Detroit Lions Weblog

Stanton’s Knee Injury, Duckett’s Versatility

Drew Stanton will have surgery on his knee, as soon as today.   The Lions are being particularly vague about the injury and the timetable for his future return to the team.  

They are adamant that the current injury has no link to the horrific one he suffered in a bowl game a few seasons ago when the brilliant, and judicious, John L. Smith utilized one of his best young players, and of the team’s few QB prospects, on the special teams.

I am wondering if this injury and surgery will lead to Stanton having a “redshirt” season on the injured reserve, so that the Lions can retain both Dan Orlovsky and J.T. O’Sullivan and avoid any fan/media pressure to play Stanton, who is clearly far from ready to play, should the team falter this year(which is probably better than even bet, for sure).

The Lions have so many question marks on offense and defense, that Stanton’s injury reopens this inquiry: Could they have made a better and tangibly more practical selection with this draft pick?  Clearly, the answer is yes.   The knock on Stanton was that he had the ability and make-up, but had been completely ill-prepared by the clearly in-over-their-heads Spartan coaching “staff”.  A linebacker drafted with that pick immediately comes to mind as a much more sensible decision to have made.

T.J.  Duckett is playing some Fullback in practice, in lieu of the fact that their is little use for the position in Mike Martz’s offense.   Duckett being able to play FB occasionally takes some of the sting away from having to release Shawn Bryson, and allows him more opportunity to see the field and potentially pressure opposing defense’s with the added element of his playmaking ability that he brings to the position.   It remains to be seen how effective he will be in the role, but it seems to make sense at first glance.