Detroit Lions Weblog

As OTA’s Begin, Many Questions Unfold

The Lions began their OTA’s (Off-Season Training) this week.   This is an important pre- and post-draft roster evaluation period for the team.  Here are some early impressions:

1) Mike Williams and Josh McCown are no-shows.  Mike Williams’ jersey number was recently changed from “88″ to “81″.   Don’t expect him to keep “81″ long, he will likely be finished very soon in a Detroit Lions uniform.  Next stop for Williams?  Aboard the “Last Train to Bustville”. The Lions are quite likely to retire Hall of Famer Charlie Sanders’ number very soon, and shouldn’t have handed it out to the disappointing Williams to begin with.  McCown’s absence opens up another issue I will address later.

2) Shaun “Big Baby” Rogers says he is on board with Coach Rod Marinelli and plans on having a much better, and productive, season in ‘07.  This is a good news.   Hopefully, Marinelli and D-Line Coach Joe Cullen can harness his immense, “sky’s the limit”-type of skill set, that he can offer to the team.  New Defensive Coordinator Joe Barry has stated that he is carrying no pre-conceived impressions of Rogers and is looking forward to utilizing him.

3) Kevin Jones has issued a challenge to all comers in the Lions backfield cadre for this upcoming season.   He says he will be the starter, and invites the challenge from newcomers like Tatum Bell and T.J. Duckett.   However, he slighted Duckett somewhat in his statements by referring to him as a situational back.   This was likely a back-handed response to Duckett stating he planned on competing for the feature back role after his signing with the Lions.  Touche!

4) The Lions are receiving visits from all of their prospective number two overall draft picks in upcoming days.   Calvin Johnson arrived yesterday.   With QB’s JaMarcus Russell and Brady Quinn, RB Adrian Peterson, OT Joe Thomas, and DE Gaines Adams all soon to follow.

Josh McCown’s absence and subsequent trade demand is a nutbuster.   If McCown hadn’t forced the Lion’s hand to make a decision about his future with the team by skipping the OTA’s,  it would certainly have helped them entering the draft in a couple of weeks.   My guess is that the Lions will honor McCown’s request, likely after the draft, if they receive the right kind of offer in return.   It will likely take quite an offer from a team for the Lions to consider trading him leading up to the draft.

The conundrum for the Lions is that McCown’s value is much higher now to Oakland (in terms of what the Lions will receive), prior to the Raiders drafting an eventual franchise QB in Russell or Quinn, rather than after draft day.  If the Raiders get McCown pre-draft, they have many more options to choose from.   They can choose to select WR Calvin Johnson, or trade down and still draft either of the two QB’s in Quinn or Russell and use McCown as a seat-warmer until their younger QB is eventually ready to play, or completely go in another direction all together.  

Furthermore, if the Lions keep McCown entering the draft they will likely still have to draft a QB, which significantly reduces McCown’s post-draft value since teams will know that McCown is going to leave, with the type of crowded QB roster picture the team will have after drafting a QB in the ‘07 draft.  McCown is probably being his most vociferous and problematic at this time, by skipping the OTA’s, but it is not improbable that through the prompting of his agent, he could generate more public relations problems in the future for the Lions.

This situation bears watching because it will significantly impact the Lions ability to trade down in the draft.   This situation could also re-open the possibility of the Lions investigating other QB options like Chiefs QB Trent Green and any number of other potentially available players.   Personally, I am still holding out hope that the Lions will successfully be able to trade down in the draft and eventually select MLB Patrick Willis, and significantly reduce the innumberable amount of headaches that will come along with this star-crossed franchise selecting yet another offensive skill player.