LK's Back (Again)! ft. NFL Thoughts

Image/Macomb Daily

By: Lucas Kochevar

The college monster was eating me alive, but like Adrian Peterson after his ACL injury, I rise from the ashes to give my MVP level thoughts on things happening around the league. When I started thinking this blog out, I wondered 'Where would I start with all the news thats happened?' and with a scowl on my face, looking at my Falcons gear, I figured I should start with my team. I touched on the issue with what the Falcons did on the latest episode of Koch's Corner but I should reiterate it here. The issue is the Falcons brass and how they handled the situation. Kirk Cousins made a smart move taking a four year deal that guarantees his money towards the end of his career. Michael Penix Jr. doesn't control where he's drafted and impressed the Falcons like any young quarterback should try to do in the draft process.

The Falcons top resources were essentially all spent on the quarterback position, which makes sense for a team that died last year because of the quarterback. Still, the issue comes with the idea that you're supposed to be in win now mode. The team made the win now move clearly by signing Cousins, but still opted for a long term idea in drafting Penix. It's conflicting ideologies from a front office that doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. The Ravens drafted Lamar Jackson while having Joe Flacco. The Chiefs drafted Mahomes while having Alex Smith. The Packers drafted Aaron Rodgers while having Brett Favre. They even doubled down on this philosophy when drafting Jordan Love when they had Rodgers. I bring up all these examples since these are the situations people in media and the front office are comparing with the Falcons.

The difference in these moves versus what the Falcons did, those franchises are models of stability that have shown they can figure out how to win at the moment and plan for the future. The Ravens, Chiefs and Packers are all top five in games won since 2010 and the Falcons just aren't that franchise at this point in time. It scares me because the noise around the Falcons front office guys being anti-Belichick was for them to save their jobs, since the front office was likely going to be cleared out if the Hall of Fame coach was hired. Is drafting a quarterback just a strategy to keep their jobs for another five years at least? Or was it a legitimate thought to build the best possible team on the field? These are just a few questions that keep me up at night involving the Falcons. 

As you can tell, I have many thoughts on it, but I'll save those until the season when we see how the dynamic plays out. Moving on to more relevant and recent news, the Lions signed Jared Goff to an extension, which is very cool. Goff has quickly become a fan favorite in Detroit since he exemplifies that Detroit tough attitude after he was seemingly thrown away by the Rams. Looking back on that trade, it's easy to say that looks like a win-win trade. The Rams won a Super Bowl and the Lions are in the contender realm of teams. It's rare to have two teams that can sit back and feel good about a deal of this magnitude. The Lions are sitting pretty now but the pressure is on to compete for Super Bowls. They've drafted amazing, they've started to pay those guys and paying Goff seems like the cherry on top for their Super Bowl aspiration sundae.

It'll be intriguing to see how the Lions keep competing in the NFC and their division. Their division should be very interesting. I touched on the Lions recent success, but the Packers could quickly come back to dominate the division with Jordan Love.  The Bears and Vikings have rookie quarterbacks and who knows how that could go. The NFC North will be super intriguing to watch this year and I'll talk about how it stacks up with the other divisions around the league in the coming weeks.