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The Valenti Show

Best Of The Lions On 97.1 The Ticket: Must-Win Lions Games, Branch & 1st For Hendrickson?, and More!

The Valenti Show

Audacy

Sports

4.31.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week's Best of the Lions, Costa & Jansen go through the Lions schedule and determine the most must-win games. Also, Karsch & Anderson debate if there's substance to the hype surrounding the Bears, and Valenti & Stoney have their controversial conversation where they discuss if they'd be willing to send Brian Branch and a 1st round pick for Bengals star edge rusher Trey Hendrickson.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Touchdown Detroit Lions.

0:03.0

You're listening to the best of the lions.

0:05.6

Oh, baby.

0:06.9

How beautiful is that?

0:08.4

A weekly mix of 97.1, the ticket's best NFL talk to get you ready for game day.

0:14.7

We're having a conversation right now about five teams in the NFL expected to decline.

0:18.7

The Lions were one of the five.

0:19.9

This is from Bill Barnwell, ESPN. And they listed the Chiefs, Vikings, commanders, Colts, and Lions. And the Lions, the concerns we've talked about them. The schedule, the coordinators, the interior offensive line, Ali McNeil, not being healthy until the second half of the season. And we wanted to know, okay, fine, they're going to take a step back.

0:54.5

How big a step back? What is the expectation? And then, John, I asked you to think on it, knowing they're not going to win all the games or 15 games. What's one they must win to you? I know a lot of people want to say, you know, Packers, because it's deficient opponent. It's right out the gate. It's got to set the tone.

0:56.9

I'm going to look a little further down the list.

1:02.1

And you've got a stretch of NFC games where it's the Bucks, the Vikings, the commanders,

1:04.3

Eagles, and those commanders, Eagles games are on the road.

1:13.3

That's where you should start to get or at least consider getting a lien McNeil back. Sure. Getting him in the mix.

1:16.2

And I think with what happened in the playoffs last year and some of it is

1:20.6

the commanders are going to be a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable

1:23.8

future. I don't think they're going anywhere. I think we're starting to

1:27.2

could this be the Pistons Bulls 80 the foreseeable future. I don't think they're going anywhere. I think we're starting to,

1:34.2

could this be the Pistons, Bulls, 80s, you know, got to get over the Celtics, the Bulls got to get over the pistons, like, and I'm not saying they got to get over the Washington, but I think there's

1:37.9

a nice, fun rivalry between two teams that are going to be forces for a while. Last year, Washington got

1:47.4

the better of Detroit. They're going, we are going to their house this year. And it's a prelude

1:54.0

to play in the egos. I think that commanders game, because of where it sits, that's a must win game.

2:22.6

Well, there was this thought like Jaden Daniels is going to terrorize the NFC for years to come, and you've got to get payback. So emotionally, you circle that one. You could say to Eagles, but I'm not really worried about beating them in the regular season. I know I've got to beat them in the postseason. Tom, was there a game for you? Before I give mine, John, I cannot believe you think the commanders, like that could go to that rivalry.

...

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