Surgeon General Warning: Being a Detroit Lion May Be Hazardous to Health

Next year, any players drafted by the Detroit Lions might do well to take out a hefty insurance policy.

The 14 players on the Lions’ injured reserve probably wish they had.

First-round pick Brandon Pettigrew is the latest to hit IR, and he represents only the latest in a sordid history of unfortunate injuries for the Lions.

Though the relationship between the two is arguable, an annual laundry list of injuries is as much a part of the Lions’ identity today as losing is, and this season has proven no different.

The injury list started early when veteran defensive end Jared DeVries went down with a ruptured Achilles tendon in training camp. From there, they started to compile injuries, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.

Daniel Bullocks was an early scratch, and he would later be joined by Marquand Manuel, Eric King, DeMarcus Faggins, Chris Roberson, Ko Simpson, and Jack Williams.

And that’s just the secondary.

Ultimately, many of the Lions’ most influential injuries have not been season-ending.

Matthew Stafford has missed time already this season, and may again if he continues to get his bell rung like he has.

Calvin Johnson has missed games, as has Sammie Hill, Cliff Avril, Ernie Sims, and Grady Jackson.

The defense is so depleted, the Lions are having to scour practice squads for talent everywhere and sign anybody who looks halfway capable. And more often than not, those players end up on IR as well.

And it’s not just this season, either. The Lions have a history of frustrating injuries to key players.

Last year, the reason the Lions had five quarterbacks on their roster is because none of them could stay healthy for more than about three games at a time.

The year before that, Calvin Johnson spent most of his rookie year hobbled with a back injury.

Though he turned out to be a bust, wideout Charles Rogers spent the majority of his first two professional seasons on IR after breaking his collarbone early in the season. In both seasons.

Roy Williams was limited in his rookie season with an ankle injury, before having a breakout season in 2006, then hitting IR late in the 2007 season.

A flurry of promising defensive draft picks from earlier this decade—Barrett Green, Boss Bailey, and Teddy Lehman among them—suffered injuries early in their careers. All showed great promise with their play before injury. None were able to regain that form upon their return.

Of course, in some circumstances, injuries to a rebuilding team are not the worst thing in the world. Injuries force a team to explore more of its roster and possibly find a starting-quality talent where there was once a third-stringer.

This is not so when it comes to young players. As Lions fans have seen far too many times, injuries to young players can derail an otherwise-promising career.

When they don’t derail a career, they certainly set them back. Rookies need as much developmental time as they can get, and time spent away from the field while rehabbing an injury is time they’re not getting any better.

So Brandon Pettigrew will join a slew of players spending the rest of the season in the doctor’s office, and his progression will have to wait until next season.

So 2010 draft picks and free agents beware. If the Detroit Lions come calling, then answer the call…but maybe wear some extra padding.

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Matthew Stafford’s Thanksgiving Shows the Folly of the “Statement Game”

Matthew Stafford has arrived, and his legend has begun.

As of Monday, Nov. 23, that legend depicted Stafford as a child of the football gods, a immortal savior delivered unto the wretch of the Detroit Lions.

After setting an NFL rookie record with five touchdown passes, including a game-winner after a play in which he separated his non-throwing shoulder, the consensus was to declare him a wildly successful draft choice, destined for the Hall of Fame.

Then Thanksgiving came along, and the legend began a new chapter, as Stafford started the game injured after not practicing during the short week.

At the conclusion of that chapter, the legend reads quite differently.

Matthew Stafford is human.

More than that, he’s a rookie, and any attempts to anoint him after one good game are fallacious at best.

Why? Because for rookies, the “statement game” doesn’t exist.

Rookies don’t need a statement game. It means nothing. What it means is that they have enough talent on a given day to perform well in the National Football League.

What that doesn’t mean is that they have enough talent to perform consistently .

And consistency is ultimately the deciding factor when determining whether rookies are going to work out. A quick flash and fizzle of talent means far less in the NFL than a moderately good consistent player.

For example, Joey Harrington threw for 300 yards and two touchdowns in his fifth career NFL game. How did that one work out?

In the case of Stafford, a string of games with pedestrian-but-solid numbers  would be far more exciting for his future than one great game followed by two mediocre games and an abysmal one.

Yes, Stafford had as many touchdown passes in four quarters as Andre Ware did in his four-season career, and that is certainly reason to get excited.

But a better reason to get excited is to find out Stafford is playing with consistency.

Consistency means he really has the stuff. If the great games and solid performances become the norm, rather than the exception, then we have ourselves an NFL quarterback, and likely a good one.

But don’t be fooled, Stafford is still a rookie quarterback who has yet to determine whether he will reach his potential.

The Cleveland game shows only that the potential exists.

The Green Bay game shows us that he has not achieved it yet.

And future games will show us which direction he is heading, but not by themselves.

Because Stafford, as we have seen, has nothing to gain from a statement game.

When he puts up a statement season, we’ll talk about building him a pedestal.

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Detroit Lions Halftime Musings: How Will They Let Us Down This Week?

Despite effectively being dominated, the Detroit Lions are hanging in there against the Minnesota Vikings.

But here comes the second half.

You know what’s coming, but you don’t know how.

It’s never as easy as the Lions just getting blown away from start to finish. That would make it less disappointing.

The Lions’ trademark has become losing games, but giving fans hope of a win first.

Even a game like this, where the Lions are double-digit underdogs, they’ve forced a couple of turnovers, gotten a fourth-down stop, and generally kept the game close.

The Lions could win this game.

They could, but they won’t. They’ll lose in heartbreaking fashion, and the only remaining question is how.

This is what it means to be a Lions fan. Every close game we think the Lions can win, we can only wonder what reason there will be for them to lose.

So now, as the Vikings and Lions have traded touchdowns, I will watch, helpless to my team’s inevitable fate. They look like a decent team, one capable of winning this football game.

And that’s why it hurts so much. The anticipation is killing me.

But not as much as the loss will.

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Detroit Lions Running Out of Ways to Lose

What else could possibly happen?

Last Sunday, the Detroit Lions jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter against the Seattle Seahawks, and still managed to lose by 12 points.

And the beatings go on.

The Lions have been shut out, lost late leads, fallen short in fourth-quarter comebacks, lost because of offense, defense, and special teams.

And that’s just this season. The only good news this season is that the team hasn’t lost by two after an unforced safety.

Yet.

But the Lions are about to play Minnesota, so who knows?

In all seriousness, though, the Lions losing seven out of eight games played this season is no big surprise.

What is surprising is the ability of the Lions to find unique ways to lose those games. No two losses have been quite the same.

Observe.

Begin Slideshow

Detroit Lions Flashback: The 10 Biggest Wins in Lions History

Times are tough in Detroit sports right now.

The Tigers choked out of a playoff berth, the Red Wings are starting slow, the Pistons have no defense, and the Lions are still the Lions after losing to the previously winless Rams.

So it seems the only way we’re going to escape this vortex of mediocrity is to take a leisurely stroll down memory lane and revisit some of the biggest wins in Detroit Lions history.

Since we’re talking about Lions wins, though… maybe it’ll be more of a scavenger hunt along memory lane.

But still, pay attention. This might be the only time you see 10 Lions wins in a row.

Begin Slideshow

Detroit Lions-St. Louis Rams Matchup More About Losing Than One Win

Well, this is awkward.

Barely a month after the Detroit Lions exorcised a 19-game losing streak, they now have the opportunity to give the St. Louis Rams their 18th.

What’s more, that 18th straight loss would also send the Rams to 0-8 on the season, halfway to the mark the Lions put up in the Season Which Shall Not Be Named.

Now, by no means am I saying the Rams are going to go winless this season (they do play Tennessee in December), but the Lions can exorcise a little more of their recent history by keeping the Rams on that path.

Sure, what’s done is done, and last season can never be erased.

But it can be printed over.

If the Rams exceed the Lions’ losing streak and run it to 20, then at the very least, the Lions are not the most recent big-time losers.

And the Rams’ next three games are against Detroit, New Orleans, and Arizona.

Which of those games do you think they have circled on their calendar?

Ultimately, this is a battle of futility. A win means very little to either team in the long run. It just means they’re not losing.

But that’s something. For these two teams, it’s actually very significant.

It’s not often that a team holding a record of futility plays against a team pushing for it. It isn’t as if the Lions played the 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs last year.

In effect, this game is like a round of hot potato. Neither team wants to own that losing streak, so for 60 minutes they’re going to toss it back and forth.

At the final gun, either one team will retain its streak, or one will continue its streak.

Neither team wants it.

But this game will come down to one simple question.

Who wants it less?

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Jason Hanson: A Hall of Fame Talent Stunted by a Career in Detroit

Jason Hanson is a victim.

He was blessed with a golden leg and the raw talent and ability to break every professional kicking record on the books.

Then he was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1992 and has been there ever since.

Now I love the Detroit Lions, and I always will, but I’m a football fan first, so even I recognize that Hanson’s numbers are a shadow of what they would be with another team.

A placekicker isn’t like any offensive position. He can’t put the team on his back and put up numbers regardless of his team’s performance. If the team can’t get into field goal range, the kicker can’t score, period. There’s no such thing as an 80-yard field goal.

So Hanson sits at seventh all-time in scoring when he has the talent to be several spots up. Jason Elam, Matt Stover, and John Carney are all active kickers sitting above him on the all-time scoring list by at least 150 points.

Carney and Stover are both older than Hanson, and Elam is roughly the same age, but all have been with more prolific teams than the Lions.

Yet have they been better kickers than Hanson?

All have comparable career field goal percentages (within about one point of 82 percent, though Stover’s is the third-highest of all time at 83.82), but Hanson has maintained and even refined his long-range ability, while the others have become primarily short-range specialists.

To illustrate, Hanson set an NFL record by going 8-for-8 from 50-plus yards in 2008.  Elam, Carney, and Stover are a combined 8-for-15 from that range since 2005.

Now, it is difficult to say what goes into a Hall of Fame placekicker.

Only one, Jan Stenerud, has entered the Hall as a pure placekicker. Stenerud currently ranks 10th on the NFL’s all-time scoring list and was admitted to the Hall with a career field goal percentage of just under 67 percent.

At the time of his induction, Stenerud was the second-leading scorer of all time behind George Blanda (who simultaneously played placekicker and quarterback).

If Hanson’s production continues as it has recently to the end of his current contract, he will pass Blanda by over 100 points while having 15 percentage points of accuracy on Stenerud.

In addition, he is the highest-ranking player on the all-time scoring list to have only played for one team.

Which, of course, is part of the problem. Stenerud kicked three field goals in Super Bowl IV. Hanson has spent his entire career with a team that has only won one playoff game in the Super Bowl era.

Placekickers earn recognition by making clutch kicks in big games. But when the team is never in a position to win any game, much less a big one, a kicker cannot kick a game-winning field goal.

Regardless, Hanson’s current contract with the Detroit Lions will end just before he turns 43, so it seems he intends to finish his career in Detroit.

If that is the case, it is unlikely he will see very many games to show what he can do with the game on the line, and though he may deserve the Hall, his credentials will likely suffer for it.

After all, nobody sees what a player should have achieved on paper. Either they didn’t or they did.

Hanson, unfortunately, has as many game-winning kicks in playoff games as I do.

Sure, he holds two NFL records, is the only player still with the same team since the advent of free agency, is almost certainly the last No. 4 ever to play in a Lions uniform, and he could be as high as third on the all-time scoring list by the time he retires.

But will it be enough?

After all, he spent his entire career with the Lions.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Jason Hanson: A Hall of Fame Talent Stunted by a Career in Detroit

Jason Hanson is a victim.

He was blessed with a golden leg and the raw talent and ability to break every professional kicking record on the books.

Then he was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1992 and has been there ever since.

Now I love the Detroit Lions, and I always will, but I’m a football fan first, so even I recognize that Hanson’s numbers are a shadow of what they would be with another team.

A placekicker isn’t like any offensive position. He can’t put the team on his back and put up numbers regardless of his team’s performance. If the team can’t get into field goal range, the kicker can’t score, period. There’s no such thing as an 80-yard field goal.

So Hanson sits at seventh all-time in scoring when he has the talent to be several spots up. Jason Elam, Matt Stover, and John Carney are all active kickers sitting above him on the all-time scoring list by at least 150 points.

Carney and Stover are both older than Hanson, and Elam is roughly the same age, but all have been with more prolific teams than the Lions.

Yet have they been better kickers than Hanson?

All have comparable career field goal percentages (within about one point of 82 percent, though Stover’s is the third-highest of all time at 83.82), but Hanson has maintained and even refined his long-range ability, while the others have become primarily short-range specialists.

To illustrate, Hanson set an NFL record by going 8-for-8 from 50-plus yards in 2008.  Elam, Carney, and Stover are a combined 8-for-15 from that range since 2005.

Now, it is difficult to say what goes into a Hall of Fame placekicker.

Only one, Jan Stenerud, has entered the Hall as a pure placekicker. Stenerud currently ranks 10th on the NFL’s all-time scoring list and was admitted to the Hall with a career field goal percentage of just under 67 percent.

At the time of his induction, Stenerud was the second-leading scorer of all time behind George Blanda (who simultaneously played placekicker and quarterback).

If Hanson’s production continues as it has recently to the end of his current contract, he will pass Blanda by over 100 points while having 15 percentage points of accuracy on Stenerud.

In addition, he is the highest-ranking player on the all-time scoring list to have only played for one team.

Which, of course, is part of the problem. Stenerud kicked three field goals in Super Bowl IV. Hanson has spent his entire career with a team that has only won one playoff game in the Super Bowl era.

Placekickers earn recognition by making clutch kicks in big games. But when the team is never in a position to win any game, much less a big one, a kicker cannot kick a game-winning field goal.

Regardless, Hanson’s current contract with the Detroit Lions will end just before he turns 43, so it seems he intends to finish his career in Detroit.

If that is the case, it is unlikely he will see very many games to show what he can do with the game on the line, and though he may deserve the Hall, his credentials will likely suffer for it.

After all, nobody sees what a player should have achieved on paper. Either they didn’t or they did.

Hanson, unfortunately, has as many game-winning kicks in playoff games as I do.

Sure, he holds two NFL records, is the only player still with the same team since the advent of free agency, is almost certainly the last No. 4 ever to play in a Lions uniform, and he could be as high as third on the all-time scoring list by the time he retires.

But will it be enough?

After all, he spent his entire career with the Lions.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Jason Hanson: A Hall of Fame Talent Stunted by a Career in Detroit

Jason Hanson is a victim.

He was blessed with a golden leg and the raw talent and ability to break every professional kicking record on the books.

Then he was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1992 and has been there ever since.

Now I love the Detroit Lions, and I always will, but I’m a football fan first, so even I recognize that Hanson’s numbers are a shadow of what they would be with another team.

A placekicker isn’t like any offensive position. He can’t put the team on his back and put up numbers regardless of his team’s performance. If the team can’t get into field goal range, the kicker can’t score, period. There’s no such thing as an 80-yard field goal.

So Hanson sits at seventh all-time in scoring when he has the talent to be several spots up. Jason Elam, Matt Stover, and John Carney are all active kickers sitting above him on the all-time scoring list by at least 150 points.

Carney and Stover are both older than Hanson, and Elam is roughly the same age, but all have been with more prolific teams than the Lions.

Yet have they been better kickers than Hanson?

All have comparable career field goal percentages (within about one point of 82 percent, though Stover’s is the third-highest of all time at 83.82), but Hanson has maintained and even refined his long-range ability, while the others have become primarily short-range specialists.

To illustrate, Hanson set an NFL record by going 8-for-8 from 50-plus yards in 2008.  Elam, Carney, and Stover are a combined 8-for-15 from that range since 2005.

Now, it is difficult to say what goes into a Hall of Fame placekicker.

Only one, Jan Stenerud, has entered the Hall as a pure placekicker. Stenerud currently ranks 10th on the NFL’s all-time scoring list and was admitted to the Hall with a career field goal percentage of just under 67 percent.

At the time of his induction, Stenerud was the second-leading scorer of all time behind George Blanda (who simultaneously played placekicker and quarterback).

If Hanson’s production continues as it has recently to the end of his current contract, he will pass Blanda by over 100 points while having 15 percentage points of accuracy on Stenerud.

In addition, he is the highest-ranking player on the all-time scoring list to have only played for one team.

Which, of course, is part of the problem. Stenerud kicked three field goals in Super Bowl IV. Hanson has spent his entire career with a team that has only won one playoff game in the Super Bowl era.

Placekickers earn recognition by making clutch kicks in big games. But when the team is never in a position to win any game, much less a big one, a kicker cannot kick a game-winning field goal.

Regardless, Hanson’s current contract with the Detroit Lions will end just before he turns 43, so it seems he intends to finish his career in Detroit.

If that is the case, it is unlikely he will see very many games to show what he can do with the game on the line, and though he may deserve the Hall, his credentials will likely suffer for it.

After all, nobody sees what a player should have achieved on paper. Either they didn’t or they did.

Hanson, unfortunately, has as many game-winning kicks in playoff games as I do.

Sure, he holds two NFL records, is the only player still with the same team since the advent of free agency, is almost certainly the last No. 4 ever to play in a Lions uniform, and he could be as high as third on the all-time scoring list by the time he retires.

But will it be enough?

After all, he spent his entire career with the Lions.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

Matthew Stafford’s Knee: Drew Stanton’s Last Chance at an NFL Career?

Drew Stanton has caught the brunt of the Detroit Lions’ recent woes.

He was a second-round draft choice in 2007 to be to heir-apparent to Jon Kitna in a Mike Martz-led offensive system.

He was shut down his rookie year, both to nurse a minor knee injury (not unlike the one he suffered a few months ago in the preseason) and so Martz could tinker with his throwing motion.

Of course, Martz only lasted one season. Now, in three seasons, Stanton has seen three offensive coordinators, two head coaches, and four starting quarterbacks.

And none of those starting quarterbacks have been Stanton.

Stanton has systematically gotten a vote of  “no confidence” from every coaching staff he has seen.

The Lions with Martz running the offense put him on injured reserve early in 2007, effectively giving him a red-shirt rookie season.

Jim Colletto was offensive coordinator during the quarterback carousel that was the disastrous 2008 season. Jon Kitna was shut down after three games, then second-stringer Dan Orlovsky went down with an injury a few weeks later.

Then, in perhaps the biggest snub job in Stanton’s young career, Colletto said he wouldn’t play Stanton because he didn’t want him to “embarrass himself.”

This, mere weeks after Orlovsky ran out the back of the end zone .

The answer, of course, was not to give the only healthy, available quarterback familiar with your offensive system a shot at playing.

After all, Colletto was the offensive line coach during a season where the Lions gave up 54 sacks. So he knows all about embarrassment.

The answer was Daunte Culpepper. After four days with the team, a previously-retired, overweight Culpepper went out with the play book taped to his arm.

Stanton came in during a goal-line situation and in the fourth quarter of Culpepper’s debut and “embarrassed himself” to the tune of 6-for-8 for 96 yards and a touchdown.

He was effectively ignored the rest of the season, and the next game he saw action was last week at Lambeau Field.

Current head coach Jim Schwartz gave Stanton another confidence boost when they drafted new franchise face Matthew Stafford and paid him more money than any rookie in history.

In other words, nobody is going to give Stanton a shot unless they’re completely out of options.

The only good thing for Stanton is that Schwartz hasn’t gone out to sign Jeff Garcia to ensure there’s no chance of Stanton playing against the Rams after the bye.

That being said, nobody knows how long Stafford will be out with his current injury. But Stanton has exactly that long to show that he has worth to an NFL team, be it the Lions or anyone else.

This is assuming, of course, that Stanton would get the start over Culpepper if Stafford can’t go. Because if he doesn’t, it’s time to take Schwartz’s “best players will play” mantra and beat him over the head with it.

Stanton’s contract with the Lions runs through 2010, so he will theoretically be on the roster through next year.

By contrast, Culpepper is in the final year of his contract, which should bring Stanton up to a permanent No. 2 on the depth chart next year (if the last couple of weeks haven’t already done that).

But if Stanton can’t show himself capable of something by the end of this season, who’s to say the Lions don’t sign someone else in the offseason and bump Stanton down to No. 3 again?

Stanton’s career thus far certainly sets that precedent.

Another precedent is that young quarterbacks who never even make the backup job on bad teams tend to disappear when their contract ends.

Once Stafford comes back from his injury, he’s going to be the guy until the end of the season, and any talk about Stanton will cease.

Effectively, he will disappear.

If you ask Stanton about Stafford’s knee, he’ll say he hopes it heals up as soon as possible so he can get back on the field.

But Drew Stanton is a smart man. He knows that the amount of time remaining on Stafford’s injury is the amount of time he has to make a statement.

In the next few weeks, Stanton will hope to show someone he’s good enough to play football for a living.

If he can’t, his next job will be magician, as he vanishes from the NFL.

Read more NFL news on BleacherReport.com

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