Detroit Lions Weblog

More Doom and Gloom, Martz

As I have often lamented, only the Lions can knit so exquisite a pattern of dysfunction and disarray. For example, accounting for “Killer” Kowalski’s off-season projections, take a long view at rounds 1-3 of the draft, during the 33-81 Millen era.

Year—–Round#—-Pick#–Pos.–Player

2001 rd 1 pick#18 LT Jeff Backus

2001 rd 2a pick#50 C Dominic Raiola

2001 rd 2b pick #61DT Shaun Rogers

2002 rd 1 pick#3 QB Joey Harrington

2002 rd 2 pick #35 DE Kalimba Edwards

2002 rd 3 pick #68 CB Andre Goodman

2003 rd 1 pick#2 WR Charles Rogers

2003 rd 2 pick#34 LB Boss Bailey

2003 rd 3 pick#66 DE/DT Cory Redding

2004 rd 1 pick#7 WR Roy Williams

2004 rd 1 pick#30 RB Kevin Jones

2004 rd 2 pick#37 LB Teddy Lehman

2004 rd 3 pick#73 CB Keith Smith

2005 rd 1 pick#10 WR Mike Williams

2005 rd 2a pick#37 DT Shaun Cody

2005 rd 2b traded to Tenn.

2005 rd 3 pick#72 CB Stanley Wilson, Jr.

2006 rd 1 pick#9 LB Ernie Sims

2006 rd 2 pick#40 S Daniel Bullocks

2006 rd 3 pick#74 RB Brian Calhoun

2007 rd 1 pick#2 WR Calvin Johnson

2007 rd 2 pick#34 traded to Buffalo

2007 rd 2 pick#43 QB Drew Stanton

2007 rd 2 pick#58 DE Ikaika Alama-Francis

2007 rd 2 pick#61 S Gerald Alexander

2007 rd 3 picks 66, 74 traded to New Orleans and Baltimore.

Putting this in perspective, the Lions average pick number for their first draft selection is the 8th pick, in Millen’s seven drafts. In the first three rounds of the draft, all players who were selected in the top 100 picks of their respective drafts, the Lions have selected 23 players.

Of which, 19 remain on their current roster. However, nine of those players (Shaun Rogers, Kalimba Edwards, Boss Bailey, Roy Williams, Teddy Lehman, Keith Smith, Shaun Cody, Stanley Wilson, Jr., and Brian Calhoun) are among the players likely to be leaving the roster this off-season. One player, Jeff Backus, should also have his contract re-structured, or should be added to this list, too.

In the eventuality that Kowalski is right, of the 10 (10/23=43% of picks remaining on the roster, or 10/7=1.4 players per draft remaining on the roster, less than two players per draft remain, from the first three rounds) remaining players selected during the first three rounds of the Millen era, five of them would have been selected in the last two drafts.

Given the Lions high draft position in all of these drafts, this level of attrition is unacceptable, and will make it very difficult for the organization to recover. Which is why I believe that it is high time that Millen (see both Letter to Ford and The Matt Millen Experience, at Lionbacker.com, for more on this dire situation) be terminated.

The Fire Millen ‘07 petition has 1415 signatures, which is actually impressive when you consider how little publicity it has received.

Mike Martz has struck again. He recently said that the Lions struggled because they don’t have any offensive tackles.

“They’re not even close in Detroit. So it’s a big difference. Offensively, we were short two tackles. It’s hard to run or throw without two tackles.”

Which is probably, in part, his response to players like Jeff Backus and Damien Woody openly celebrating his ouster. In Martz’s defense, Backus and George Foster combined for 31 sacks allowed. In defense of the tackles, Martz’s offense often put them in a situation where they were blocking unassisted, against an opponent’s best pass rushers, in clear passing situations.