[lyonsjor]

Offseason/Draft
In the draft, I focused on beefing up the defense first as mentioned in my last post. We had a top two pick and went with Myles Garrett out of Texas A&M to torment QBs opposite of Ansah. The defensive focus carried into the second round as I took Alabama MLB Reuber Foster. (I renamed most of the top draft picks to correlate with real prospects). Later in the draft, I focused on offense. I picked up Jake Butt (Michigan) as Brandon Pettigrew decided to move on. I also drafted Speedy Noil (Texas A&M) as Boldin retired. Other notable picks by other teams - McCaffery went to the Oakland, Deshaun Watson went to the Jets, Jabrill Peppers to the Steelers, Brad Kaaya to the Texans, and Leonard Fournette to the Bears.

I was excited to continue the success with Abdullah in 2017-18. He moved into the upper echelon of RBs in the NFL, but he broke his collarbone in the final preseason game. Looks like we won't see him until Week 7.

Regular Season
Without our best offensive weapon, the year got off to a promising start. In my first game on the road against the 49ers, Stafford threw for 4 TDs (2 INTs) and we took home the win in a tight contest.

We matched our year 1 win total by Week 7 at 4-3. Ameer came back with attitude and tore up the league through the air and ground helping the Lions to a 5 game win streak. Just when we were on a high, he got injured again! We went on a three game slide and the Packers were catching up to us in the division. We ended up controlling our own destiny in the final game of the year versus the Bengals (Packers 1 GB). Went down to the wire and we pulled out the victory and clinched a playoff berth by kicking in a last second FG (38-35).

Notable Season Stats/Facts:
- Stafford bounced back with a great year: 4000+ yards and over 30 TDs. He also decided he didn't want to re-sign at the end of the year so I had to franchise him. He must have heard he was on a short lease and wanted to stick it to me after a good year.
- My top draft pick, Myles Garrett (LE) won defensive rookie of the year with 12.5 sacks
- Browns went 0-16
- Golden Tate had over 1000 yards rec and 8 TDs. Marvin Jones was injured most of the year letting my rookie WR (Speedy Noll) step in and grab 9 TDs over the year. Jake Butt also got some reps with Ebron injured and grabbed 2 TDs.

Playoffs
Our Wildcard playoff game was against the Panthers who we beat during our 5 game win streak 26-9. They were determined to not see that happen again. They came out and completely threw us off our game. Stafford couldn't handle the varied looks the defense game him and tossed 5 INTs in the game. It was out of hand by early in the 3rd. We ended up losing 49-17 at home. Rough end to a great season.

Tom Brady decided to retire after winning another Super Bowl.

Year 3 will see even more optimism after a playoff appearance for the Lions.