Detroit Lions Weblog

Tatum Bell, Keith Smith, Kalimba Edwards, Are They For Real?

Since the beginning of training camp, their have been numerous glowing media reports about how players like the team’s recently acquired RB Tatum Bell, or a player like CB Keith Smith, who is attempting to overcome a major sophomore slump, or someone like Kalimba “The Ghost” Edwards, who has never been able to bridge the vast chasm that stands between his immense talent and his weak-assed, inconsistent performance, all could be essential elements in a possible Lions turnaround in ‘07.

I want to be optimistic when I read the recent feature potrayals of players like Bell, Smith, and Edwards.   Unfortunately, reality sets in, and an ever-present sense of impending doom, and I have to acknowledge the obvious, how can a team, that is coming off from a 3 win season, with so many question marks throughout their entire roster, especially on defense, can be expected to potentially reach ten victories, with so few clear roster upgrades?

The pre-season will serve notice as to actually how improved this team is, and whether this team can be a bonafide playoff contender, or not.   The more heated the positional battles, the more unclear it becomes who really deserves to sit atop the team’s depth chart, the better in my book.    I fully realize that the pre-season games are essentially meaningless, however, I also realize that this team needs to immediately show signs that it is an entirely different breed of football team than the one that played so embarassingly throughout the 2006 season.  It needs to begin strong out of the gates, and has to continue to improve and develop as the season progresses in order for it’s fortunes to truly change.

The emergence of players like Edwards, Smith, Bell, Stephen Peterman, Stanley Wilson, Jr., Paris Lenon, and so many others could go along ways in helping to begin a legitimate turnaround for this franchise. I truly want to believe that the Lions have the right to be excited by unknown commodities like DE Ikaika Alama-Francis, LB Johnny Baldwin, and TE Rudy Sylvan, among others.

This is a major season for the Lions front office and coaching staff, too.   In order to interupt the near-ceaseless turmoil and changeover that it has experienced, and establish a longed-for sense of stability and credibility, this season the Lions performance need to exhibit some tangible signs that the franchise is in fact on the right track.   The first exhibition game will be a barometer for which we can begin to measure their performance, too.

Calvin Johnson Signed, Stanton to IR, Charlie Sanders Hall of Fame Weekend

The Lions finally signed rookie WR Calvin Johnson today.   Regardless of whether or not he is the franchise’s incoming savior, which is highly unlikely, his presence should be warmly welcomed, and his signing marks one of the more anticipated arrivals in Detroit sports history.   The challenge for Johnson, much like his once hailed counterparts, who are now maligned failures, throughout Lions draft history, is that he will face a complex of negating factors that will likely help him to realize just how difficult of a journey he is about to embark upon.

He is a member of a franchise that has enjoyed one playoff victory in fifty seasons and has not won a championship of any kind in that same span of time.   Furthermore, Lions fans, who are ever hungry for a messiah to emerge, will have little patience if he struggles at all, at any point in time, especially considering the difficulties the team has experienced at that position over it’s recent 6-year, 24-72 period of struggle.   

As spectacular as Johnson is, his big signing bonus and high-profile within the organization places him under a higher amount of scrutiny than he has ever felt before in his life.  It is up to Johnson just how he handles all of the accumulated weight of fifty years of misery and crushed expectations that form the aggregate baggage of this moribund franchise.

Drew Stanton was placed on injured reserve today, much as I expected.   The Lions backup QB’s are completely unproven and untested.   Yet, eliminating Stanton from that picture takes the pressure away from the Lions having to run him out onto to the field before he’s ready, should the team falter.   Stanton should view this season optimistically, with eyes wide open.   He must work harder than ever before to put himself in a position where he may eventually be able to replace Jon Kitna.  It is clear that the Lions believed that he would not be able to contribute this season, or they would not have placed him on injured reserve so quickly for such a mild injury.   Whether or not this eventually becomes another busted draft pick for the Lions remains to be seen, but it does not look good.

Charlie Sanders will be inducted in the NFL Hall of Fame this weekend.   This weekend also marks the return of pre-season football.    Sanders is the prototype for the skill sets of players like Antonio Gates, Kellen Winslow, Jr, and Vernon Davis in today’s NFL.   Sanders is a class individual and his being honored is long overdue. Sanders stands as a class example, much like Dexter Bussey, Robert Porcher, Lem Barney and so many other ex-Lions, of how a person should conduct themselves in their personal and business lives.

The Lions QB situation is certainly murky.   As tough of an S.O.B. as Jon Kitna is, and no matter what level of improvement Jim Colletto culls from the revamped Lions O-line, the Lions are skating on thin ice depending only upon J.T. O’Sullivan and Dan Orlovsky as suitable replacements for Kitna should he be injured or play ineffectively this season.   Invariably, this situation will come back to haunt the Lions this season, much like trading Dre Bly, and their continued sickening dependence upon the maddeningly-unfulfilled promise of players like Kalimba “The Ghost” Edwards, Boss Bailey, and Teddy “China Doll” Lehman.

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.