Jared Goff is Top Gun: Maverick
You have to understand the parallel here. Think about when Top Gun: Maverick was coming out and everybody questioned whether it could hold up against the original. The first Top Gun was fun and cool, but nobody was calling it a masterpiece.
That’s kind of Goff with the Rams. He was the No. 1 overall pick, he had his moment, and then things went downhill.
Hollywood needed a big tentpole summer blockbuster to prove the format could still work, and Top Gun: Maverick delivered. Jared Goff coming to Detroit is his version of that. He proved that the down years in L.A. were not who he really is. He’s a legitimate quarterback, one of the best in the league, and he’s gotten the Lions further than they’ve been since 1991.
Let’s see what he can do next. Goff is Top Gun: Maverick, no question.
Jahmyr Gibbs is F1
The obvious connection here is speed, but it goes deeper than that.
Think about what Formula 1 cars do around those sharp turns, cutting on a dime at ridiculous velocities. That’s Gibbs. When you watch him on the field, shaking defenders out of their shoes, it’s the closest thing to Barry Sanders I’ve felt since growing up watching Sanders.
I’ve just never seen anybody move like Gibbs. Maybe that’s hyperbole. You can call me crazy if you want. That’s just how I feel.
Penei Sewell is Jurassic Park
It makes all the sense in the world.
Think about Sewell running down the field to get blocks for Gibbs or Jameson Williams or whoever, and then think about the T-Rex chasing Jeff Goldblum in the Jeep. Just running with bad intentions on its mind.
Every time you see Sewell barreling downfield for a block, he’s got bad intentions, and he looks like a T-Rex who’s about to take somebody out.
Jameson Williams is Mission: Impossible
Any cornerback who lines up against Williams and has to try to beat that straight-line speed is facing a mission that is impossible.
Nobody is going to catch him. He could have been F1 or Fast and Furious, but Mission: Impossible is the right call because he’s unstoppable. There is nothing you can do when you’re going up against that kind of speed.
Brian Branch is the Avengers
The reason here is versatility.
If you need Branch to be Captain America, he can be Captain America. If you need him to be the Hulk and lay the wood, he can do that too. You can’t just put one label on Branch.
He does everything on the field, and that’s why you have to go with the Avengers.
Aidan Hutchinson is The Dark Knight
This is more of a Joker-type angle. Hutchinson is an agent of chaos.
He introduces chaos into every single play and changes how offenses have to defend him. Think about the Joker in that movie. Batman has to change his philosophy. Gotham City changes everything to try to stop the guy.
Hutchinson does that to opposing offenses, and that makes The Dark Knight the perfect fit.
Amon-Ra St. Brown is Indiana Jones
Pick your Indiana Jones movie. Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Last Crusade. Any of them.
No matter what, you can always count on Indiana Jones to win in the end. St. Brown is going to bring that ball down every single time. He had a couple of drops last year, and everybody freaked out, but Amon-Ra St. Brown is money.
He’s probably the most sure-handed receiver out there, constantly mastering his craft and getting better. Like a professor would.
Dan Campbell is Independence Day
The reason is simple. That speech at the end of the movie.
“We will not go quietly into the night. We won’t give up without a fight.” Throw a “man” on the end of that, and it’s the kind of thing you could see Campbell saying in the locker room every week before a game, after a game, or at halftime.
Campbell has a way with words. He reminds me of that presidential speech, and it still makes you want to run through a wall. That’s what Lions players say about their coach, and that’s why Dan Campbell is Independence Day.
