Roger Goodell: Get over Yourself

Let me start by saying that I do not respect Michael Vick as a person and I think his talents as a quarterback are incredibly overrated.

Conversely, I respect what Roger Goodell is trying to do with the NFL.

Goodell took over as the NFL Commissioner in 2006 and could have easily sat back and raked in all the money.  The NFL is nearly foolproof and is a guaranteed way to make tons of money through so many different avenues.

Surprisingly, money was not the motive for Goodell.  He saw a league that needed to clean up its act and become respectable in the eyes of the communities it was involved with and the fans who supported the league.

Sadly there have been instances where players thought they were above the law.  The Commish stepped in and brought some of the punks in the NFL back down to earth.

I applauded his efforts and his tough stance.  He was firm, but fair.  Rigid with rules, but forgiving.

I believe he handled the debacles in Cincinnati admirably, and the Adam “Pacman” Jones situation well.

Goodell was praised by the media, fans, players and owners.  That’s a lot of praise for one man, and it may have finally gone to his head.

Look, I can’t blame the guy for going on an ego trip.  He arguably runs the most successful sports league in the world, makes a ton of money, has a wonderful family and seems to make all of the right decisions.

Well that last point is now in serious question after the Vick fiasco.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it up to our judicial system to determine if a person is guilty or not guilty of a law.  Isn’t it up to that system to sentence a person for the crime committed and to then rehabilitate that person.

The NFL—and, even more importantly, Goodell—is not responsible for handing out additional punishments.

I’m not going to say if Vick served to much or to little time.  That is not my call, and it certainly isn’t Goodell’s call.  Someone in the legal system gave Vick a sentence for heinous crimes and Vick served his time.

He is a free man with the right to earn a living.

Now Goodell wants to step in and say, “Nah.  Not good enough for me Michael.  I think I’ll make you serve additional time under my watch.”

This makes no sense to me.  I am not trying to write a pity story for Vick.  He got himself into this mess.  My point is that Goodell should not hand out additional penalties once the legal system is done with a criminal.  It doesn’t make sense and reeks of a man who is getting a little too full of himself.

Do something proactive Goodell.  Don’t sit back and tell Vick he is suspended until week six of the NFL season.  Allow Vick to sign somewhere and then make him go out into his new community where he can provide some sort of public service.

Use your vision and power to try and make this a positive experience.  In the end, I really hope we have not gone from a league where players thought they were above the law to a league where the commissioner writes the law.

 

Must Love Dogs: Michael Vick Deserves His Second Chance

I’m guilty of a lot of things in my life.

Chief among them is probably taking for granted the freedoms I’m lucky enough to enjoy as a citizen of the United States. 

I’m not rich.  I’m not famous.  I’m not politically connected.  I don’t live in Michael Vick’s world.  I can at best glimpse its hazy outline through the constant media coverage his life has become.

But what we both do share is a citizenship that affords us a second chance.

The term “debt to society” is thrown around mostly as a weak synonym for a prison sentence in our world.  We take it as a nothing term, a filler, a daytime Law & Order buzzword.

But what it means, and why it’s such a fundamental principle to any functioning society, is that as an individual you’ve done something for which you owe your fellow man.

Paying that debt means more than being deprived of a luxury; it’s not a time-out.  It’s, at least in this system, a time period by which you sacrifice your freedoms because you’ve done wrong.  You have a debt that needs to be settled.

Michael Vick settled that debt in the eyes of the court system.  While most of us don’t really think of it in such a way, the court system is a representative of our rights as a society.  Its word is our word, its decision is our decision.

Vick committed a horrible act upon defenseless animals.  As an avid dog lover, I can’t simply dismiss that fact.  For the rest of my life I will associate Vick’s name with whatever evil allows people to hurt dogs.

But I’ve never been locked up.  I’ve never been imprisoned.  I’ve never had my freedoms taken from me.  Michael Vick has.  That’s what our society deemed appropriate for what he did.

Was it enough?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  That’s a matter of opinion.

But if you have a problem with his sentence you should bring those concerns to the people who handed it out, not the man to whom it was given.

What should Vick have done?  What could Vick have done?  Ask for more prison time? Walk back to the judge at the end of his sentence like some perverted Oliver Twist?

“Please, sir, can I have another six months?”

Michael Vick has had his livelihood stripped from him.  He’s gone bankrupt.  He’s lost two of the most valuable years of his life and greatly cheapened whatever value his remaining years may have.

A football career is among the most ephemeral commodities any young man can possess, and he’s had the prime years of it taken from him because of his actions.

Now people are out for blood as well?  They want to take it all from him?  Where does it end?

What if Michael Vick’s talent was that he was a brilliant business mind?  That he could detect minute patterns in the stock market and was a savvy investor?  What if his crime were murdering another man?  Or raping a woman?

I don’t think Vick’s crime—as heinous as it was—deserves a life sentence, where his prison isn’t a federal facility with concrete and bars, but a world where he is not allowed to bring the talents he was given and has cultivated to bear, with whatever success they may bring him.

Should we not allow murderers, once they’ve served their time, to make above a certain wage?  Should society hang over them, waiting to strip any comfort they might find?

Isn’t their crime just as heinous?  I love dogs, but there’s no path by which a right-thinking person can say murdering a person is not the greater crime.

Michael Vick, like the millions of other ex-convicts in this country who are now free, has paid his debt to society.

He is bankrupt, his talents are likely fading, most of his friends either ratted him out or no longer find it profitable to call him a friend, and it’s unlikely any team will ever commit a large contract to him again.

Has he learned his lesson?  I don’t know, but that’s not the way our prison system works.  It may be the way Roger Goodell’s NFL works, but Michael Vick is owed a second chance to prove he can be a good person.

Our prison system provides benefits to those who show progress in reshaping their lives (even as many of those facilities strip away the programs that best help those convicts accomplish that), but it does not require of them anything but time.

Perhaps Michael Vick hasn’t learned any lesson other than acting on his baser impulses will have consequences he can’t afford.  Perhaps the only reason he’ll stop the behavior that landed him in jail is because it may land him there again.

But if, as a society, our concern is only that he’s “learned his lesson,” then maybe our concern shouldn’t begin and end with how many football games Michael Vick must miss this fall.

Maybe our concern should be with a prison system that seems to think keeping men and women unable to function in society in a box with other men and women unable to function in society will magically turn out productive, healthy people.

Maybe Michael Vick isn’t the problem here at all.

This country is a lot of things, but I’m glad to know at the very least it’s a place where a man can be guilty of many things and still be allowed the opportunity to make up for them.

T.J. Donegan is a B/R featured columnist for the New England Patriots. Track him on Twitter here. He can also be reached at tdonegan@gwmail.gwu.edu.

 

 

Browns ’09: Different Is Good

While the rookies sit in meetings, the rest of us wait for the weekend, and the first real look at what is going to be different for the Browns this year.

 

Definitely different will be training camp. Gone is “Camp Feel Good” where no player was even remotely prepared to play a scrimmage, much less a regular season game.

 

In the lead-up to camp, the Browns began signing some draft picks.

 

The front office certainly was busy, signing Alex Mack, David Veikune and Kaluka Maiava. With those signings, we’re down to just the two unsigned wide receivers, Brian Robiskie and Mohamed Massaquoi.

 

While there are a ton of questions surrounding the team, two areas of the team I can take the bank as “givens” are:

 

1. The defensive line has nowhere to go but up and should look much improved
2. There are a lot of new faces at the wide receiver position.

Those two things aren’t that difficult to figure out, but they are worth mentioning because our defensive line was practically non-existent last year, and the people we did have catching balls last year didn’t really catch much of anything.

 

Going into the second half of the 2008 season, even the casual fan was griping that the team had just “quit” and was just going through the motions. 

 

Braylon Edwards couldn’t catch the swine flu and watching a game after Derek Anderson got injured was the fan equivalent of the Bataan Death March.

 

There’s only so much of the roster head coach Eric Mangini could turnover going into this season, so the players that are gone won’t be missed, and the players invited to camp have one last shot to impress, or they’ll be headed out the door as well.

 

Kamerion Wimbley and D’Qwell Jackson have shown solid skills in the past and were drafted to be impact players on the 3-4 defense. Last year they were basically invisible, with Wimbley only making 66 tackles and four sacks.

 

Since Wimbley’s strength is supposed to be his pass rushing, that number is…very bad.

 

Edwards is in a contract year, meaning he has extra incentive to not suck this year. That being said, I don’t expect Edwards to finish the season with the Browns. If he gets off to a good start, his trade value goes up and the Browns could trade him for draft picks.

 

Staying with the receivers, Robiskie and Massaquoi will sign, most likely in time for the first practice this weekend as neither one of these guys wants to be the guy on the sidelines, out of the rotation due to a contract holdout.

 

That cost Brady Quinn the 2007 season, and now look where we are with that position.

 

We also can’t forget about Beau Bell. Bell spent much of last season injured, and the rest of the season pretty much ignored. As I’ve said before, if you weren’t a proven veteran, Romeo Crennel didn’t know you existed.

 

When Bell was available, he was barely used. Considering the performance from the players who were used, his sidelining was inexcusable. I’m not saying he’s the second coming of Lawrence Taylor, but we never even got a chance to see if he was the second coming of Mike Junkin.

 

Back on offense, I expect to score touchdowns this year. That certainly is something different than last year when we didn’t score an offensive touchdown the last six games of the year.

 

The complete meltdown of the offense can partially be blamed on injuries, but at some point, the coaches have to coach, and the players have to play.

 

Neither of those things happened in the latter part of the 2008 campaign. I expect nothing but 110 percent from the players and the coaches this year clear through to the bitter end.

 

While Mangini’s 2008 Jets fell apart as well in the last few weeks of the season, they never quit and they never looked like they were going through the motions.

 

The 2008 Browns quit, despite quotes to the contrary, and I never want to see that again.

 

However, I don’t expect to see that this year. Mangini doesn’t seem to me to be the kind of guy who tolerates players who quit. Therefore, I expect to see winners.

 

That would be different, and that would be good.

 

Camping Out: A Man To Man Talk About the Chicago Bears

Public Relations for Mike Vick: Terrell Owens Says He Should Play

Okay, this is something interesting to chew on: Mike Vick in a Buffalo Bills uniform. 

There has been plenty of talk as to where Mike Vick will end up for the 2009 season, and so far the experts are saying Oakland or Jacksonville, and quite possibly Tampa Bay. 

Well, why not Buffalo?

Okay, your first reaction as a fan may be, “What are you, crazy?  We don’t need Vick, we have Trent Edwards.”  Or here’s a better response—getting Mike Vick would be like beating a dead dog.  What would be the point?

In any case, the point would be that this is a copy-cat league, and if the Wild-Cat formation can be effectively used, other teams will be sure to follow suit. 

NFL.com is reporting breaking news today that Vick will be able to play in the NFL this year.  He can practice with whatever team decides to pick him up, and he is eligible to play the final two weeks of preseason. He may not be able to suit up for regular season games until October, but he can still practice with the team. 

Terrell Owens has an interesting take on the Vick situation: “I think it’s unfortunate. I think the way the commissioner has handled it, I think it’s unfair to Michael Vick,” said Owens. 

“I think he’s done the time for what he’s done. I don’t think it’s really fair for him to be suspended four more games. That’s almost like kicking a dead horse in the ground. I think a lot of guys around the league need to speak up. I think the players union needs to step in because the guy’s already suffered so much. To add a four-game suspension on a two-year prison sentence, that’s ridiculous.”

Owens also had some interesting comments about whether he would care if Vick was a teammate.  “Well, why not?” asked Owens. “Again, Michael Vick is a guy that really hasn’t had any character issues besides what he got a prison sentence for, so why not?”

Throw in some rumors that have been circling around training camp that Fred Jackson, Marshawn Lynch, and Leodis McKelvin were lining up in Wild-Cat formation and you get the general idea on why the Vick questions keep coming up in Bills training camp.

Adding Vick to Buffalo’s offense would bring a whole different bag of tricks and treats to confuse and befuddle defensive coordinators.  Remember not to bring your Droopy costume to the party.

At worst, Vick could come in and help Buffalo prepare for some of the things Miami will be trying to do now with the addition of Pat White.  At best, Vick could contribute to this team as a slash player—sometimes QB, sometimes HB, sometimes WR.

There really is nothing Vick can do to harm this team.  Jauron and Co. need to win now, and any player that can make this team better would surely be a welcome addition.

Getting Vick would be relatively easy considering there may not be a whole lot of teams out there interested in him, but if there is one guy who is advocating for his reinstatement, it’s T.O. 

Who knows how much of an impact T.O. will have on the average fans perception, but if anything he could soften the blow to a surprise signing by the Buffalo Bills.

Vick would probably play for the veteran minimum, so it really can’t hurt to throw him a bone.

Carolina Panthers 2009 Training Camp Preview

The Carolina Panthers head into the 2009 season carrying some stiff expectations with them. After a 12-4 season that was abruptly ended by a shameful home playoff loss to the eventual Super Bowl runner-up Cardinals, the Cats will have a tough road to another playoff berth.

Here’s a look at a few things to watch for as the Panthers go camping.

As Season Closes in, Questions Loom for Titans

Nashville, TN – With training camp a mere four days away, Tennessee Titans players are wrapping up their offseason activities and gearing up for what is sure to be a busy preseason. Veterans will be looking to keep their spots, while the new up-and- comers will be vying for playing time right from the start.

It’s not all about the players picked in this years’ draft; the Titans made some key free agent moves, and at least one position will be fought over by two or more players already established on the Titans’ roster.

Heading into training camp, these are the questions that should be on everyone’s minds:

Does Kerry Collins have it in him to keep his starting position, or is he rapidly moving into Brett Favre territory—holding on just a little bit too long, trying to recapture the magic that has long since left?

If Collins falters, who will be there, ready, and most importantly, able to fill the void at quarterback? Has Vince Young truly matured into an NFL signal caller, or is he one bad game and a few boos away from yet another meltdown?

His attitude in the offseason seems to indicate that he might not be as mentally tough and stable as some would like to believe, and NFL fans are fickle—one wrong move from VY and the boo-birds are gonna be on him, quick and mercilessly.

And they have long memories.

Two other guys on the TItans roster would most likely LOVE to be considered the No. 2 guy, because Collins is so very long in the tooth. Rookie Alex Mortensen and veteran journeyman Patrick Ramsey both look to dislodge VY, and possibly Collins, from under center.

Who will have a more immediate impact on the receiving corps: Kenny Britt, the wunderkind that the Titans put their hopes on in round one of the NFL Draft, or Nate Washington, a supposedly undersized and under speed veteran receiver who wears two Super Bowl rings—that he personally helped to acquire—from his days in Pittsburgh?

And why is Britt still not signed? The kid was good, but he wasn’t THAT good…

Kevin Mawae is another aging veteran; will he have the durability to make it through the whole season, and possibly deep into the post season? He’s smart, but is smart gonna be good enough to keep him healthy?

The Titans are taking seven running backs into camp; Chris Johnson is probably safe, but is the “Smash” half of the “Smash and Dash” duo up for the challenge of keeping his position? LenDale White has come out publicly and welcomed the competition, but is it all false bravado? Will he really step up and earn his spot, or expect it to be given to him?

Will he play, or will he pout?

Alge Crumpler plays five years older than his actually is, and Bo Scaife just hired arguably the biggest loudmouth jerk in the agent business—albeit a loudmouth jerk who gets ridiculously large contracts for his clients—Drew Rosenhaus.

Is this an indication that Scaife is about to play hardball to keep his job or get big bucks elsewhere? Does that open the door for one of the three young tight ends coming to camp to make an impression of Coach Fisher and earn a spot?

Back to wide receivers for a minute: Tennessee is taking 10 WR’s into camp, looking to fill five, maybe six, positions. Justin Gage is the only receiver who is established in his position; Nate Washington is most likely not going to be threatened for a spot atop the roster.

Everything else is, as they say, up for grabs.

Britt is still unsigned, while the other two draft picks, Dominique Edison and Dudley Guice, are fully on board and ready to rock. He has already underperformed for the Titans in offseason practices; what makes Britt think he’s worth enough to hold out?

All these questions, and more, are sure to make this preseason an exciting one to watch. I for one, am anxious to see how the Titans plan to repeat their regular season perofrmance from last year, and work towards going deeper in the playoffs this year. 

Jets Need to Pay Leon Washington

 

The New York Jets and electric running back Leon Washington have been playing tug-of-war for too long now.

 

With training camp set to start on Friday in Cortland, New York, it’s imperative first-year head coach Rex Ryan has his most dynamic playmaker not only in attendance, but satisfied.

 

Cast in the shadows of Thomas Jones, Washington is asking for an extensive contact worth around $30 million, and could hold out until an agreement is reached.  His wishes are a bit drastic considering the 26-year-old has recorded just 1,451 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns in three seasons as a part-time player.

 

However, according to Peter King of SI.com, the former Florida State standout could register up to 300 carries this season, which would easily surpass his career high of 151, set in his rookie year in 2006.

 

“He had six touchdowns on 73 carries last year.  That number has to go up—drastically. And it will,” Ryan told King in a published report.

 

Washington appears ready to handle an increased workload, too.

 

“Talking to Rex Ryan and the coaches, they are going to try and expand my role; get me the ball more,” Washington told the Associated Press.  “I am a competitor and I want to help the team win, so hopefully I get the ball more and put us in a position to win games.”

 

Washington, who is scheduled to earn the minimum salary of $535,000 in the fourth and final year of his rookie deal, touched the ball 200 times—123 from scrimmage—last season en route to being selected as the AFC’s kick returner in the Pro Bowl.

 

“This is where I want to be,” Washington told the AP.  “You look at my career—I believe that I did all the things I had to do on and off the field to have this contract extension.”

 

Perhaps the numbers don’t suggest that, considering he’d be making significantly more money than Jones, who led the AFC in rushing yards last season.  There’s no doubting Washington’s potential, though, and that alone should have been enough for New York’s brain trust to extend the contract before this conflict began.

 

With Jones set to turn 31 on August 19, Washington represents a safety net for an already questionable Jets offense.

 

After all, he’s more likely than Jones to join rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez as the joint face of the franchise once the Jets move into a new, lavish stadium next year.

 

Also unhappy about his contract, Jones is entering the third year of a four-year, $20-million deal, and had missed two weeks of his team’s workouts in the spring before deciding to show.  He is scheduled to make just $900,000 this campaign, despite coming off the best season of his nine-year career.

 

When it comes to prioritizing, general manager Mike Tannenbaum has an easy decision to make.  Would you rather extend the contract of a young, promising lightning bolt with enormous potential, or brush that problem aside and pony up for a worn, aging running back who has likely hit his ceiling?

Perhaps Tannenbaum has realized this already, since the New York Daily News is reporting Washington and the Jets want to reach an agreement by Friday.

Prior to last season, the San Diego Chargers made the mistake of putting all their eggs in the basket of the 30-year-old LaDainian Tomlinson, while letting an unhappy Michael Turner walk out the door.

Maybe Washington will never rush for 1,700 yards or become a finalist for the AP NFL MVP award like Turner did for the Atlanta Falcons last season, but it’s scary to think of letting a diamond in the rough escape.

The ball is in the Jets’ court. It’s time they convert this lay-up.

Jacksonville Jaguars’ Front Office Hits Crunch Time

With training camp starting on Sunday, the Jacksonville Jaguars have a hectic agenda ahead of them to get all of their draft picks in camp on time. The flurry of activity this week in the front office should border on frantic as the team tries to button up the contracts on their 2009 draft class.

The big ticket players, Eugene Monroe and Eben Britton, will more than likely wind up being the final two players to agree to terms with the Jaguars. They will continue to monitor the contract situations of other draft picks to get a sense for their market value. Neither player is going to race to sign a deal.

Ideally, the Jaguars would love to have all of their draft picks in camp when players report this Sunday. They would even settle for having their picks under contract before they hit the practice field for the first time on Monday morning.

But with only five first-round picks signed a week from the official start of training camp, the odds of having all of their guys signed, sealed, and delivered is beginning to look a little unlikely.

In the past decade, the Jaguars have had two of their first-round selections miss a significant portion of training camp as they held out to get their rookie contracts completed. 

In 2003, Byron Leftwich sat out 19 days of training camp while the team worked out the particulars on his contract. The missed practice time did create a significant obstacle to Leftwich’s development as a rookie. He did finish the season as the starter, but it was because of an injury and not because he outplayed Mark Brunell by a significant margin.

Last year, Derrick Harvey sat out 33 days waiting on a deal to get done. His holdout cost him all of training camp, and slowed his progress as a rookie. He only started to hit any sort of a stride late in the season when the team was already in free-fall.

Because agents know there is a possibility that a rookie salary cap could become a reality as part of any new collective bargaining agreement, they are scrambling to maximize the contracts this year in anticipation of heavy restrictions moving forward. The end result is one of the slowest signing seasons for high draft picks in league history.

The Jaguars are in a great position to handle any sort of holdouts with their top two picks.

Eugene Monroe is expected to compete for the starting left tackle position immediately. But, if he does hold out and miss training camp, the Jaguars have an insurance policy in free agent acquisition Tra Thomas. The team has a solid starter ready to go in the event of a holdout.

With Eben Britton, the situation is even less of a concern for the team. Tony Pashos has reportedly outperformed the rookie tackle during the spring, so the Jaguars have a starter at right tackle should he be another late signer.

The local media is already starting to spin this as if there is a critical situation developing if the team fails to get their top-two draft picks signed in time for camp. Realistically, it would be more of a problem for the players than for the team if these contracts do not get done in a timely manner.

It will hamper the development of the rookies and hurt their chances of earning starting jobs early in the process.

The lack of a deal will certainly provide a distinct advantage to the veterans currently holding these positions as they develop chemistry with the starting unit and become more fluent and familiar with the playbook.

As we saw last season, practicing in a hotel conference room with stationary chairs does not equate to the same level of exposure a player gets by being involved in the minutiae of two-a-days.

Derrick Harvey may have been able to sack a conference room chair with relative ease. But, that did not allow him to hit the ground running when he finally did arrive on the scene after a 33-day holdout.

The good news is the team will be fine regardless of what these top-two picks do contractually. With quality veteran talent already on the roster, the pressure is squarely on the players to get a deal done quickly so they can compete for those starting positions.

Why The Detroit Lions Must Sit Matthew Stafford

As the media keeps churning out fluff pieces about how great Matthew Stafford is, and how he is the saviour of the Detroit Lions, I continue to shake my head.

Just a couple months ago, Daunte Culpepper was entrenched as the starter of the Detroit Lions. Stafford? A mere challenger, who had only a slim chance of winning the job out of training camp.

Now? The Detroit media reports it as a battle for the the quarterback position, like they really mean it. Stafford is emphasized as the favorite. The flashy new quarterback who should beat out Culpepper by week three at the latest and lead Detroit back from the depths of 0-16.

Why the sudden change? Today, just as three months ago, Stafford still hasn’t thrown a single down in the NFL.

Sure, we hear from Stafford’s old high school coach, his college running back, the Lions head coach even, that Matthew Stafford is ahead of the curve, that he has maybe the best arm they’ve ever seen.

I’ll believe it, but so what? Ryan Leaf had a great arm too. So did Tim Couch.

This article isn’t about citing past #1 draft pick quarterbacks who have failed though. It’s about how Stafford is likely destined to fail if he starts this season, period.

Stafford will inevitably be compared to last year’s rookie crop of quarterbacks, Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco if he starts this season. That’s unfair right off the bat. Ryan and Flacco were college seniors when they entered the draft. They were as close to finished products as you can get.

Matthew Stafford entered the draft as a junior. That’s strike one.

You might not think it’s a big deal, but senior quarterbacks have a much higher percentage chance of success than juniors. Don’t believe me? Here’s a list of junior quarterbacks who have recently entered the NFL.

JaMarcus Russell, Vince Young, Alex Smith, Ben Roethlisberger, Rex Grossman, Michael Vick, Tim Couch, Ryan Leaf.

You can look at that list and pick out Roethlisberger and Vick as the only two junior quarterbacks in the last 11 years to have really made it. Meanwhile two of the bigger quarterback busts of the last decade are present.

Seniors have more maturity and more experience. Don’t discount it.

Now, lets take a look at what Detroit has given Stafford to help him succeed.

For the last five years at least, Detroit has had one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. There’s no nice way to say it. Detroit’s line was a sieve.

They didn’t do much to address this in the offseason. They did bring in veteran tackle, Jon Jansen which should be of some help, but this is still more or less the same line that allowed multiple injured quarterbacks last season.

Let’s review. Jon Kitna, Dan Orlovsky, Drew Stanton, Daunte Culpepper, Drew Henson. All five of those quarterbacks lined up under center for Detroit last season. Four of them suffered injuries at some point.

Atlanta had one of the best ground games in the NFL last season with Michael Turner and Norwood. Baltimore perennially has one of the NFL’s best defenses.

Detroit has neither.

Kevin Smith looks like a solid back, but can he be a guy who forces defenses to focus on the rushing attack and takes pressure off the quarterback? I don’t know.

The defense has been revamped big time, but it’s still a question mark. Some have compared Detroit’s defense to that of an expansion team, taking other teams leftovers. It’s a pessimistic assessment, but not too far off from the truth.

What Detroit has given Stafford, is one of the top three receivers in the game in Calvin Johnson. That shouldn’t be underestimated. A great receiver can be a young quarterback’s best friend.

Will it be enough though?

Then there is the pressure.

Detroit fans are notorious for their huge expectations surrounding the next quarterback of the Detroit Lions. There is that old adage that the most popular man in Detroit is the backup quarterback of the Lions.

Then, if the next quarterback fails, they will never hear the end of it, even after they leave. Just look at Joey “Blue Skies” Harrington.

Sitting your star quarterback is never a popular option, but it should dramatically increase Stafford’s chances of success.

Carson Palmer sat for a year behind Jon Kitna in Cinncinati. Although injuries have derailed Palmer’s career, his year on the bench helped prepare him for great success in leading Cinncinati back to the playoffs.

Phillip Rivers is another quarterback who sat on the bench behind Drew Brees. Rivers success isn’t questioned now. He is a solid starting quarterback in the NFL.

Aaron Rodgers spent multiple years on the bench behind Brett Farve. He ended up being a solid starting quarterback because of it.

Brady Quinn sat on the bench for a year behind Derek Anderson. We won’t know for sure how much that helped him until we see him play this season, but it can’t hurt.

You might say Detroit doesn’t have the luxury of having an entrenched starter who can keep Stafford on the bench. You might be right.

For the time being, if Culpepper falters or gets injured, all Detroit would have to turn to is Drew Stanton or Matthew Stafford.

Detroit isn’t going to start Stanton over Stafford. That will never happen.

So if Detroit is serious about developing Stafford properly, they are going to want a veteran quarterback behind Culpepper. That probably means cutting Stanton loose.

There’s quite a few options out there. This only needs to be a one-year stopgap after all.

I just hope Detroit does the right thing. There’s no reason to throw Stafford to the wolves this early. That’s what veterans are for. They’ve been in these situations, they’ve seen it all.

I’ve seen Detroit ruin too many promising quarterbacks. From Joey Harrington, to Charlie Batch, to Andre Ware.

Let’s just hope they take the slow route in developing Stafford. There’s going to be improvement this year either way.

Likewise, no matter who starts, this is not a playoff team. So why risk it?

Develop the young quarterback on the bench this year, give him the starting reigns next year and his chance for success improves greatly.

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