The Detroit Lions’ All Watch-Your-Back-in-Training-Camp Team

Training camp has begun.

The Buffalo Bills, the first team to begin the weeks-long tradition of pre-preseason OTAs this season, have reported to camp. The Detroit Lions report on Friday.

In other words, we’re only a few weeks away from the first round of cuts, and on a winless team under completely new management, few players are safe.

The following are the most well-known Lions worrying about not seeing the end of training camp, by position.

For the non-slideshow version, and past work, visit http://www.nfltouchdown.com/category/detroit-lions/

Detroit Lions’ Offense Fueling Team Drive with Personal Drives

Selfishness is a powerful force.

It can turn record-setting performances into pedestrian numbers.

It can land healthy Pro Bowlers on injured reserve with “undisclosed conditions.”

It can turn Super Bowl favorites into Week 17 chokers who miss the playoffs (not mentioning any Texas-based names in the Fort Worth area).

It can give a six-time Pro Bowler an early release from his contract. Again.

Or, when harnessed properly, it can motivate.

It can be the inner drive that provides the difference between fourth and one and first and 10. The extra inch of height needed to block a field goal attempt. The cut back across the middle of the field instead of running out of bounds.

This is the perfect storm; when player desires and team desires overlap. Too often, we see it in a player’s contract year, when the player’s energy level on the field corresponds almost directly to the percentage increase in their next paycheck.

For the Lions in 2009, there are enough chips on shoulders to put a Lay’s factory to shame.

From overlooked rookies looking to make a name for themselves, to veterans fighting the “washed up” label, to second and third-year players trying to avoid the magical “bust” word, to snubbed would-be Pro-Bowlers, a good portion of the Lions roster is heading into this season with something to prove.

We’ll begin with the offense. Next week, I’ll highlight the same types of players on defense.

Louis Delmas to Snap Detroit Lions’ Decade of Second-Round Busts?

When I combine the terms “Detroit Lions” and “draft,” a few things might pop into your head.

The first is likely “wide receiver.” The second, “first-round bust.” Then “Harrington,” “Mike Williams,” “Charles Rogers,” etc. The list goes on, tallying far more negatives than positives.

But how far down the list are the words “second-round bust?”

Sure, a second-round bust is not as spectacular a failure as the all-too-common first-round variety, but they’re arguably just as important, and for the Lions, they’re even more consistent.

Louis Delmas, the 33rd overall pick and the first of the second round, looks great so far in Lions OTAs. He’s known as a hard hitter, and he has done an exceptional job learning the ins and outs of the NFL game so far, according to his coaches.

He will have ample opportunity to prove himself with plenty of playing time, and certainly, he is one of the most promising second-rounders to hit Detroit in a long time.

But history is stacked against him. Of second-rounders drafted by the Lions this decade (that includes 2000, Millen haters), only three (Dominic Raiola, Daniel Bullocks, Delmas) will likely start for the team next season. Most of the others are not starters anywhere.

See for yourself.

For the non-slideshow version, try http://www.nfltouchdown.com/category/detroit-lions/

William Clay Ford Speaks Out: Sincerity, Subterfuge, or Stupidity?

It’s not often Detroit Lions fans are treated to a William Clay Ford press conference.

When the Lions owner, generally reclusive in nature, does step into the limelight, no matter how briefly, it’s difficult to determine what to take from it.

He says the right things for the most part.

He wants to win. The fans deserve better. Things are changing for the better. He’s the one accountable for the team.

And so on. He’s mending fences, at one of the two times per year he typically does so: when the season has gone down the tubes and he expresses mild disappointment (akin in severity to the disappointment expressed when one fails to win the lottery, only Ford plays with 1/32 odds every year), and now: the season ticket marketing blitz.

This year is no different. After the Lions started a heart-wrenching 0-3, and his own son, Bill Ford Jr., came out in the media saying Millen should be fired, Ford Sr. did just that within days, addressing the media appropriately. And then? Nothing, until now, the hot time for season ticket sales.

So obviously, Ford’s aim is to come out and inspire confidence in the fans that this team is going to make Detroit proud and win some games, right? Presumably, but many of his comments can be analyzed under different lenses to derive different conclusions.

He may be sincere. He certainly sounds like a nice enough old man, and he is at least verbally committed to keep the Lions in Detroit, despite the possibility of a stronger market elsewhere, particularly one that isn’t on the verge of total municipal collapse.

He could be offering some subterfuge, some clever words to cover up his ineptitude. He says he’s accountable, but what does that mean, exactly? Does it mean he owes the fans an apology after a few more 4-win seasons? Or is he going to do something about it?

Finally, he could just not really know what he’s saying. As fans have suggested for years, he could just be a man whose only qualification to own an NFL franchise is lots and lots of money. As nice of a person as he may be (which I hear all too often), he could just be stupid, ignorant to the ways of NFL ownership.

Honestly, I have no earthly idea which of the above three is the case… so the only thing left to do is to analyze his comments from every angle. You be the judge.

 

Ford on His Desire to Win

“I want it, I can promise you that.”

“I thought it was horrible every time we’d lose. I’d go ‘Oh, geez.’”

“The thing I liked really (about Wednesday’s minicamp) was the player attitude. I mean, they’re going at it like, you know, we can win, which is great.”

“Of course, [the fans] want us to win, and so do I — more than anything. But I think if they realize that we’re going to go down with our guns blazing, I think that’s a positive thing to have happen.”

How to take this? He says he wants to win, but he doesn’t exactly seethe confidence.

So in this instance, Ford:

A) Really, truly wants to win, and though his “Oh, geez,” at Lions losses may pale in comparison to a million fans’ stream of relentless obscenities at the field/TV screen, his commitment is nonetheless solid (albeit with a few bad decisions).

B) Wants everyone to think he cares, because when it’s obvious the owner doesn’t care, the tickets don’t sell. At the same time, he’s tempering expectations while sounding optimistic by effectively saying that he wants to win, but will settle for “going down with guns blazing,” which is to say still losing, but competitively, perhaps in high-scoring games.

C) Has absolutely no idea what to expect, but vaguely knows that winning is a good thing, and has decided that’s something he wants to do. He also thinks it’s “great” that the players on the team “feel like, you know, they can win,” in kind of the same way a grandparent thinks it’s great that his overweight grandson who can’t hit or catch tries out for the baseball team.

 

Ford on Lions Fans

“I feel so sorry for the fans of Detroit. I give them full marks for being loyal and showing up and we didn’t perform the way we should’ve performed or the way we could’ve performed. I really felt worse for them than I did for myself.”

“For the guys who stuck through it, for the fans who stuck through it, I can’t tell you how great that makes you feel. For those who walked away, I couldn’t blame them. It really wasn’t much fun to watch.”

“By and large, you pay attention to [fan criticism]. If there’s a noticeable decline in attendance and the comments are not favorable, you pay attention to it. As I’ve said, the fans are the ones we want to please out here.”

Well, this is pretty straightforward stuff, right? Perhaps. Ford here feels like:

A) He has let the fans down, and for all the loyalty they have shown the team, he wants to turn this thing around and start winning again. He is grateful for those who have stuck with the team through both hard times for the Lions and Detroit itself.

B) It’s time to pay attention to fan criticism and act accordingly… but only now, because there’s been a noticeable decline in attendance. Maybe if he comes out and addresses the masses, then he can cure what ills the fanbase, like the Hand of God (of Ticket and Merchandise Sales).

C) The fans don’t seem to like him too much. Why is that? Oh well, the ones still hanging around make him feel warm and squishy inside, and that’s all that really matters.

 

Ford on Why Things are Different Now

“Well, this is going to sound a little egotistical, and maybe it is, but because [hiring GM Martin Mayhew, President Tom Lewand, and Head Coach Jim Schwartz] was solely my decision.”

“It wasn’t … not bicker, but arguments that [Ford and Matt Millen] might have had in the past — if that’s the right word. Maybe it’s a little strong, but it was a difference of opinion that we’d had in the past.”

“Everything’s different, including our front office personnel here[…] The head coach is different. The whole thing’s just a new setup.”

Ok, then. If you’re like me, the part about him making decisions on his own is frightening. The man has owned the club since 1964, so you mean to tell me he’s never made a decision in 45 years, and now that he is, things are going to get better?

Enough poisoning the well, try to figure out if Ford:

A) Is really serious about this, and his hiring decisions are now solely his own, which could make a huge difference, because he wasn’t really high on hiring Rod Marinelli or Steve Mariucci… or even Millen himself.

B) Is throwing Millen under the bus, by effectively deeming him not only responsible for the Lions’ recent shortcomings, but also a tyrant who made his own decisions without consultation. And he didn’t want to hire him, some serpent’s tongue in his ear told him to. Not a terrible stretch, but it sure sounds like deflection of blame.

C) Thinks that even though he hired Millen, the guys he hired after Millen, who worked under Millen, will be better than Millen, because he picked them all by himself. That’s why, when Commissioner Goodell called and asked if he wanted help restructuring, providing a list of available football execs, Ford’s response was, “no thanks, I’ve already got my guys.”

 

Ford on Accountability

“If Jim Schwartz doesn’t work out, you can blame me 100 percent. I just have confidence in him.”

“Starting with Jim and on out, as far as my livelihood goes, I’m going to shoulder the responsibility for any mistakes we made. I don’t mean every play or stuff like that, but if things go sour and the fans turn against us, I’ve got nobody to blame but me, and I’m aware of that. That’s a nice challenge to have. I’m going to try to keep them happy in bad times.”

You know what Ford’s saying here, but is he thinking:

A) After Millen painted himself as a scapegoat in the media, the fans need someone to be accountable for their franchise, and I’ll step up and be that guy, so if the team flops this time, they know just who to point to. If they have to deal with a bad football team, they should at least know whose fault it is.

B) The fans are looking for someone to blame? Millen’s acting like a scapegoat? Fine, might as well say it’s my fault. What are they going to do, anyway? It’s not like they can force me to sell the team. Sure, I’m accountable for the team that I own and can do whatever I want with, wonderful.

C) Maybe if I say I’m accountable “from here on out,” I can get people to forget the fact that I’m also accountable for the last 45 years I’ve owned the team, too.

 

Now, let’s check your results.

If you said mostly A’s, you think Ford is a sincere old man, who has been misguided in the past, but is making a real effort to right the wrongs now, because that’s what good, loyal Lions fans deserve.

If you said mostly B’s, you think Ford is effectively a sinspawn, brought to this earth for the sole purpose of running car companies and NFL franchises into the ground, embarrassing the state of Michigan in both cases.

If you said mostly C’s, you don’t really think Ford is a bad guy, he’s just not a good owner, and doesn’t quite know what to do with his team.  To the extent that he thinks, he thinks he’s doing right by the fans, but it could also be that he is just spouting off with no idea what he’s actually talking about.

If you think all the answers have a little truth to them, then you think Ford is a guy who sincerely wants the Lions to win, but also… and perhaps even more so… sincerely wants to sell tickets and make money off his franchise. And he has absolutely no clue at all how to address either issue.

And you’re probably right.

 

Dean Holden is the “Voice of the Lions” on NFLTouchdown.com. Check it out for in-depth analysis on the Lions and all 31 other NFL teams.

Detroit Lions Fans, It’s Time To Move on from Matt Millen

I can’t believe I’m saying this.

Neither can you, and I don’t guess your bitterness will be swayed so easily, but this is something that needs to be said.

Matt Millen, for all his shortcomings, for all the damage he did to the Detroit Lions franchise, for all of his stubborn press conferences and personnel decisions, still deserves a pass.

You heard me right.

I think. I’m still not sure I’m actually saying this, but I’m letting it ride.

I’ve been inspired to come to Millen’s defense because of all the backlash he has gotten from Lions fans since starting his recent TV gigs on NFL Network and NBC.

At one time, I would have joined right in, jeering him along with the rest of you. That time was not so long ago (you can measure it in weeks), but having heard the flame-tipped tongue lashings Millen has taken from my fellow Lions fans recently, I must say I do not revel in them one bit.

I’m not going to sit here and try to reason that we should feel sorry for the man. Like any player, coach, or executive, he bears the responsibility for his actions and decisions. Lions fans have developed a distaste for him because of those things, and that’s fine.

But there’s an important element to note here: Millen is no longer with the team. The rallying cry for the futile Lions over the past several seasons, “Fire Millen,” has manifested.

The war is over.

So why do Lions fans continue to fight the battle?

From what I can tell, Lions fans feel that Millen has no right to get paid for an “expert” opinion, when his tenure with the Lions removes his credibility as an “expert” at anything but running a franchise into the ground. Does that sound about right?

Well, get over it. Millen was a terrible GM but a top-notch broadcaster, and like it or not he did a good job in the booth. Maybe his talent is breaking down complicated football trends to the average fan, and not leading them to make good personnel and management decisions.

Whatever his talents, getting angry because Millen is reprising his role as a broadcaster is absurd.

Let’s flip the situation.

Let’s say you worked for a major corporation, let’s say in public relations, and you’re good at it. Then someone came to you with an offer to work in an executive position in marketing. You take it, and you’re not very good, but you hold the job for a while—perhaps longer than you should—before finally losing it. Does that mean you’re not good at PR?

No, and Millen’s failure with the Lions doesn’t mean he’s a bad broadcast analyst or a bad person. It just means he’s a bad football executive, nothing more.

To be fair, Millen has done his fair share to draw this ire. He seems to take little responsibility for his actions in Detroit, sarcastically portraying himself as a “fall guy” for all of Detroit’s problems, including the housing market, the auto industry, and Kwame Kilpatrick.

Well, no, Matt, you’re not responsible for those things, but a 31-84 record with a reputation for spectacular draft busts is not inspiring to the good people of Michigan, and belittling the problems of the city of Detroit is not a great way to mend fences.

What you are responsible for is the Detroit Lions, circa 2001-2008, and fans have a right to be angry with you for those years.

But this is 2009. He’s not on the hook anymore. The franchise has moved on, and few can say it’s in the wrong direction. There may already be more talent on the roster now than there has been since Millen took over the franchise, and that’s in a single offseason.

It’s over, ladies and gentlemen. The Millen Years are over, so let them be over. Millen is not evil incarnate and he didn’t sabotage the team on purpose; he’s just a guy who loves football, knows a bit about it, and got in over his head. Anybody who has met him actually thinks he’s a stand-up guy.

Now he’s a broadcast analyst again, where he was once well-liked by both viewers and colleagues. So if you don’t want to hear what he has to say, change the channel. Boycott him, for all I care. Maybe the networks will get the message—probably not.

Regardless, Lions fans don’t need this hate. Not anymore. The 2009 season is supposed to be the first season of the rest of the franchise’s life. This is the time to look forward to the future with hopes and dreams of a winning record, playoffs, and a Super Bowl.

So make this a clean breakup. Being bitter and hateful about an ex-girlfriend never did me a bit of good, no matter how much they hurt me when we were together. What did me good was moving on and starting fresh.

Millen hurt me, too. He hurt all of us, but he’s moving on, he’s better for it, and it’s time we did the same.

 

Dean Holden is the “Voice of the Lions” on NFLTouchdown.com. Check it out for in-depth analysis on the Lions and all 31 other NFL teams.

Brett Favre’s Return: Good for the Lions?

I thought this time it was over.

I thought, after drawing the ire of both his once-devoted Green Bay fans for his constant “will he, won’t he” drama, and half the city of New York (or whatever percentage the Jets contingent makes up nowadays) for his late-season collapse, Brett Favre would realize the damage he’s doing to his legacy and stick to his decision to hang up the cleats this time.

Clearly, I underestimated him. Either his stupidity, his competitive spirit, or (most likely) his desire for some juvenile revenge against the Packers knows no bounds. Yet, here he comes again, this time to the Minnesota Vikings.

Admittedly, I rather hate devoting column space to his name, much less a full article, but as a Lions fan, seeing a quarterback continue to delay his induction to the Hall of Fame by returning to the NFC North carries heavy implications.

I’m not going to get into my personal feelings about Favre,  because those are irrelevant, and increasingly mixed. This is about what Favre’s return (and it’s happening, don’t fool yourselves) means in a football sense.

It’s hard to argue that the Vikings don’t get better with Favre. I’ve tried to make that argument myself, but the reality is that the Vikings’ quarterback situation is abysmal.

Tavaris Jackson is an awful quarterback, and won’t get any better. Three years is how long it takes to judge a draft pick, right? Well, in 2006, most experts thought the Vikings reached about two rounds too early for Jackson when they took him as the last pick of the second round. Three years, a 138.7 passing yards per game average, and a 76.5 QB rating later, it looks like they were right.

Sage Rosenfels was to be the answer for the Vikings, joining the team after three years of being deemed less valuable than Matt Schaub and David Carr in Houston. He has shown flashes of brilliance, but has also been marred by inconsistency, and tends to look like a low-tier backup immediately after looking like a stud.

Favre will be an instant starter. Whether it’s warranted or not is irrelevant, because Favre won’t sign otherwise. After all, he’s not some washed-up veteran quarterback who continues to try even though his best days and the majority of his skills are behind him.

Of course, that’s exactly what he is in every mind except his own, but as long as he thinks that way, Favre gets what Favre wants.

And Favre wants to start. He wants to play, and he wants to beat the Packers wearing purple. He may say things about Super Bowls, contributing to the Vikings, making the team better, the community, whatever.  He’s going to lie. What he wants is to perform a Lambeau Leap without a yellow and green helmet.

So what do the Lions want? As a rebuilding organization, the Lions don’t really care about Favre.

There is zero effective organizational memory in Detroit from Favre’s Green Bay days, so head coach Jim Schwartz and defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham have no advantage drawing up a plan for one quarterback over another. The only difference is that there is more game film to study on Favre.

In fact, the Lions have something to gain from Favre’s return. The Minnesota Vikings badly need to address their quarterback situation in a long-term sense, and anybody who thinks Favre will accomplish this is delusional (and probably named Brett Favre).

Favre would be nothing more than a stopgap in Minnesota, a guy to take some snaps and win some games for a year or maybe two, while they figure out who is the future.  The ironic thing is, the longer Favre plays, the longer it takes for the Vikings to fix their most glaring problem.

The Lions, on the other hand, don’t really care about 2009. The season has more or less been shot since the team finished with a zero on the wrong end of its record and half the organization was tuned over.

Therefore, whether Brett Favre makes the Vikings better in 2009 or not is an unimportant question to the Lions. Kevin Smith is the only guy in Detroit thinking “playoffs.” If Favre drops 10 touchdowns against the Lions this season, it’s not going to mean much in the long run.

On the contrary, if Favre loses to the Lions, it’s a huge boost to the team. The Detroit Lions have not won at Lambeau Field since Brett Favre started playing the professional game, which means the Lions have never beat Brett Favre at home.

With his return, now they have one last chance. If they lose, it’s business as usual. But the possibility of a win at the Metrodome, against Brett Favre, is also a possibility to remove yet another monkey from the Lions’ back and make a statement about the direction of the franchise.

And in 2010, or 2011, or whenever Favre decides to leave the Vikings via retirement, change his mind in the spring, and look for another franchise with a weak QB situation to prey on, the Vikings will be back to square one. The QB situation will still be up in the air, Adrian Peterson will have a few more miles on him, and the Vikings’ window will begin to close.

Meanwhile, the Lions will have Matthew Stafford ready to go, and will have more drafts and offseasons to fill team needs. Regardless of past managerial errors,  the Lions  appear to actually get it this time, so there is some relative confidence for the first time in a while that the team can and will get better.

The Vikings can get better, too. If they wanted to, they could match the Lions step-for step and ascend to a 12-4 record as the Lions ascend to 9-7.

Instead, they want Brett Favre. They want to relegate Rosenfels to a backup role again, and put Jackson’s career in limbo.  Like a baseball team trading prospects for a big-name pitcher with an expiring contract, the Vikings are mortgaging the future to win now.

And maybe they can. Maybe Favre is the long-lost answer, an unforeseen puzzle piece that fits in and makes the Vikings’ offense glow with an unearthly quality. Maybe they win 14 games with him at the helm.

The Detroit Lions could care less, because once Favre’s latest run is done, the Vikings will be right where they are now, with a core that has a year or two less open window space, and another quarterback controversy.

And when that happens, the Lions will be right where they need to be to hit the gas and jet past them.

Dean Holden is the “Voice of the Lions” on NFLTouchdown.com. Check it out for in-depth analysis on the Lions and all 31 other NFL teams.

Detroit Lions Fans Running Out of People to Blame

Over the past decade, the Detroit Lions have been better at developing scapegoats than developing players.

Matt Millen. Rod Marinelli. Joe Barry. Jim Colletto. George Foster. Travis Fisher. Jon Kitna. Paris Lenon.

I could go on. All of the names above have been instigators of a Bronx cheer at Ford Field as well as the subject of numerous message board posts decrying, “Fire/cut (name)!”

The other common thread between them? All of them were with the team in 2008. None of them are with the team as of Monday.

So, what now? “Fire Millen” is long gone. No more cracks on Marinelli’s “pick and shovel.” No more jokes about “the head coach’s son-in-law.” Colletto’s “simplified offense,” which soon became “simple for defenses to read,” is gone too.

Fisher will have to look for somewhere else to fall down in coverage.

Lenon is no longer the anchor for the second-worst scoring defense of all time.

Kitna, “Mr. Right Now” on paper, “Mr. Never” in your heart, is back where he should be: sitting the bench, preparing for his big chance to give away games by turning the ball over five times.

Finally, “False Start” Foster, whose reputation precedes him, was cut Sunday. He may now pursue other offenses to destroy five yards at a time.

There, I’ve taken a potshot at everyone as they left the team, but I still feel empty. Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz are doing such a good job of ridding the team of leftover malcontents, there really aren’t any more established underacheivers left to trash.

This is good, and yet it poses a problem. What are Lions fans to do now? This team is improved, and yet there is a great deal of losing to be had in the days ahead.

The difference is, the Lions lack the familiar faces to blame, and will have to find new ones. There can be no “Fire Millen” chant this season when the Lions are losing by 30 to the Packers, no railing against Foster for his second holding penalty of the offensive series.

Fans will point fingers, but those fingers will be wobbly, wavering, darting to and fro, unsure of where to settle.

The fans will be lost for a while, stuck somewhere between blind optimism and the crushing feeling in the pits of their stomachs that anything that goes right will eventually be destroyed.

The Lions will experience both this year. They’ll win a game or two that they shouldn’t and lose a game or two that they shouldn’t. Heroes will emerge, and so will scapegoats. But who will those scapegoats be?

Matthew Stafford? He’ll be on the bench for most or all of the season. You can’t blame a rookie who’s not playing, no matter how big his contract is.

Larry Foote? He’s a huge upgrade from Lenon, and he’s learning a 4-3 defense on the fly. And besides, he’s a hometown boy who left a Super Bowl champion to join an 0-16 team. That’s dedication.

Schwartz? He’s in his first year as a head coach with a completely new staff and a broken roster.

Mayhew? Maybe, but he did pull off the Williams and Kitna trades.

Owner William Clay Ford? Absolutely. But how do you criticize a man people only hear from once a year? He’s not listening.

It’s a transitional time for the Lions. It seems the newest version of the organization delights in cutting bad players from its roster rather than adding them.

That makes it difficult for a fan base whose only solace over the last decade has been jeering the organization and the awful players it refuses to cut.

Does this mean things have turned around? Are happy days here again (were they ever here in the first place)?

Not yet, but they’re on the right track, and maybe Lions fans will have a few more cheers than jeers this year.

At least until they figure out who the new scapegoat is.

Dean Holden is the “Voice of the Lions” on NFLTouchdown.com. Check it out for in-depth analysis on the Lions and all 31 other NFL teams.

Detroit Lions Training Camp: Six Stories To Watch

When the Detroit Lions begin their summer training camp in Allen Park, Michigan, there will be as many storylines as there are players, with some to spare.

Much of the focus will rest on No. 1 overall pick Matthew Stafford. Did he do well in camp today? Did he make his throws? Is he developing chemistry with standout wide receiver Calvin Johnson? Does head coach Jim Schwartz think he’ll start in the regular season?

…and so on.

While Stafford’s may be the most glamorous, most talked-about, and arguably most important battle in this year’s training camp, it is far from the only one.

With a team that has seen over half the defense, a good portion of the offense, the majority of the coaching staff, and the head of the front office turned over since the end of the 2008 season, there are no longer any established starters.

There are guys who have been starting for a while, even guys who are pretty good. But when training camp starts, they’ll just be guys on a team that has lost 23 of its last 24 games, with a new coach who wants to start the best players.

In other words, every player in Lions training camp is fighting for a starting job or a roster spot, and many of those battles will pit veteran against veteran, “established” starter against free-agent acquisition.

Of course, “hotshot rookie quarterback vs. veteran great” is on tap as well, just in case you were looking for your weekly dose of football cliché.

Whether cliché or unique to this year’s Lions, here are the six stories to watch in July’s training camp.

The New Detroit Lions Coaches You Should Know, but Don’t

When a decade’s worth of rebuilding efforts culminate into an 0-16 season, there’s a good chance the coaching staff is going to become the “former coaching staff.”

Just ask the Detroit Lions.

The NFL answer to something going so wrong on a grand scale? Blow it up. Start over. Like a bad round of Lemmings, click the mushroom cloud button and start again from square one.

Cleaning house like the Detroit Lions have done this offseason isn’t fun for anyone. People lose their jobs, people have to move their families. Some members of the freshly anointed 0-16 team will likely never see NFL action again (I’m looking at you, Paris Lenon).

Still, sometimes it has to be done. This is one of those times, and unprecedentedly so.

Indeed, roughly half of the Lions roster has turned over from last season, and the number seems to increase by the day. Depending on how training camp battles turn out, the defense could see as many as nine new starters.

What you don’t hear much about, however, is the coaching staff.

Everybody has heard about rookie head coach Jim Schwartz, super-veteran defensive coordinator and F-bomb enthusiast Gunther Cunningham, and the latest genius offensive coordinator/failed St. Louis Rams head coach to become the Lions’ offensive coordinator (the second in three years), Scott Linehan.

But what about the rest of the coaching staff? The assistants, positional coaches, and quality control guys? Schwartz is certainly the most high-profile rookie on the Lions’ coaching staff this year, but that doesn’t make him the only one taking a big career step.

To put it into numbers, the Lions list 15 coaches between the offense and defense, including the head coach. Twelve of them are heading into their first year with the Lions, six have less than five years of NFL coaching experience, and most of them are coming off major promotions.

Not including special teams and strength and conditioning, both of which are fully intact from last season, the only holdovers from the previous regime are running backs coach Sam Gash, wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson, and defensive assistant Don Clemons, who has been with the Lions since 1985.

New linebackers coach Matt Burke followed Schwartz from Tennessee after five years as a defensive assistant/quality control coach. This season will be his first as a positional coach in the NFL, though he was an assistant secondary coach at Harvard and was responsible for some on-field work with the linebackers at Tennessee.

Burke will have his hands full with the Lions’ linebackers, but not in the way he might have three months ago.

The additions of Pro Bowler Julian Peterson, Steelers cap casualty Larry Foote, and third-round draftee DeAndre Levy have combined with existing playmaker Ernie Sims and changed Burke’s question from “how are we going to compensate for a lack of talent” to “how are we going to use all this talent?”

Because of the talent at his disposal this year (far more across the board than any other Lions positional coach) and the impact the linebackers could have on Detroit’s defense next year, Burke will have more of a microscope on him than many of his colleagues.

It will be primarily his job to see that Sims plays better with his instincts outside the Tampa Two, Foote makes a successful transition to the 4-3 defense, Levy makes solid progression as a rookie, and Peterson keeps doing his thing.

Secondary coach Tim Walton is another first-year guy, but not quite in the same way.

This will be Walton’s first season in the NFL, but he is not at all new to the defensive secondary; he has been a secondary coach in the college ranks since 1999.

After three years as the running backs coach with Bowling Green, he was moved to defensive backs coach for the 1999 season. Over the next nine seasons, he coached secondary for Memphis, Syracuse, LSU, and Miami (Florida).

Though Walton’s tendency to switch jobs every couple of years may be a turn-off, his results are hard to argue with. He won a national title with LSU in 2003, and his pass defense with Miami was ranked first in the nation in 2005, leading him to be promoted to defensive coordinator in 2007.

This season, Walton will get the chance to show his stuff in the pro game, and with a completely rebuilt cornerback corps and hard hitting second-round safety Louis Delmas in his arsenal, he will have a high-profile job his first year in the pros.

New tight ends coach Tim Lappano would normally not be noticed by much of anybody outside the Lions’ Allen Park training facility. Tight end, while important, is not a position that usually faces intense criticism.

Then again, it’s not every day an 0-16 team with enough holes to make a sieve obsolete drafts a tight end with the 20th overall pick.

Because of the questionable first-round selection of Oklahoma State tight end Brandon Pettigrew, there will be additional scrutiny if he does not tap into his seemingly limitless potential.If anything, Pettigrew will need to exceed expectations to justify the selection and that responsibility will fall on Lappano’s shoulders.

Lappano brings a good deal of coaching experience, but like Walton, most of it is in college. He has coached running backs, wide receivers, and quarterbacks in his career, which dates back to 1982.

He has held a number of offensive coordinator positions as well, but he has never been a tight ends or offensive line coach. He does, however, bring some NFL experience, as he was the running backs coach for the Seattle Seahawks in 1998 and the San Francisco 49ers in 2003 and 2004.

Though it always sets off alarm bells when a coach is placed in charge of a position he’s never coached, it is reasonable to assume that after 27 years of coaching various offensive positions, Lappano has picked up a couple of things about tight ends.

Pettigrew’s performance this season will show how much that assumption is worth.

Though there is no coaching position without at least some pressure, the man with the biggest task this season outside the big three of Schwartz, Cunningham, and Linehan will be quarterbacks coach Jeff Horton.

Horton has only three years of NFL coaching experience, all of them as a special assistant to Linehan in St. Louis, but his college coaching career stretches back to 1984.

Seven of those years were spent as the quarterbacks coach at Wisconsin, and even though the highest profile quarterback on his coaching resume is Brooks Bollinger, his work at Wisconsin was sufficient to get him pulled to the NFL.

The quarterbacks Horton coached at Wisconsin currently rank second (John Stocco), third (Bollinger), sixth (Jim Sorgi), and 10th (Tyler Donovan) on Wisconsin’s career passing totals list.

Now, in his first year as a quarterbacks coach in the NFL, he has what can only be described as a ragtag group to work with.

Daunte Culpepper is a former great, but a current reclamation project.

Drew Stanton has had as many quarterbacks coaches as he has had NFL seasons, and has had his mechanics tweaked so many times, those coaches may as well have been Xzibit.

Matthew Stafford is an outstanding talent, but he is also the most unpopular first overall draft pick since Mario Williams.

Horton will ultimately be remembered in Detroit for Stafford’s development. If Stafford becomes a franchise quarterback, Horton will start entertaining NFL offensive coordinator offers. If Stafford flops, he’ll be back to an offensive assistant somewhere, or perhaps back to the college game.

In other words, where Horton’s career goes from here depends on where Stafford’s career goes from here.

Of course, something similar can be said of most positional coaches, though I’m not sure it’s on the same level as the quarterbacks coach. What I am sure of is that these coaches, and all of the Lions coaches this year, have an unprecedented task ahead of them.

Lions fans are going to ask the team to, quite literally, make something out of nothing in the win column. That process starts with good coaching.

The Lions’ coaching staff is full of guys getting first, second and last chances, and all of them have something to prove, but will the Lions actually get solid coaching from this group?

Ask me again in December.

To Understand the Detroit Lions’ Draft, First Understand The Lions

It has been four days since the draft. I’ve had mixed feelings on its results, so much so that I needed to sleep on it—four times—to feel enough at ease to write about it.

I sense a lot of discontent in the wake of the draft. Much of that, I imagine, was latent aggravation with taking Matthew Stafford first overall, which kind of soured the whole draft for many.

I’m not hearing many complaints about Stafford anymore, partly because they’re futile now. Obviously, this is part of the healing process.

Like the period after an election, this is the part where we all realize our petty arguments over who best to lead us for the next several years have become moot. We have our guy, and it’s time for everyone to throw our support behind him, whether we wanted him or not.

Having said that, it occurs to me that not many people were big fans of taking Brandon Pettigrew at 20 or passing on Rey Maualuga at 33. Understandable.

Ghosts from the past seemed to rise up when the defense-challenged Lions took a wide receiver/return man in the third round. Past mistakes make that pick look bad.

Many elements of the Lions’ 2009 draft are hard to understand, but if you want to understand the Lions’ draft class, you have to first understand the team.

The justification for the Lions passing on Maualuga at 33 has been that the Lions were picking on “talent, not need.”

Since the pick, I have heard all manner of negative analysis on the USC middle linebacker by analysts determining why a projected mid-first pick slid to the second round.

Apparently, Maualuga is a non-versatile two-down linebacker with character concerns, who struggles in pass protection and may have failed a drug test. I have heard any number of these things from various sources, and I don’t really know which to believe. There are flip sides to each argument.

What I do know, however, is that Jim Schwartz picked the guys he wanted. Schwartz is a former linebacker, and came up as a linebackers coach, so he knows what he’s doing passing on Maualuga and Ohio State MLB James Laurinaitis.

Louis Delmas will be a good player, and that’s all that matters at this point.

See, the problem is that many Lions fans think we were heading into the draft to fill holes. But what Schwartz means by “talent, not need,” is that he is not filling areas of need on a team, he is building a new team.

There is no existing area on the Detroit Lions’ roster that would not benefit from a significant upgrade. Even in those few areas with a solid starter, there needs to be significantly more depth.

At one point or another, every Lions fan heard the mantra last season: “There’s no one area to point to, the Lions are just completely devoid of talent.” It’s true, the Lions are a talent wasteland, with an oasis or two scattered throughout.

Therefore, there is no wrong position to pick, as long as they bring talent.

Yes, the Lions needed offensive line help. Yes, they needed defensive line help. Yes, they needed a legitimate middle linebacker. But that doesn’t mean their other positions are set to go. The Lions’ roster was split into two areas entering the draft; needs, and major needs.

Nobody is expecting the Lions to compete legitimately in 2009, so it is perhaps easiest to think of this team as the 2009 expansion Detroit Lions. They’ve even developed new uniforms and logos to help with the transition.

Like any expansion team, they got the first pick in the draft and had to choose someone to build the franchise around. Also like an expansion team, the Lions are made of 10 percent football players and 90 percent overpaid league throwaways. There is no talent anywhere, so they picked the best players at any position they could.

Ultimately, this draft cannot be judged on its own merits. Since a top-five pick next year is likely, consider this as a first half. There are far too many holes in this team for Schwartz to have filled them all in one draft. What wasn’t filled this year likely will next year, after Schwartz has had a year to get acquainted with the team and its abilities.

Schwartz needs that year. There are players on the roster that still have an opportunity to contribute consistently, and a year’s worth of practice and play will help him get a better feel for where the roster is as a whole.

Recently-drafted players like Ikaika Alama-Francis and Jordan Dizon were drafted with significant roles in mind, and thus far, few of them have seen any significant field time.

Cliff Avril is one of few recent draftees that found some consistent playing time in 2008, and he rewarded the Lions with five sacks (four of them fumble-sacks), despite only starting four games.

While five sacks is not a phenomenal number for an NFL defensive end, remember that this was with relatively little playing time, on a team with a pass rush that was in the dredges of the league.

If there is a possibility that Schwartz can pull that type of production out of Dizon, Alama-Francis, or any of the existing young players on the roster, he needs to take that chance. For each raw talent on the roster that can be converted to a solid role-player, or even strong starter, there is one less draft need next year.

Yes, I said next year. I’m already looking forward, because next year should be the draft fans were expecting this year. Next year, we will have needs to fill.

This year, the team itself was a need. Through the draft, the Lions have infused some talent, but there is still much work to be done.

The 2009 season will be interesting, only in that we will be able to better assess future team needs, and the 2010 draft will address those needs. Assuming everything works out as Lions management intends, 2010 will be a season in which the Lions can make a decent run at the NFC North, or at least an 8-8 record.

Until then, enjoy your 2009 expansion Detroit Lions.

Dean Holden is the “Voice of the Lions” on NFLTouchdown.com. Check it out for in-depth analysis on the Lions and all 31 other NFL teams.

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