, and charges dropped, should not squash a kid from his dream. But if they've done enough homework and they view him as an issue, I don't think they're going to take him at 28. It just doesn't fit what the Lions do. There have been plenty of players in free agency. There have been players dangled in trades that I've said on this podcast for as long as I, as Brad Holmes has been here. Lions aren't going to go for that. They're just, they're going to pass.

They don't want to mess with the chemistry that's in that locker room. So that's the update there on James Pierce Jr. Coming up next, Lions do what the Lions do today. Like Kramer said on Seinfeld, I do what I do. Well, that is re-sign their own. We've got a couple of guys to tell you about that are back, including our man, Craig Reynolds. We will do that next right here on Locked on Lions.

All right, folks locked on lines today. Proudly. I brought to you by our friends at FanDuel. March Madness is here and it's here tonight. We got the first four. We got games tonight from Dayton. Let me tell you something about UD Arena in Dayton. I love that place. University of Detroit Titans and Dayton Flyers played an NIT game there many years ago. I was there calling the game.

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All right. You got your eye on a few underdogs here. I've been talking about Drake. We mentioned high point yesterday. Keep an eye on some of these squads. And I'm telling you right now, Michigan state, um, uh,

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Thanks, everybody, for being with us here on Locked on Lions. It's a Tuesday edition. Hopefully going to catch up with Brett Whitefield from Fantasy Points this week, talk a little bit more about the draft, and continue to discuss where else the Lions could go in free agency. As that first wave of free agency is now done. I want to mention our friend Tony Stevenson out in Oregon who lost the season tickets. I'm going to do that momentarily. But first things first.

The Lions continue to bring back some of their bit players, some of the backups, some guys that spot start and get opportunities to play. Three official signings made today. First and foremost, our guy, you know we love him. He's a show favorite. Craig Reynolds. Come on, Craig. The running back is back on a one-year deal.

Lions have also announced they have signed reserve defensive lineman Patrick O'Connor, ex of Eastern Michigan, has returned as well. 31 years of age. Lions brought him back into the training camp last year. Played last year 18 tackles, one sack, two tackles for a loss. He got a lot of time last year when Kyle Pecco got hurt.

uh peco by the way remains unsigned but uh patrick o'connor back with the lions and kind of in in that group of defensive linemen that they're bringing back levi owns rike miles adams mitchell agude was brought back yesterday marcus davenport and now poc pat o'connor is also back lions also today

um, have reportedly re-upped with tight end Shane Zylstra. Yes. He of the flying Zylstra brothers back on a one-year deal, uh, 28 years of age played a little bit last year. Um,

thin tight end room, I guess you could say. Well, not really. I mean, Lions tight end room right now is Sam Laporta, Brock Wright, and at least for now also, Kenny Yeboah, the former New York Jet, has re-signed. So last year, Zylstra was kind of tight end three, tight end four for a little bit of time. And now it's Laporta, Wright, Yeboah, and Zylstra. So Shane Zylstra back, Pat O'Connor back,

and Craig Reynolds back. This is what the Lions do. And a lot of these players that probably want to look elsewhere and think they're going to get a bigger payday elsewhere end up staying here because it is such a great situation. It is such a great locker room. It is a great coaching staff that you want to win with, that you maybe give up some snaps, all right, to, yeah, hey, Pat O'Connor, if the Browns wanted Pat O'Connor, or the Jaguars were looking at Shane Zylstra, or the Jets for that matter.

Maybe that opportunity was there, but these guys all want to come back here and win. And I guess a lot of them say unfinished business. So that is the case. And those three are all back. I have no issue with it. It's good depth pieces. They know the system. And they all contributed last year in one way or another. All right. I want to give you the update and I've got to find this on my phone. Our man, Tony Stevenson.

who we first saw on Channel 7. I'm going to do this the right way. First saw on Channel 7 a couple of weeks ago, was interviewed because Tony was one of the people who he had moved to Oregon. He did not come back for a lot of the games, but he's been a season ticket holder for 26 years with the Detroit Lions. Tony Stevenson was one of the people whose season tickets got revoked by the organization.

We had Tony on the show a couple of weeks ago. Tony was very upset. He said he finally got a hold of his ticket rep who told him that they were going to do the best they could to try and fix the situation. But the issue was because Tony lived out of state, he sold a lot of his tickets. And that was a no-no from the Lions. We reached out to Tony. I reached out to Tony yesterday just to go, hey, man, how are things going? Have you heard back from the Lions?

Tony emailed me back today and he did give me permission to talk about this on the show. He said, hi, Matt. I did receive a response last night. I'm just going to let it go at this point. Thank you for your time and effort. We love the fans. We love Tony. Tony's a listener as well here on Locked on Lions, but he's not getting his tickets back. He got an email back from the Detroit Lions ticketing department, not even hearing from his rep.

Quote, thank you for providing additional information on your Detroit Lions ticket account activity in response to your account cancellation. We've considered your past account activity and the information you provided us

to help us make a final decision on your account. We regret to inform you that we have made the decision to not reinstate your account based on violations of our ticket policy. Any payments made for the 2025 season have been refunded to you using your original payment method. Please contact our ticketing department if you've not received this refund. While we appreciate that this is not the news you were hoping for, this decision is final. Detroit Lions Ticketing Department.

Man, does that suck for Tony? Tony admitted on this show, he sold his tickets on the Lions resale site that the Lions provided him. Hey, if you need to sell some tickets, here's the site. They provided it. Yes, he did not read all the fine print. Yes, he did, quote unquote, violate the terms of his contract because he lives in Oregon. He moved out to Oregon for work three years ago. He's eventually coming home.

He and his wife, but he sold too many games and he's out. And I think this is ridiculous. He's been a season ticket holder for 26 years. He's a good guy. He's not trying to ruffle any feathers. He came to some games this year. He gave some tickets away. He told us on the show, but they didn't, they didn't see it that way. And to me, if I were the lions and I'm doing things for my fans and for our season ticket members, uh,

If you're a member of our club, we want to take care of you. How does his rep not call him? Maybe in November and December, say, hey, we're looking at your activity. Tony, you got to start coming to some games or bring family or something. Stop selling the tickets because you're in violation. Nothing, nothing like that. He got that original email, then finally talked to his rep a few weeks later. And now he receives an email from the ticketing department instead of hearing from somebody personally. I think that's lousy customer service. I do.

and when the lions do things well i commend them and they're doing a lot of things well trust me this i don't like i ran this by one of my sources close to the situation and that source told me that um

This definitely, this decision was not made without at least a senior vice president signing off on it. That is what one of my sources said. So if that's the case and they're getting senior VPs involved, can somebody pick up the phone and call our guy Tony and tell him how bad they feel? Or at least, I don't know, some sort of customer service. I just think that's unfortunate. And I know Tony's not alone. There's plenty of you that are out there that also had your tickets revoked. And there's some of you I know that got them back.

but they need to fix this because they're providing the site for you to go on. They're telling you where to go to sell them. And now Tony's tickets are going to be in the hands of a broker. I'm telling you they are. And that broker is going to sell them for a lot more. And the Lions are going to get a piece of that action too. Don't tell me they're not. This is still a business. I just feel sorry for Tony. And that's all I got to say on it now.

All right. Call of the day coming up next, right here on a locked on lions, right here on the locked on podcast network. As we hear from more of the fans and our everyday listeners.

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I'm back on Lockdown Lions, a Tuesday edition Lockdown Podcast Network. Hope everybody's doing well. We've had some sunshine the last few days. It's kind of been nice and hope everybody is enjoying what is going on with this football team as they continue to make moves and just, you know, everybody now talking about the offseason and the draft. And we know this. This is where Brad Holmes shines. This is where he does his best work is in the draft.

All right, let's hear from one of our everyday listeners and our call of the day. Call of the day. You want to be a call of the day candidate and to join the program, you can at www.speakpipe.com slash dairy podcast page. Today, we got our man, Chris Green, checking in.

Hey, Locked On listeners. This is Joe Marino from Locked On Bills. As we progress through the season, every fan knows that big wins are hard to come by and tough losses are even harder to accept. But you know what isn't hard to accept?

Discover. Believe it or not, Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. You heard that right, 99%. So make a good call for your wallet and get Discover. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen Report, learn more at discover.com slash credit card. Hey man, it's Chris Green from Clinton Township. I'm an everyday listener. I just wanted to know, a lot of people were

Not too upset about the various myths letting him go. I kind of feel like we should have held on to him and let him actually have a chance to play with Hutch because I don't think we really got to see what that combination would have looked like. I think we could have got him to come back for not very much money. So I just think we should have gave it a shot. What do you think? And thanks for everything you do and everyday listener. Thank you, Chris Green. And every day you're chiming in from Clinton Township Eastside.

Interesting. You know, this is a very interesting situation with Zedaria Smith, who right now remains unsigned. No other team wants him. Why is that? Why is nobody else trying to sign Zedaria Smith? First and foremost, the Lions cut him. They released him. So they do not owe him the money that he was supposed to make this year, which I think was around $10 million. And they had a cap hit this season of around $6.25 million.

So Lions are saving over $6 million by not bringing Z'Darrius Smith back and releasing him before the league year started. Z'Darrius Smith was not a, you know, he was kind of a weird case. When they brought him in at the trade deadline, we're like, all right, the Lions got the edge rusher that they need. This is a guy that's been proven. He's won in the division. He's been on winning teams with the Packers, winning teams with the Vikings, um,

was on a playoff team a couple of years ago, two years ago with the Browns when they lost in the wildcard round against Houston can get to the quarterback. Yes, he's 32, 33 years of old years of age, but solid, solid veteran player who's going to come in and at least not hurt the team. I would say if I had to grade Zedaria Smith on his games in Detroit, B minus C plus, I thought he was fine.

I didn't think he provided enough pressure. I thought there were games he disappeared and cutting him to save six and a half million dollars. I understand. But here's the bigger question. This is kind of what Chris is talking about. Do you bring him back now? Would he take less or is that horse out of the barn? Zedaria Smith was also known to be around the community a lot, seen him at Pistons games with his

a reported girlfriend the rapper cash doll who's always at the Pistons games so Z'Darrius Smith he was having fun here in Detroit why is he still available and could he come back to Detroit on a lot less money here's what I think I think the Lions feel like Marcus Davenport when healthy is going to be really good if if and when he's healthy I think they also believe Josh Paschal

wasn't healthy for most of last season, especially the beginning of the year. And if he comes in healthy, he will contribute. I also believe this organization is going to sign or is going to draft an edge rusher, either 28, 60, whatever. This is a very, very good offensive lineman and defensive lineman draft and edge draft. So I do think the lions are going to add an edge rusher in there. They're also getting Aiden Hutchinson back. Um,

owns a Rike is back a guy that has played some edge and some inside. So maybe I think it might just be a numbers game was a Darius Smith. And there's a chance who knows the Darius Smith is a Darius Smith's agent might also be telling teams right now. We're not coming back for like a $4 million deal right now. The agent might say, you want to sign them? Here's what he was going to be making in Detroit.

We'll slice some of that down, but our player is worth X or Y or Z, and the Lions might not be going there just yet. But again, you're going to have more cuts coming before June 1st. You're going to have some other players available. You're going to have injuries in training camps, in mini camps and OTAs, and then that will force players like Z Smith to maybe find a home somewhere where a player goes down due to injury.

That's what I think the Lions are thinking at least right now. All right, that'll do it for us on this, a Tuesday edition of Locked on Lions. I love this time of year. We got draft talk. We got March Madness. We got so much to enjoy. Baseball's coming.

Don't forget, Locked On Tigers, Scotty Bentley, Locked On Red Wings with B Fish, Locked On Pistons with Koo. Check all those shows out right here on the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. We are back again tomorrow.