The Grit-Iron Report | Super Bowl Review | Pistons Trade Deadline | Red Wings 4 Nations | Return of Grit of the Week

Join the guys this week as they talk about the Super Bowl, Pistons trade deadline, the Red Wings breaking for the 4-Nations Face-Off, and the return of Grit of the Week!

Throughout each episode, Kiel and Tyler play and discuss listener voicemails, and then wrap up with any other Detroit sports news!

Join next week's discussion by calling in and leaving the guys a listener voicemail! [phone]

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
on this week's great iron report we have the NFL season officially over the Detroit

(00:05):
Pistons had about a good of a trade deadline as we could have hoped the Red Wings get a
good break entering a playoff push and we brought back grid of the week so let's get

(00:37):
fire. Sweat tears and hustle that never expire from the rookies on the rocks to the old hands
retire. Great iron is the place for fans to conspire.
I'm so long blast beats thunder and loud. Champions abroad from the royal crowd. The
good iron report where the stories are proud. Welcome to the Great Iron Report. Your Lions
first all Detroit sports podcast. Today is Wednesday February 12th and the Super Bowl

(01:02):
champions come from the NFC but alas are not the Detroit Lions.
Yeah, that's right. The Philadelphia Eagles are your 2025 Super Bowl champions after defeating
the evil Empire Kansas City Chiefs 40 to 22 in an absolute beatdown. So yeah, I guess
let's let's just get right into it. Let's talk a little Super Bowl. You know, let's

(01:23):
talk some shop. What are what are your takeaways from the game?
Yeah, you and I were talking just before we started here and the final score like you
said 40 to 22. It did. It felt like it was 60 to zero for most of this game. Like that
score is so much closer than than the entire game. I don't know. I feel or Kansas ended
up scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter. So it that's what made the score be a little

(01:44):
bit closer but just absolute dominance from the Eagles. I feel like we haven't seen that
much dominance in a Super Bowl since what the Seahawks crushed the Broncos in like 2014
or something. I mean, it was just an all around ass kicking from the eagle by the Eagles.
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that Broncos game definitely sticks out in my mind. I think I mean, probably

(02:05):
a lot of people forget the Mahomes Super Bowl against Brady. I think it was 2020. This
certainly wasn't as much of a beatdown as this game, but you know, that still was a
beatdown and I think there there was a lot of similarities between that Super Bowl and
this one where yeah, Mahomes, I mean, he was he was just getting pressured. He looked so
uncomfortable in, you know, he's an incredible quarterback that seemingly he almost never

(02:29):
looks uncomfortable. He always is the most comfortable man in the pocket and, you know,
on the field, you know, he couldn't do anything the entire game. It was it was really crazy
to see it. I mean, all the credit to Philly to to Vic Vangio, their defensive coordinator
for I don't know. I really don't know how he did it. I don't even want to pretend to
know like all the stunts that that Eagles defensive line was pulling. But I mean, they

(02:52):
weren't even blitzing. So I don't know. I don't know how they did it. But I mean, huge credit
to them. Yeah, I want to come back to the not blitzing part because I think that ties
into Detroit really well. But yeah, I saw an interview with Bryce Young just on leading
up to the Super Bowl and he was saying he played both these teams and the Philly defense
was theoretically or strategically the easiest to to to come out and go against from an offensive

(03:20):
standpoint, just because they're not running a bunch of blitzes and not running a bunch
of stunts and moving guys around. It's really it really truly was just guys going out there
playing clean defense fundamental and executing defensive game plans. So I mean, you're right.
My homes looked extremely bothered by this. I think for now we can probably put the my
homes comparing to Brady to bed for now. Right. I mean, I mean, I know Brady had his ups and

(03:46):
downs. But I think with a with a performance like my homes just put on and I know again
that Eagles defense was great. I think we should put that that that to rest for the
time being. But yeah, you mentioned the the lack of blitzing that the Eagles drew up against
the Kansas City Chiefs. My home so splits on zero of his 42 dropbacks and he still was

(04:09):
sacked six times. And so I think that again, I think that ties into Detroit perfectly as
we kind of connect this back to to the Detroit Lions and what, you know, they can learn from
this and what we can learn from this, that natural pressure wins championships. You brought
up the last time the Chiefs kind of looked out of sorts like this and Patrick Mahomes
did in his last Super Bowl against Tampa Bay and Tom Brady. That was the same thing.

(04:30):
Like you said, you recall that game. He was running for his life the entire time. That
defensive line truly won that game. That Super Bowl for it for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Eagles did the same thing and they did it all naturally. They didn't have to make
this incredible scheme and in blitz guys coming off the back side and blitz the linebackers
and stuff. They were doing what exactly Detroit couldn't do this year, you know, partially

(04:51):
because of the injuries and stuff and Hayden Hutchinson going down. But even with Aiden,
we weren't getting much production from anyone outside of Hutchinson. So we still had to
kind of manufacture pressures and stuff. And that's something like this Eagles team didn't
have to do whatsoever. And Detroit desperately, I think needs to grab on and watch what Philly
did in the personnel they had to try and kind of replicate that natural pressure to

(05:16):
allow just your D-line boys to eat so your secondary and your linebackers can work on
their game in the past game.
Yeah. So I guess that's a great point. I love that you're, you know, this is a Lions first
podcast, right? So we got to relate this back to the Lions. And so I guess my question to
you, Ty, you know, next year you have a healthy Aiden Hutchinson, you have a healthy Aleem
McNeil and a healthy DJ Reader on your defensive line. Is that enough to kind of simulate,

(05:44):
you know, exactly what the Eagles did in this Super Bowl? Like, are those guys going
to be enough to really get pressure without, you know, a ton of blitzing? Or, you know,
can that even be replicated? Can it be replicated what the Eagles did? Or was that just impossible?
Is there any guys that we could sign?
No, I don't think so. I think, I mean, the Eagles played their defense was, it was a

(06:04):
perfect game. I mean, a perfect game against a, and say what you want about the Chiefs
this year. Mahomes probably put that team on his back more than everyone kind of thought
their offense definitely was less than stellar. And he kind of carried them in and covered
up a lot of their mistakes. But the Eagles even that was a perfect defensive game by
the Eagles. So to kind of look at what the Lions have already in house and say, can

(06:27):
we replicate that if even if we're healthy? I think the short answer is no. I think Hutch
was having a career year. He was having a historic year before he went down. You think
he stays healthy. He still is going to produce like that. But you look at outside of him.
DJ Reader is a fantastic run stopping nose tag. I mean, he's, he's fantastic on the

(06:48):
inside. I don't have his numbers in front of me, but I don't think he's much of a,
a sack machine. Ali McNeil kind of the same. They kind of, and they're great. I love them
both in the middle. They, they basically put a stop to any run game. I don't really think
either one of them are producing a bunch of sacks and a bunch of natural pressure like
we would need them to. So you look at, you know, Zadaria Smith, who we have on a contract

(07:08):
for next year as well. I know he's a hot name to throw around when talking about, you know,
potential cat space casualties and whether we're going to keep them around for next
year. And that can be handled in a different, a different episode. If you get this, Zadaria
Smith that we got for a few weeks against like the Vikings and the, the Packers, him
and Hutch maybe could, could create a lot of that natural pressure. It's not going to

(07:31):
be as much as the Eagles got in this game, but it might be enough to get us there. But
I don't think, I don't naturally think just based on the, the tailing of production that
we saw from Zadaria Smith. And like we said, during multiple episodes that like we were
told that's what he does. Like just wait for it. He's going to start to kind of peter out
towards the end of the season. I don't think that's going to be enough to replicate it.
We've seen clearly that that's kind of the formula, at least for beating the chiefs.

(07:54):
I don't, the chiefs aren't going anywhere. We, there's a lot of questions on, you know,
whether Travis Kelsey will retire, but they're not going anywhere. So a young in his prime
Patrick Mahomes. So the, the formula is out for beating the chiefs. If they're going to
end up in the back of the Super Bowl next year, whatever, you know, the Lions know defensive
natural pressure is what beats the chiefs. I don't think the team that we have and put

(08:14):
together is the right team or has the star power and the production to beat them. I don't
know. What do you think?
Everything that you're saying leads me to believe that we need a Miles Garrett. Like
that's, that's kind of, that's kind of what I got from what you're just saying. Like you
need, you need, you need a little bit extra. You know, you talk about, you know, the old
adage defense wins championships. We saw that firsthand on Sunday night where, yeah, in

(08:38):
Eagles defense, just absolutely roughed up one of the best, if not the greatest passer
of all time. And yeah, I think, I think the Tiger, sorry, the, the, the Lions just, you
know, need a little bit extra and that, that, you know, extra oomph could come from one
of the best defensive players on earth and miles Garrett. And I think that, you know,
they have him and yeah, that, that path to the Super Bowl just becomes that much easier.

(09:00):
Yeah. I mean, just watching the Eagles front, front, four, front five, absolutely eat against
the Chiefs. It made me, I mean, I don't have it. We haven't undershown notes that I'm,
I'm all in on miles. I, we talked last week about him just because the rumors were out
there and he officially requested the trade and we talked about what it would take to
get him. And I think it still would very heavily rely on what it would take to get him. But

(09:23):
just watching that dominance from the Eagles defense line, I mean, very rarely in a Super
Bowl nonetheless, do you see like back to back sacks, but nothing riles the crowd up
like back to back sacks, like just asserting your dominance, like we're going to go out
and sack you quarterback and then we're going to line up and we're going to do it again.
I remember it was like 2013 Michigan State against Michigan, the Spartans defensive line

(09:44):
sacked. I think it was Devon Gardner back then. Like it was, I think it was actually
three to four times in a row. Nothing asserts dominance. Like we are controlling this game
like sacking a quarterback two, three times in a row. And I am, I could not be more in
a miles. Now again, it's when I, I'm not going to go crazy. I saw some people saying like,
when the Browns inevitably asked for any offensive player from the Lions in that trade, the people

(10:09):
were saying like, you do it. I don't care who they asked for it, you do it. And I'm not,
we're definitely not going to go that far. I mean, that's just absolutely absurd. But
I'm doing, we said last week, I was on record last week saying that I think two first round
picks, I'm doing it. And I just think seeing the dominance that, that the Eagles had on
the, on the Chiefs, I'm doing more. I'm doing two first and probably a little more now on

(10:31):
that pumped up for it.
Yeah. And I think probably recently bias, like just watching a Super Bowl, watching,
watching a team, you know, fulfill all of your dreams. Every, every Lions fan, we've
had dreams of Super Bowls for, you know, decades and decades, never even gotten to one. So
yeah, maybe a bit of a recent bias, but yeah, I do think, you know, send the farm, you know,

(10:51):
as long as it's not a gigantic farm, but yeah, I mean, two, two first round picks, I think
that'll, that'll, if that gets it done, then yeah, I would just, I would love to see him
in Honolulu Blue. That's me as a homer though.
Yeah. And even outside of him, I mean, a lot of comparisons and correlations can be drawn
from the Eagles to the Lions. Obviously they, they played the Chiefs two years ago. They
lost, they lost both coordinators. They went out retooled in the off seasons. You know,

(11:14):
I had obviously another season in between and now they went out in one in dominating
fashion. You can, you can just draw so many correlations and so many direct lines from
the Lions to the Eagles. I think Brad Holmes was, I mean, he obviously was watching this
game too. He, he recognizes those similarities and I hope he learns from Howie Roseman and

(11:35):
the Eagles front office and how they did things and, and, and kind of replicates it in a way
because Detroit's in the same sort of boat. Now we obviously didn't lose in the Super
Bowl. We lost last year in the, you know, the, the championship game and, and then obviously
felt even shorter this season, but it is very similar. We lost in disappointing fashion.
Lost both our coordinators and now has to Brad Holmes, it's on you. Go out, retool this

(11:56):
team, identify the areas of weakness, put the guys in place, go out, you know, put your
nuts on the table and sign the guys you need to to get this thing done. Cause, you know,
I, like you, like you just said, recency bias, I'm all in. I think we're close. I'm all
in on it. So one thing I did notice though, I just, and not to get off track with the
Super Bowl. Um, and, and I don't know, do you have anything remaining, uh, as it relates

(12:20):
to the Lions and Super Bowl before I jump into this actually?
Nope. Nothing more. I mean, it's just off season starts now. And, uh, yeah, like you
said, Brad Holmes time to get to work boys. I saw, I just, this is random, but I saw,
um, some podcasts and sports networks and like TV shows and stuff. They, they use the
phrase to big game. I don't know if you've seen this. They used to phrase big game rather

(12:40):
than Super Bowl just because, uh, I guess the NFL has a propensity to go after, uh,
programs and stuff for using Super Bowl and we'll sue them. Um, I didn't know that. I
think referring to it as the big game is fucking stupid. And I just wanted to say NFL, I'm
not afraid of you. We will, we were talking about the Super Bowl all, all episode. We
talked with the Super Bowl last week. We'll talk about the Super Bowl next week. I'm

(13:03):
not afraid of the NFL. We'll never refer to it as the big game because we're afraid
of the NFL. I just wanted to say that.
Wow. Yeah. I mean, shoot, I guess I, I gotta, I gotta back you up on that one, but yeah,
I don't know if I, you know, talk about like trademark law. Um, I think that we're probably
using some Detroit Lions logos in, uh, in, in our podcast art. So yeah, hopefully the,
hopefully the NFL doesn't come after us just yet, but you know, if it happens, that means

(13:26):
you made it, right?
Hey, yeah. Hey, good. I'll, why don't you come on the, come on the pod and discuss it
with us. Uh, and then take us to court if you want. I don't care, but come on the pod
first and talk about it. So, um,
Roger, come and take it. We do have a listener voicemail surrounding the Super Bowl, the
NFL, the Lions and stuff. Um, so let's give that a listen right now.
Hey guys, love the show. Calling right on the heels of the ball and wanted to get your

(13:55):
opinion on the new rules that the NFL has been to play this year, specifically for our
kickoff, the box out there, you can't run. And the announcing that you're going to do

(14:16):
onside kick only in the fourth quarter, because that allowed to do third quarter now. Just
want your opinion on that. Personally, I think it's worse yet. Uh, you know, it's taken away
the strategy. You, uh, have to announce that you're going to be onside kick where you know

(14:39):
what, there'll be things that you're going to make a punt or have to do to run plays
and then a pass. They're taking away the strategy in my opinion. And I was just trying to get,
uh, put from you just love the show. Bye.

(15:00):
All right. Thank you for the call in. Um, I know we had a little bit of bad reception
there, so it's going in and out, but I got the gist of what you were saying. Um, yeah,
this is, I love this call because it's the NFL has done a lot in the past few years to
try and evolve. Um, we usually applaud the NFL for doing things. Um, we make fun of team,
you know, leagues like the MLB for making rules so stupid and making it so hard for

(15:24):
the players to, uh, fans to watch and follow the NFL usually does a pretty good job at
listening to the, to the fans and to the players and coaches and stuff and making rules accordingly.
Uh, the new kickoff rules and stuff, half of them I get. So the, the, what the color
was referring to was, um, first and foremost, the kickoff rule, uh, in which everyone is

(15:44):
starting down halfway down the field. Um, they can't move until the ball is kicked.
There's a box in which, uh, if it lands within there, you have to run it back. If it goes
outside the box, you can, um, uh, accept it for a, a, a touchback. Um, that rule I know was put in place,
uh, in order to try and, uh, reduce the number of concussions. A lot of, uh, injuries,

(16:06):
surprise, maybe surprising or not, uh, happen on kickoffs and kick returns. Um, so that rule
in particular was put in to try and eliminate the, as many injuries as possible. I think
they're seeing good numbers, uh, at least injury wise, thanks to that rule. So I have
a feeling that rule, while it may be altered a little bit, um, it may be, uh, it probably
is here to stay. Um, it is unfortunate. I, for one, bet that the opening kickoff and the Super Bowl

(16:32):
was not going to be a touchback because I forgot that that new rule was in place. Um, it very easily
was a touchback because he was kicking it way down the field and so that unfortunate for me.
Um, but that one, I, I kind of understand the other one that it was referring to,
uh, was the onside kick rule. And I, I think this has to be up there with the most, the dumbest,
uh, no based rule I've ever seen be implemented in, in really any sports. So if you, if you don't

(16:58):
know the new onside kick rules, um, are as follows. So the onside kick team must be trailing in the
game. The, or excuse me, yeah, the kicking team must be trailing. The kicking team must declare
the onside kick to the officials before the attempt. The ball must travel 10 yards as it
obviously always has been. Um, the kicking team can use a holder for the onside kick as always.
A few different things such as, um, they can do a bounce kick, drive kick, drag kick, whatever

(17:19):
you want. So basically it's that the team must be trailing, must be announced to the officials
before. And I believe it has to, I don't have the, listen for me, I think it has to happen in the
fourth quarter. It's just the dumbest rule in all sport. It takes away the, like you, like the
call I said, takes away all strategy. What it was the saints a few years ago in the Super Bowl that
came out in the second half and did a random onside kick to get things going. I mean, that is so

(17:42):
electric. I don't understand this rule. It's a dumbest, it's the dumbest fucking rule I've ever
heard. Yeah. And yeah, Greg, thanks. Thanks so much for the call. So here's the thing though.
You can't have one without the other. If you have the new kickoff rule, you know, for player safety,
and we get it, because of course kickoffs are seen as very dangerous, you know, guys running
50 yards down the field at full speed. I get why they changed it, but then you can't, you can't

(18:05):
have it both ways. Of course, you're going to have to, you know, call all of the guys to the
original where the original point off is for, for the onside rule. So, so I get why you got to
announce it because otherwise, you know, it's just the kickoff at the 35 yard line or whatever.
So, you know, you can't, you can't onsite it to no one there. So yeah, you can't have one without
the other. I do see what they're, what they're doing with player safety. I, you know, I'm a fan of

(18:29):
player safety for sure, but, you know, this is football at the end of the day. I probably would
like them to go back to the old kickoff rule. And I don't think it's going to happen because I think
it was, it was pretty successful overall. You know, the NFL got exactly what they wanted. I think a
lot of the times they wanted, you know, a further starting position for the offense, you know,

(18:50):
starting the ball on the 30 yard line versus the 25 yard line. Well, it doesn't seem like much.
That really does add up over the course of a season, over the course of scoring for an entire
NFL season. So of course the league's going to want that. And then of course less injuries as well.
So yeah, you can't have one without the other. I'd be interested to see if college football
follows suit and, you know, goes to this new rule because of course, you know, this past college

(19:13):
football season, they had, they had the normal kickoff. So yeah, we'll, we'll certainly see,
but it's, it's just the unfortunate fact of the matter is you can't, you can't have one without
the other. And so we do get this really bogus onsite kick rule that does ruin a lot of the fun,
especially late in the game. Yeah. My, my dumb, dumb brain didn't even put together the fact that
you can't do an onsite kick with the format. Like it's, if they line up for an onsite kick,

(19:37):
it'd be obvious. It's, that makes a lot of sense. There's gotta be a happy medium though,
in which you like, maybe you move up the kickoff. So like 90% of, of kicks go back through the,
you know, through the uprights and there's a touchback to eliminate the actual returns,
but you're still lining up as you used to. So like in the off chance, you wanted to sneak in an
onsite kick, you still could. So there's gotta be a happy medium and they hopefully will find it.

(20:01):
Again, again, when we have Roger Goodell on to, to yell at us for using the term Super Bowl rather
than the big game, we'll be sure to ask him that. So it's, it's a great question. I appreciate the
call and Greg. Again, make sure you guys, if you're going to join the conversation, you can call
into that, that phone number is 313-306-7939. We will play it on the podcast, do a quick
discussion on it and jump into it. It could be about football, like the last few ones were,

(20:26):
could be about basketball, baseball, it could be about Detroit foods, whatever it is, we'll
try and find the best place to put it into the podcast and discuss it. So okay, that is our
Lions first part of the podcast. Really the main Detroit sports news this week though,
surrounds the NBA. So the NBA trade deadline was last week. We alluded to it during last week's

(20:46):
episode that was obviously released last Wednesday. The trade deadline was on Thursday,
but we had really our first moves happening on Wednesday, Wednesday evening. Detroit kind of
held all the, or majority of the cards for the deadline in terms of they were really the only
team with cap space available. So they really, while we weren't, you know, we talked about whether
we want to trade, you know, sell, buy, stamp pack, whatever, we were really the only ones who had

(21:11):
the ability to facilitate the bigger trades. If you wanted to trade for, you know, a big star or
something, but you don't have the money to take on his full contract. We were going to be the teams
to step in. You give us a second round pick or two for our troubles. We'll throw in a little bit
of cash to make the trade balance out, you know, we'll be on our way. So everyone was kind of waiting
for Detroit outside of the Lucodontic trade. We touched on that last week. That was absolutely

(21:35):
fucking bonkers. But Detroit ended up making their first move on Wednesday. So that was he
traded with the Philadelphia 76ers. They basically sent cash to the Sixers for KJ Martin and two
second round picks. So the Sixers, they signed KJ Martin to a deal this past off season with this
intent. They were planning on being able to try and use him to manipulate the cap space a little

(21:57):
bit, get below the floor, trade him for some pieces. Didn't really work out, I think, as they planned.
So Detroit happily would take KJ Martin for two second round picks. At first, when this came
across, it was kind of like, okay, now we're getting going. And then things started to slow down a
little bit and people on Pistons Twitter went nuts. They were absolutely mortified that this was

(22:17):
the only move Trajan Langdon was making. They were pointing at guys all over the league. This
guy has, you know, this Batman has this Robin. This guy has his sidekick, Kate Cunningham gets
KJ Martin. Like, what are we doing here? And I was doing my best fighting the good fight on
Twitter saying, guys, let's give Trajan Langdon some credit. It's still 24 hours till the deadline.
Let's see what else he does. And damn it, he almost proved me wrong because he went a full 24

(22:42):
hours. He was right up until the last few minutes of the trade deadline when he made his second and
final move that was jumping into the Jimmy Butler mega trade that actually happened. I think that
was actually on Wednesday or Thursday morning. But it happened quite a time before. Obviously,
Jimmy Butler went to Golden State, Andrew Wiggins from Golden State was going down to Miami.

(23:02):
A few other guys, it was a five team trade. So a lot of other guys kind of go on this place and
that place. But the way Detroit jumped in, they were trading the newly acquired KJ Martin and a
second round pick to the Utah Jazz for Dennis Schroeder. And then also in turn, we got another
second round pick from Golden State. So there's a lot of convoluted moves. Second round picks flying

(23:23):
left and right guys going all over the place. But Detroit ended up with Lindy Waters, Dennis
Schroeder, the junior and a second round pick from that trade itself. And then a second round pick
coming from the KJ Martin trade too. So really in turn, Detroit did exactly what we wanted them
to do. We got Dennis Schroeder, Dennis Schroeder, a 31 year old free agent after this upcoming year.

(23:44):
Six, I think one, he's a basically a secondary ball handler, a creator that Detroit needed. This
year he spent time, started the season with Brooklyn, was then traded a few weeks ago to
Golden State. His numbers this year, he averaged 14.2 points per game, 6.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists,
and shot 36% from three this year, which are pretty average numbers when you look at them

(24:05):
across the board. It's not bad, but it's not great. But then if you break down his numbers even
further from his time to start the season with the Brooklyn Nets compared to the time he spent the
last few weeks with Golden State, his Brooklyn Nets numbers were fantastic. So when he was with
Brooklyn to start the year, he was averaging 18.4 points, three rebounds, 6.6 assists, and almost
40% from three, as opposed to obviously then his numbers all came down when he went to Golden State

(24:29):
because he was pretty inefficient. But it's important to remember that Golden State runs an offense
that Dennis Schroeder is not suited for. They run a lot of cutting and slashing and kind of an
offense in that regard. Dennis Schroeder is more of like a pick and roll kind of guy that's what
Detroit runs, their offense. So he just didn't quite fit with that Golden State offense. I think
that's probably why they got off of him so quickly. But he's exactly what we wanted here in Detroit.

(24:51):
I mean, shout out to Trajan Langdon. I could talk for hours about how Trajan Langdon maneuvered this
trade deadline and what he did with Paul Reed a few weeks ago, cutting him and then signing him
to a new contract. I mean, just clap and shout out to Trajan for this trade deadline. Yeah,
it might not seem like much, but Trajan Langdon, he's stacked some second unpicks and he's also

(25:13):
picked up some pieces that I think could help Cade. It seems like Cade, as great as he is,
he can't play the entire 48 minutes and it did seem like he does need some help out there,
especially with some of the injuries that the Pistons have picked up. And so, yeah, I mean,
it's Dennis Schroeder. It's not going to move the needle a ton, but like you said, you said his

(25:38):
stats. When he was on Brooklyn, you're shooting almost 40% from three. And so it's a nice little
pickup for sure. And I'd be curious to hear from you, of course, these moves that Trajan has made,
how does it really compare to what we've seen from Pistons, GMs of old? Troy Weaver and what
he was able to do, or I guess the lack that Troy Weaver was able to do over the course of a couple

(26:03):
years, what have you seen from Trajan to think like, yeah, this is actually different and Detroit's
going in the right direction? Dude, you might have just derailed our entire podcast because I could
literally talk for the next nine hours for the differences here. I mean, going back to Troy
Weaver, Troy Weaver's main thing. And if you look now, he's, Troy Weaver's with the Washington

(26:23):
Wizards front office right now, and they are easily the worst team in the NBA. So he's going on back
to back seasons of having like record bad teams. So shout out to Troy Weaver. But his main thing
was that he loved reclamation projects. If you look back to all the Trite deadlines of the last
like three years that he was with Detroit, he was acquiring guys that if it worked out, it's a
fantastic story and he looks like the smartest guy in the room. But the odds of that happening

(26:45):
were so minuscule. I mean, he was going out and getting guys like Marvin Bagley, who never really
caught on the NBA, guys like James Wiseman, these guys who had potential at one point and had the
intangibles, but never caught on and for a reason and not a single one of them really end up panning
out. And the other thing he just absolutely loved to throw around second round draft picks, like

(27:06):
they were candy. I mean, he was throwing them in, we're giving up draft capital for these reclamation
projects. And so when Trajan Langdon came in this year, the first, the very first thing he said is
that we got to re-stock the cupboard. We have to collect assets before we do anything because we
need to be able to have basically cannon fodder and some ammunition to make some moves. So I mean,

(27:28):
I alluded to the Paul Reed, the Paul Reed move a few weeks ago. So when Trajan Langdon came to town,
he brought with him Michael Blackstone, both of them with the Pelicans organization, both of them
are known, Trajan is known for putting together fantastic trade packages and making things work
that way. Michael Blackstone is known for manipulating contracts and like, and salary cap and stuff

(27:49):
to make that work for the team. So the two of them have gone on this, this absolute dominance spree
for Detroit. Again, so we want to go back to Paul Reed. They cut him a few months ago. Everyone
loves B-Ball Paul. He's a fantastic player. His energy is infectious. He thrived here in Detroit.
So when he caught him, everyone kind of went nuts. Detroit then, you know, I think it was like a day
later, re-signed him to a veteran's minimum to open up Detroit's already league leading cap space

(28:14):
to give them even more money. So everyone's like, oh, we kind of jumped the gun on that a little bit.
Trajan knows what he's doing. And it just kind of moved on to KJ Martin. If we were to cap KJ
Martin and not flip him for Dennis Schroeder, we could have put him in, basically use the money
that we saved just by converting Paul Reed to a veteran's minimum and put KJ Martin in that and
basically not use up a single cent of our cap space just because they made that move a few months

(28:37):
ago. At the moment, we don't have any extra first-round picks. In fact, we have one likely going
out this year. We can get into that when we talk about the draft on the line. But Detroit now has
15 second-round picks over the next six years. So that's going from Troy Weaver, who absolutely
handed those out like they were absolute candy to Trajan Langdon, basically taking them in. And you
want to even pick up the phone and talk to us. We'll take a second round pick to do that. So again,

(29:00):
no extra first, but just last year, OKC, like the going rate for a first-round pick in exchange for
second rounds. OKC sent five second-round picks to the New York Knicks last year for a first-round
pick. So about five second-round picks can likely net you an end of the first round draft pick.
So I mean, it's just night and day. It's so refreshing having a guy like Trajan Langdon

(29:22):
leading and having trust. That's why on Twitter, I was out basically fighting the good fight being
like, guys, let's give Trajan a chance. Like for God's sake, he's done nothing but prove that he
knows what he's doing. And then he came around, made the deal, and everyone was like, oh, shit,
we probably should have given him the benefit of the doubt there. So yeah, a shout out Trajan.
Shout out to the team. Yeah, I love what I see. And it's awesome to see a guy pulling the strings

(29:45):
behind the scenes for the future of the team, but also to see the team the present, even with
injuries to guys like Jade and Ivy. You still have Cade cunting and balling out. And the Detroit
Pissons, they are sitting at six right now in the East in a couple of really winnable games.
I think, is this right? Back to back games at Chicago today and tomorrow. That's an interesting

(30:08):
one. But yeah, they're in prime position to not only make the playoffs, but potentially get up to
or stay in the six seed and avoid that play-in tournament. And their remaining schedule is also
very, very doable, very winnable. They have the eighth easiest schedule remaining.
The final 29 games of the season, their opponents are a combined record of 497 and 495. So literally,

(30:32):
they're playing 500 teams the rest of the way. And so yeah, I mean, I do see them having a lot of
success down the stretch to potentially solidify themselves as that six seed. I don't really see
them going much higher, but maybe the fifth seed, I think that would be a reach. But I certainly
think, you know, having solidifying that six seed is certainly in the cards. Yeah, absolutely. I

(30:56):
mean, yeah, like I said, the eighth easiest schedule moving forward, if they take care of
business against the teams that they should, so that is against the wizard, we play the wizards
twice, the pelicans, the raptors, the blazers, the jazz, the nets, and the bulls twice, as you just
mentioned, those are all winnable games. Those are all teams that are bottom of the barrel,
well below us, kind of like us last year. We take care of business against those teams.
We will end up, and that's just saying, and we lose every other game, just taking care of business

(31:20):
against those teams, we'll end up around 36 and 46, which would have been just looking back to
last year's records. It would have been a playing game. I think the Atlanta Hawks ended up being
right around that record. They were in the playing game. They ended up winning the lottery and getting
Zachary Rice's here. So they, you know, so you can still kind of end on that. And that's a whole
lot of the conversation, you know, as we get again, more towards draft, talking about the

(31:42):
lottery and stuff like that with our draft pick. But that's if we win our winnable games,
and we lose every other game, which I don't think either one will probably be the case. We'll probably
drop one or two within that winnable stuff and steal one or two in the games that we probably
shouldn't win. So yeah, I mean, Kade's averaging almost 30 points, six rebounds, 10 assists,
one and at 1.2 steals over his last 11 games. Ron Hollen is hitting on his last 10 games. He's

(32:04):
hitting like 38% from three, which is like his big knock. If he can unlock his three-point shooting,
he's going to be a weapon in this league. Malik Beasley is the best three-point shooter in the
league and absolutely loves Detroit. He went to Trajan Langdon before the trade deadline
and said, literally, please don't trade me. I want to be here. I love it here. Please don't trade me.
I mean, things are looking out. If you're not a Detroit sports fan or a Detroit Pistons fan,

(32:25):
I should say, jump on the bandwagon. I'm telling you, get on. We got room. I'm not being selective.
Jump on. Hit me up. I'll walk you through. Who's playing? What? And who's playing well? And all
the numbers and stuff like that. Start watching. These guys are so fun. Yeah, dude. They're awesome.
And yeah, Threasley. I mean, behind Kade, Kade will always be my number one, but I do think
Malik Beasley is he's up there as my second favorite piston. I mean, the guy is awesome. And it's

(32:49):
crazy to say we just got on here, but he's great. He loves Detroit. Like you said, yeah,
March in the Trajan's office that I want to stay here. I want to be a piston. And that really fires
me up. And I think that just speaks to, you know, the culture that the Pistons are building right
now. It's it's really fun to see. Yeah. And speaking of guys, note this incredible transition
I'm about to do. Speaking of guys that want to be here in Detroit, the Tigers, we already talked

(33:14):
about Jack Flaherty. He same thing. He was in Detroit last year. Said he didn't want to be moved
at the deadline. Unfortunately, it's a business. He got moved. We got two great prospects and
Trey Sweeney that assisted in the playoff run and then there on Lazaro, I think his name off the top
of my head in the return. He obviously is back. We talked about his signing last week, but moving
into the Tigers, still no Alex Bregman. Why can't we get this done? I mean, why just why can't we

(33:39):
get this done? Yeah, I mean, I don't even pretend to know like how how the back and forth goes
between, you know, a general manager of a team and, you know, the player, the player's agent. I
have no idea. And, you know, it's still the off season. But of course, you know, we're already
in February, we're creeping into I think I think pictures and catchers tomorrow have already reported

(34:01):
or they're reporting tomorrow. Okay, yeah. And then, you know, so I mean, that's that means
spring training. I mean, it's here. It's not just right around the corner. It's literally here. So
I don't know, you know, how that changes the leverage. I feel like the longer and longer that,
you know, Bregman doesn't sign a deal. I feel like the player kind of loses that leverage.
Again, could be completely wrong there. At the end of the day, it doesn't even matter. I just I want

(34:25):
him to be a tiger. The rumors that the Tigers are offering him a six year contract. No, no idea if
that rumor is, you know, validator or whatever. But yeah, we just would love to get it done.
And you know, and sooner rather than later. Yeah, I yeah, like you said,
pictures and catchers report tomorrow. First spring training game is next week, I believe.

(34:48):
I agree. Like Detroit or not Detroit. At what point like, do players need to be signed by and if
this was the NBA, I'd probably be more on top of it. I don't know. Like when when is like the
deadline of like, you got to get these guys signed, Detroit or not Detroit. It sounds like you
reported it, you know, you said it's reported that the Tigers are have a six year contract on the
table. I think in that same report, I saw something similar basically saying that the Astros are now

(35:13):
once again out of consideration. I think it's down to the Tigers, the Red Sox are backing it again,
and the Cubs are also making a last minute push for him. So again, really the only
credible team that's been start to finish involved is the Tigers. I agree with you. It's
Bregman. I don't care if he signs the day. Well, now I say that I don't care if he signs the day

(35:35):
before the season, you still take him. But damn it, that is that is still so difficult to put on
a team and put the pressure on guys that are trying to make camp and, you know, the guys that are
trying to schedule and trying to figure out this roster as brutal. I mean, we got to get this thing
done. I don't know. Yeah, for sure. You mentioned the Cubs too. I think it'd be it'd be funny if

(35:56):
Bregman, you know, he went to the Cubs, reunited with his teammate Kyle Tucker there. Kyle Tucker
is on a one year deal. Of course, I wouldn't like to see that. I would definitely like to see him
on the Tigers. But yeah, I mean, besides that, I think that's unfortunately, that's pretty much
all our Tigers news, right? I did see super, super random fact or antidote on on Twitter on X.

(36:18):
The other thing that everything's happening on X, the Cleveland Guardians have just announced that
local blackouts are officially gone. And as of today, you can stream every regular season
Guardians game on ClevelandGuardians.com for just $99 for the entire season. So I guess my question
to you, Ty, how does that sit with you? Because we talk about, you know, black blacked out games

(36:40):
all the time, and that they suck. So I mean, $99. Would you pay it? Would you like to see the Tigers
do something similar? I alluded earlier when we were talking about the NFL and the rules that
they put in place, the kickoff rules and stuff, saying the NFL usually does right by their fans.
And most rules they put in are understandable. Now they are getting a little bit, they're reaching

(37:04):
a little bit with their different games being on different networks and, you know, Peacock and
Amazon and stuff like that. So they're starting to anger some fans. But no league messes with their
fans more than the MLB. This is, if you don't know, so the blackouts that we're referring to,
it is literally impossible to watch your sports team, whether you live in Detroit and you're

(37:24):
watching the Tigers or you live in Houston and you're watching the Astros like Kyle,
it's impossible to watch your Detroit sports team. It's easier to live in some random other city
and watch your team. If you're in the area, you literally cannot watch your team. And fans have
been furious about this for years. Eventually they actually aired all their games on Fox Sports

(37:45):
Detroit and then that was bought out by Bali. Bali was offering, you could watch it on their app,
but their app was literally the worst thing. It was worse than, it was like just an etch a sketch.
I mean, it was the worst thing in the entire world. It never worked. And eventually,
Bali announced bankruptcy and they're being sold to Amazon last I heard, but it was going to take

(38:07):
some time. Some games just weren't being broadcast. If they offered like DetroitTigers.com $99 for
the entire season, I'm doing that seven days a week and twice on Sundays. I mean, I'm doing that.
I'm not even going to like try and wrangle up a few friends and try and split that cost and like
cheap out. I'll do it myself. I don't care. There are 164 games in the season all summer. I love

(38:29):
nothing better than having the windows open, middle of the summer, grabbing a beer, having the Tigers
on the background, throwing burgers on the grill or something. I will do that 10 times out of 10.
Man, I mean, shoot, you're talking so much. I got the biggest smile on my face right now. Just
waiting for the weather to warm up. I know it's already kind of warm in Houston right now, but

(38:50):
it's still wintertime. Would love for the weather to warm up. Opening day can't come soon enough.
And I completely agree, man. When I saw the $99, I'm like, wow, you know what? That might be a
little steep, but you said it best. It's 162 games. The season is five months long, so kind of
amortize that out over five months. And it's actually not a bad price, right? So yeah, super

(39:11):
random. Like what I saw from the Guardians, I know some teams in other leagues, I'm thinking of
the Phoenix Suns right now in Mattishbia, putting all of their games on local television so that
the same thing, so that there are no blackout dates, would love to see, maybe that might be an
extreme that is just not really possible for all sports and for all teams. But yeah, I mean,

(39:33):
$99 to be able to stream every Tigers game. Absolutely sign me up, because yeah, it's oftentimes
almost impossible to watch your home team. And that should be words that are never uttered.
You should always be able to watch your home team on your home network. So yeah, I know both of
us are pretty fired up about that. So super random antidote, but hopefully the Tigers can somehow

(39:55):
fall suit. Yeah, I just did some dumb dumb quick math. If I watch like two thirds of the season,
we're sitting at somewhere around like 105 games. And that seems like maybe a lot, but like,
maybe watch an inning or two of about 105 games. That's like a just over like $1 to $1.5 per game.
Like I would I'm doing that all day long. Yeah, awesome. Well, cool. So that's it for the Tigers.

(40:20):
Hopefully we'll be jumping on next Wednesday and talking about how the Tigers have signed a
very team friendly deal for Alex Bragman and didn't have to completely overpay for him. But
until then, I think we can move on to our beloved Red Wings who currently sit at 61 points in the
standings that's good for the second wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. And the wings

(40:45):
are actually off until February 22nd. So it is the All-Star break. However, this year, instead of
the normal NHL All-Star game, the NHL is instead hosting a four nations faceoff tournament as a
preview to what is the the NHL's highly anticipated return to Olympic participation in the year 2026

(41:07):
for the 2026 Olympics. So yeah, All-Star game. All-Star break, I should say no All-Star game.
And instead, Team USA will face off against Sweden, Finland and Canada in a round robin tournament. So
each team will play, I believe a team will play each other once. And then the top two teams from
that round robin group stage will advance to the championship game, which is going to be a winner

(41:31):
take all. So scoring format, you get three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime
win or a shootout win, and then one point for an overtime loss. Of course, no points for a
regulation loss. So yeah, I mean, I'm pretty pumped for it. I think this is a pretty cool
preview to the Olympics. I'm not like not a huge All-Star game guy. I feel like nobody is a huge

(41:55):
All-Star game guy, no matter what the the league is or the sport is. I just, I don't know. I've never
been super into it. But so not really, not really crying or anything that there is no NHL All-Star
game this year. I think the four nations is really, really cool. And then yeah, red wings that are
participating in this tournament. Lucas Raymond from Sweden and then D Boss himself, Dylan Larkin

(42:16):
from the good old USA. So yeah, Tyler, I don't know if you've had a chance to look into the four
nations at all, but I mean, how do you think the boys in red, white and blue stack up against the
rest of these teams? Yeah, I was hoping you were given a breakdown because I had no idea. I saw
this. I hadn't had a chance to really look into it. So I wasn't sure what the format was going to be.

(42:37):
Like you mentioned, All-Star games across basically all four major sports are pretty much
dying except for probably baseball as shitty as we just referred to the MLB. They kind of do the
All-Star weekend correctly, or as correctly as you can compared to the other leagues. So it's
nice to see, you know, that they're at least trying. I know the NBA is trying some different things.

(42:58):
This will be fun. I'm excited. I mainly don't know who I would be pulling for. I mean, who I would
think would win. I'm going to be pulling for US of A. And then I guess we'd have to go Sweden
behind them because of Lucas Raymond. But I'm here for this. I'm ready to watch it. I mean,
and it also was just tying it back to the Red Wings. A well-needed rest. I mean, they were,

(43:19):
we were firing on all cylinders as we talked in the last few weeks. They needed this rest as they
move into the second half of the season. I think I saw we have like the hardest
overall remaining schedule of any team in the NHL, kind of the opposite of the Pistons there.
So regardless of this four nations tournament, which I'll definitely be watching,
hopefully the Red Wings can use it to rest up and get ready for this playoff push.

(43:44):
Yeah, for sure. It's tough to see that they have the, you know, a really tough
end of the season schedule. But yeah, I mean, they were, you know, they're one of the hottest teams
in hockey. So I do agree that the break is coming at a good time from a sense of, you know, the boys
need to rest. I do think that they had so much momentum going, you know, they won, I think,
six out of the last seven before the break. So, you know, it's not to say that they're not going

(44:05):
to keep that going after the break. And but yeah, I'm excited for this overall. I was looking at
the rosters just briefly. Team Canada is stacked. They are very, very, very good. Just thinking the
likes of Kail McCarre and McKinnon alone. Yeah, I think they're the best team in this four nations

(44:25):
tournament. I think the, that team USA is a very close second. I would love to see a USA versus
Canada final. I think that would be, you know, more or less a pick on there just because, you
know, both teams are very solid. I think USA, they might be without Quinn Hughes. He might have
picked up an injury, but the rest of the boys are good to go. So yeah, it's going to be sweet.

(44:47):
And yeah, certainly be pulling for Larkin, pulling for Raymond. And you know, hopefully they can
score a few goals on the national stage. Yeah, and come out of this with no injuries.
Yes. Yeah, that's the most important part for sure. All right. So last segment of the show,
if you're a listener from back during the Lyons season, each week during our review of each

(45:10):
Lyons game, we were given out grid of the weeks. So Kyle and I would both pick somebody that, you
know, just showed extreme grittiness during the game during the previous week, something that,
you know, some outstanding overall standing game and outstanding play, something like that.
We gave one out each week. And then we also tried to predict who next week's grid of the week was
going to be after the Lyons season completed. That fell to the wayside just because we had no

(45:32):
one to give it. We decided we're going to bring it back. It doesn't necessarily just have to be
about the Lyons. There's other Detroit sports going on. There's just grittiness in the Detroit
city in general. So we're going to get him bring grid of the week back. So I will kick it off.
I'm going to go with my grid of the week. We already talked about him quite a lot this
quite a lot this this episode. And I said it already, I could talk for nine hours just strictly about

(45:54):
him and the work he's done before he got to Detroit and the work he's done for Detroit.
And that's Trajan Langdon. I mean, he is taking the city. He's basically taken what was an absolute
dumpster fire. I mean, we were like, what a loss away from being the worst team in NBA history,
and has them playing not even to a play in spot, but right now a solidified NBA playoff spot and

(46:16):
then just handle the trade deadline perfectly. Didn't care what anyone said, didn't fall for any of the
the big contract baits and ankle big star hunting and try and get Brandon Ingram,
you know, or Zach Levine or anything. He stuck to his guns. He did what he said. He
collected trade assets and he still got Detroit. What I think is one of the best available for
what they actually needed. So Trajan Langdon, congrats buddy. Grid of the week for me.

(46:39):
It's huge and it's huge too. Trajan, I mean, it's probably the best award that you're going to get
in your entire life. So yeah, congratulations to you. I am going to stay on the hardwood as well
for my grid of the week. And I think it's got to go to Kate Cunningham and, you know, not necessarily
just for what he did this past week. I think he was actually injured and missed a game with
that with an ankle injury, although he is back. But really just kind of a collective grid of the

(47:02):
week for the past, you know, three or four weeks, you know, whatever, just really the fact that,
you know, Kate Cunningham, he has blossomed into the player that I mean, yourself and I and a lot
of people in Detroit, we knew the caliber player that Kate Cunningham is. But he's finally getting,
you know, the recognition that he deserves on a national stage. And he's playing extremely well,

(47:25):
by the way, too. He's just, you know, really up to his game, even that much further. But yeah,
in his last 11 games, we talked about it, 29.6 rebounds, 10 assists. And he is in his first
All-Star game. So yeah, just kind of more of a collective grid of the week of maybe the past
like three or four weeks. But I think for me, it's got to go to Kate Cunningham. He's just,
he's my absolute dog. Yeah, he's taken, I mean, everyone who was calling him out, calling him a

(47:50):
bust, having injury, you know, injury prone, stuff like that. He's basically just shoved your head
in a locker and said, watch what I can do. So shout out to Kate, both Trajan and Kate, as always,
open invitation to come on the podcast and accept your rewards. And then I also want to give
a potential grid of the week to Bally Sports. If you go ahead and follow suit with the Cleveland

(48:11):
Indians and give us blackout free games and make sure that we can watch all the Tigers game,
I will happily give you guys grid of the week in a future episode. So just wanted to put that out
there, that's available. But shout out, Trajan. Shout out to Kate. Okay, that's our show. Thank
you guys for tuning in to this week's episode. You can find Kyle on Twitter at Kyle underscore
Marino. You can find me on Twitter at Dunn underscore Tyler and at both Pistons powered and Champagne

(48:36):
Athletics. Join the conversation next week by calling into the grid iron report voicemail for
us to play and discuss on the podcast. That number is 313-306-7939. And if you like this episode,
please take a moment to rate it five stars and leave us a nice review saying so. Thanks, y'all.
Restore the roar.