Detroit Lions Weblog

Cory Redding, J.T. O’Sullivan, Camp Starts Soon

Wow…this has been an exceptionally quiet offseason for the Lions.   Normally, I would be quite active with this blog throughout all of these lean, summer football months.   Between a chronic case of absolute Tigers Mania (which has distracted me severely!) and nothing to talk about but the intermittent comments from various members of the Lions organization, who have made various vapid pronouncements that the team could in fact win ten games this season, there has been little else to comment upon this offseason.

That should all change Monday, though.   Hopefully, the Lions will have signed stalwart DT Cory Redding to a long-term contract extension and will again avoid utilizing their franchise designation for another season.    In my eyes, Redding’s extension may be a pivotal moment in Coach Marinelli’s tenure.    The continued development of a happy Redding could provide the cornerstone necessary for Marinelli to become a successful Lions head coach.  Redding’s brief time as a defensive tackle last season revealed that he had quite a lot of potential to flourish within the scheme of the Tampa Cover-2 defense.

Amidst reports that rookie QB Drew Stanton is struggling to deal with the heavy workload of adapting to both Mike Martz’s strict, nuanced regime, that places primacy upon execution of QB fundamentals (i.e. footwork, release, you know all of the technical stuff) and learning the voluminous Martz playbook, it may take awhile for Stanton to be considered as a viable contributor to the organization.    That’s why it comes as no surprise that the Lions have signed veteran, journeymen and NFL Europa (R.I.P.) stalwart QB J.T. O’Sullivan to enter into the mix of potential Lions backups.

O’Sullivan will likely make the team, too.   The rub is, the Lions will not place Dan Orlovsky or Drew Stanton onto the practice squad, so they may eventually have to carry 4 QB’s.  With the relative inexperience of Stanton and Orlovsky, the Lions would be foolish not to at least take a look at O’Sullivan.

With training camps starting soon, things are going to heat up around here.   With the bold statements made by several players entering this season, this promises to be one of the more interesting, and possibly disappointing, campaigns in recent Lions history.