Editing Episode 622 (section)

== Guest Interview: Jeremy Reisman (Pride of Detroit) ==

Arif introduced Jeremy Reisman of the "eminently Googleable POD cast" (Pride of Detroit) as his "lukewarm friend." Jeremy confirmed that after spending an hour with Arif on his own podcast earlier that day, lukewarm was approximately how he felt.

=== Lions Offensive Line ===

Jeremy characterised the Lions' offensive line as younger than at any point in recent memory — Penei Sewell at 26, Blake Miller in his first year, Tate Ratledge in his second year at right guard, and Christian Mahogany in his third year at left guard — replacing the veteran group of Taylor Decker, Frank Ragnow, and Kevin Zeitler that had defined the Lions offensive identity. He described the communication issues as mostly pre-snap in nature: guys not identifying the right assignments on second-level blocks, not being on the same page at the line. He considered PFF's #1 offensive line ranking improbable but thought pass protection was legitimately strong, with the run game being where the inconsistencies showed up most visibly. Arif noted that communication problems seemed particularly relevant for a week against a defence that disguises its coverage pre-snap at one of the highest rates in the NFL.

Jeremy's prognosis: a good offensive line in two to four years, possibly already performing at a reasonable level today, with the expectation that things would significantly improve by next season as the young players developed post-snap chemistry.

=== Jared Goff and the Flores Defence ===

Arif raised Goff's historical split against the Brian Flores defence — sometimes historically good, sometimes very bad — and asked Jeremy to explain the variance. Jeremy pointed to Frank Ragnow's absence as a plausible partial explanation: Ragnow was the rare centre who could handle the pre-snap identification demands that the Flores scheme places on the offence, and when he was in the building the Lions had considerably more success. He allowed that the Ben Johnson / play-caller variable also played some role, though the fact that Johnson has not yet replicated that success in Chicago suggested it was not the whole story.

On what the Lions would likely do: Jeremy was honest about not knowing. Jared Goff had told him, after Jeremy suggested the Packers' defence as some kind of stepping stone, that the two defences were completely different and that the comparison did not translate. Jeremy agreed. He noted that the last year's approach — essentially having Jameer Gibbs just stand in the A-gaps to block rather than functioning as a pass-game weapon — had not worked, and he doubted they would try it again. Possible adjustments included using 21 personnel more often, deploying Sam LaPorta as a de facto fullback (LaPorta had logged eight snaps in the backfield against the Packers), and simply trusting Goff's quick processing to find answers when the rush arrives.

=== Amon-Ra St. Brown vs. the Field ===

Arif ran a listener-originated ranking exercise: Jeremy had to say whether he would take Amon-Ra St. Brown over each named receiver. The results: not over Justin Jefferson (no), Ja'Marr Chase (no), CeeDee Lamb (no), or Puka Nacua (no). Over George Pickens (yes); Zay Flowers (unknown — Jeremy hadn't watched Flowers play recently despite Flowers leading the league in receiving yards); Drake London (yes); T.J. Higgins (yes); Christian Watson (hesitant yes — "turns out having two hamstrings that are the same strength, big deal"); Nico Collins (yes); current-year Mike Evans (yes, with apology). Parker Washington was unfamiliar to Jeremy. A.J. Brown: possible no. The bracket became briefly contentious when Arif said he strongly disagreed with some of Jeremy's answers, and Jeremy defended Amon-Ra's ability to make catches in tight windows in zone coverage as being more valuable than highlight-reel separation.

On the question of whether Amon-Ra was struggling: Jeremy said no, attributed a quiet game against Arizona to the volume of skill players to feed and noted that Amon-Ra had just had nine catches against the Packers. "If he's not pissed, that's when you have to be like, are you okay?"

=== Jameer Gibbs ===

Jeremy described Gibbs as the most complete back in the NFL below the very top tier — not just an open-space specialist but effective between the tackles, capable of running through tight windows in A and B gaps, and not afraid of contact. He noted that Gibbs' longest run of the season was 22 yards, compared to four or five 50-plus-yard runs by the same point last year, and suggested this was partly a product of the offensive line's inconsistency, though Gibbs had still managed to turn negative gains into positive ones on many of those rushes. The workload was Jeremy's primary concern: Gibbs led the league in touches per game, the backup (Sione Vaki, a former safety at Utah) was a good role player but not a starter, and Isaiah Pacheco — acquired as the RB2 — was on injured reserve.

The "Sonic and Knuckles" breakup question: Jeremy acknowledged mild regret about ending the Montgomery–Gibbs partnership, primarily because the Lions' stated philosophy of running-back-by-committee had appeared to change the moment they realised they had Jameer Gibbs and could simply hand him 25 carries.

=== Lions Defence ===

Jeremy described the defence as genuinely improved over the past two weeks, primarily due to better game-planning: vs. Arizona, the Lions bracketed Trey McBride and Michael Wilson and dared Arizona to beat them with anyone else, which worked for three quarters; vs. Green Bay, they used a cornerback rotation reportedly inspired by the Cowboys' scheme, which neutralised the Packers' receivers over the top.

The secondary crisis was extensive. Ifeatu Melifonwu was out, Vonte Maddox had been lost in Week 1 or 2, Thomas Harper was out indefinitely, and Christian Isian had been benched after several bad games. A sixth-round rookie corner, Keith Abney, had been moved to safety roughly three weeks prior after the Lions asked him if he'd ever played the position ("once, in high school"). Brian Branch's return provided a needed stabilising presence — he played both as a near-the-line-of-scrimmage defender and as a deep safety and had made the play on Jordan Love's interception the previous week.

On Kirby Joseph: Jeremy read out the tweet Kirby had posted upon returning to practice — involving battery emotes, storm emotes, tornado emotes, and a "husky with a pointing finger right at the camera" — and noted that Kirby had then apparently deleted his Twitter account again, as he had done several times before. Jeremy described Brian Branch as softer-spoken on the field but emotionally volatile off it; after punching JuJu Smith-Schuster the prior year, Branch had been "a mess" in the locker room and had needed to call his pastor to process it. Both hosts agreed that Kirby Joseph's social media presence suggested a somewhat different psychological profile.

On the linebackers: Jack Campbell and Derek Barnes had both allowed passer ratings above 110 in coverage per PFF's nearest-coverage-player metric. Jeremy noted that this may be partially by design — the Lions' linebackers took two steps toward the line of scrimmage on almost every play to defend the run, then had to scramble back into their zones — but allowed that it remained a real vulnerability. Devin White had been brought in, played one game, and the Lions had immediately identified why he had been unsigned into training camp; he was placed on the sideline and had since broken his forearm. Trevor Nooski, a long-time special teamer, had been getting more work at the third linebacker spot than anyone had anticipated and had been promising in zone coverage.

On the pass rush: Alim McNeill was the primary improvement driver relative to last season, having returned from injury and looked like himself again. Aidan Hutchinson remained the most disruptive player and commanded extra attention from every opponent. Tyler Williams had added a pass-rush element to his run-defence skillset. D.J. Wonnum was capable when left unblocked. Skylar Gale-Howard, a sixth-round rookie, had been a revelation early in the season but had quieted down over the past two weeks. Jeremy reiterated that the Lions had scaled back their blitz rate from early-season experiments — they had tried to be aggressive and disguise coverages, but realised their linebackers and secondary weren't good enough in coverage to support it, so reverted to fundamentals.

The Lions' blitz rate was approximately 32.3%, which Arif found startling after months of tracking the Vikings' historically high rate. Jeremy: "Not every team is insane."

=== Special Teams and Game Prediction ===

Jeremy confirmed the Lions were #5 in special teams DVOA against the Vikings' #1. Tom Kennedy, who had been their punt and kick returner, suffered a season-ending injury; DeAndre Carter was signed as the replacement and had nearly broken two returns against the Packers. Jake Bates had again begun training camp at roughly 70% accuracy in practice, then been automatic in-season; Jeremy described this as a yearly tradition he did not understand. Jack Fox was an outstanding punter whose precision mattered more than distance given the Lions' tendency to punt from near midfield.

The game was a 3–3.5 point Lions favourite, with a huge playoff-probability swing involved: a Lions win moved their playoff probability to 62%, a loss dropped it to 46%. Jeremy called it a genuine toss-up. His bar: anything better than the Christmas game (the Brock Brosmer game, which featured nine net passing yards from the Vikings' quarterback). Arif described that as an appropriately humble target. Jeremy: "And it felt like the Colts came the closest to finding out what works against this defence and they scored 10 points."

Jeremy's contact information: prideatdetroit.com for the main site, prideatdetroit.com/subscribe for the premium newsletter, Pride Detroit on YouTube, Pride Detroit on Twitch, and @DetroitOnLion on Twitter ("Detroit on Lion, on lion, Gates" — he noted that no one ever gets the joke).