Lions mailbag: Why didn’t Detroit make moves at the NFL trade deadline?

The NFL trade deadline has come and went, and for a Detroit Lions team looking for answers after a tough loss to the Minnesota Vikings, they found none on Tuesday. Whether they tried to find some help and couldn’t, or just weren’t that interested, remains a mystery.

But on this week’s Midweek Mailbag podcast, Erik Schlitt and I offered our reactions to the inactions. Were the Detroit Lions wrong in not adding any offensive line help? Should they have made any of the moves that were actually made on Tuesday, like when the Chargers spent a 2027 sixth-round pick on Saints offensive lineman Trevor Penning? Is their inaction a subtle endorsement of someone like Miles Frazier?

We discuss that—and both fair and unfair criticisms of Lions general manager Brad Holmes—in the direct aftermath of the trade deadline ending.

After trade deadline discussion, we turned the conversation to the Lions’ offensive issues. Some topics on the discussion included:

• Could Dan Campbell take over play-calling duties or even fire offensive coordinator John Morton soon? How long is his leash?
• How much criticism does offensive line coach/run game coordinator Hank Fraley deserve?
• Are there too many decision-makers on offense with a pass game coordinator (David Shaw), run game coordinator (Fraley), offensive coordinator (Morton), and assistant head coach (Scottie Montgomery)?
• Should the Lions lean on their passing game more right now?

We end the show with some optimism moving forward, including discussions on what is actually going well right now, and why we think Detroit matches up particularly well against the Washington Commanders this week.

You can listen to the entire show on whatever podcasting platform is your favorite, simply by searching “Pride of Detroit.” Or, to make things simple, I’ve embedded this episode into this article via Spotify below.

If you’d rather watch than listen to the podcast, this episode is available in its entirety—with bonus content—over on our YouTube and Twitch pages.