00:00All right, so Goff coming up here in a minute.
00:03What are you thinking about this offense this year?
00:05Are you thinking that the O-line is going to be able to do what is necessary
00:11to have them play at a Super Bowl caliber?
00:15I do because I thought the O-line, even though last year we may not have thought
00:20it was all that great, Goff still threw for 4,500 yards,
00:26had his 34 touchdown passes, you had Jameer Gibbs go off for over 1,200 yards,
00:32Montgomery over 700 yards, they ran for over 2,000 yards as a team
00:35and 4.5 yards per carry.
00:37All those numbers are still there.
00:39They still put up lots of points.
00:41The offense is going to be fine.
00:42In fact, I expect the offensive line to be better than it was last year.
00:46At some point, I don't know if it will be better from day one,
00:50but I think at some point this year we're going to say, wow, it's better
00:53and perhaps even a lot better.
00:55We may have to wait and see on, does that only happen with Cade Mays
01:01or does this happen with Drew Scruggs?
01:03We'll find out soon enough with Drew Scruggs, but keep in mind that this guy's
01:06only been really practicing for a few weeks too because of his injury.
01:10He suffered in training camp early on with a soft tissue issue.
01:13But I do have confidence that the offense is going to be just fine.
01:20Expectations, you can have grand expectations, you can have lower expectations,
01:27or you can have, where I try to keep it, reasonable expectations.
01:32Sometimes probably get a little chesty and fair, guilty as charged.
01:36I would say that last year's offensive line probably operated at a B-C-plus type of level
01:43where they didn't feel like the mauling group when they were in their heyday with
01:48young Penesul and Ragnar in the middle and Decker on the other side.
01:52Losing Ragnar and Decker is not nothing.
01:57But if they were a B-C-plus, they would have to take a significant step backwards
02:03for me to think they weren't competing at a Super Bowl level.
02:06Because the question was, can they compete at a Super Bowl level?
02:09The Lions last year averaged 28.3 points a game.
02:13The two Super Bowl contenders averaged 28.4 and 28.8 points a game.
02:22So the Lions were one-tenth of a point behind Seattle.
02:27Over the course of the season, the difference was two points.
02:30The Patriots were 28.8 points.
02:33The difference was nine points.
02:34They scored nine more points than the Lions in the 17-game regular season.
02:38The Lions would have to take a significant step backwards up front for this offense
02:44to, I think, to not produce at the same level.
02:47And that's provide, because, I mean, what else did they lose offensively?
02:51They get Laporta back.
02:54Jamo and Jameer Gibbs are at points in their career where they could take off.
03:00And St. Brown's already there.
03:02Yes, which means if that offensive line operates at the same level as a year ago,
03:06I actually expect the offense to be better.
03:08Well, I'll give you another factor of why we're an area they have to improve
03:11as an offensive line.
03:12They've got to protect the quarterback better.
03:14Jared Goff was sacked 38 times last year.
03:16That was eighth most in the National Football League.
03:19And for a guy that, you know, not going to win here, he's going to play every game,
03:22you've got to keep him upright.
03:24And I think moving Sewell over to the left side should help that out.
03:28But if they can get that number knocked down from, say, 38 to 28,
03:32you're talking that he's being protected very well in terms of being the top third
03:37in the league.
03:38So if they can improve there, that's going to be better.
03:43Because obviously Jared Goff is a guy who stays in the pocket and will throw
03:46to wait until the last second before he delivers that pass.
03:49When we talked to Jason Garrett, that was one of the things he said about him
03:52and he was very impressed with him back in college and how tough he was to wait
03:56for the play to develop before he didn't rush things.
04:00And the game has slowed down enough for him where he can do that here at this level too.
04:04So I think that and the emergence of Jamison Williams, what he has done this offseason
04:12and getting ready for this season and what he did in training camp,
04:15I think he's going to take more chances downfield.
04:18I think Jamison is going to be a big part of that.
04:20And when he's not, I think it's going to give opportunities for guys like Tesla
04:23to also take advantage of that.
04:25It's important also to point out those statistics of points per game included
04:29one punt return touchdown, no kick return touchdowns, no scooping scores,
04:35and no pick sixes.
04:372, 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 97, 97.
04:39Now it goes hand in hand with playing good defense.
04:42We'll talk about all of this with the quarterback, Jared Goff, next.
04:46You're on Carson Anderson on 97.1.
