Detroit Lions Weblog

Off-Season Soon Begins Period of Speculative Overdrive

The 2010 NFL off-season will be particularly interesting due to changes in the NFL salary cap (it doesn’t exist), free agency (there will be fewer of them to choose from, more tags to reserve players with and the final eight teams will have some limitations added), and the fact that the draft will occur over three days.

Homer is Inconsolable Over the End of the 2009 NFL Season

For Lions fans, this is a time when we contemplate buying into any number of “Ponzi” schemes, “Get Rich Quick” financial panaceas, ponder which weight loss pill will make us particularly attractive to our prospective partners, and which available NFL players are burgeoning franchise saviors, who may be able to assuage the pain of losing year after year, ad infinitem. All of these options for self improvement usually have an equally limited (or no?) return, and seem to generate much agony and disappointment, but yet, we succumb to their wiles, year after year.

In my case, I am particularly concerned about recent articles mentioning the stripe of player the Lions should consider adding next season, be it Donte Stallworth, Reggie Bush, or eventually a player like Marshawn Lynch, all players who are admittedly talented (or once were), but have struggled and disappointed throughout most of their NFL careers.

Each of the aforementioned players also has been involved in questionable off the field scenarios of varying severity that has put their integrity under considerable question, and makes the pursuit of each player highly susceptible to scrutiny, in my opinion.

I realize that NFL players aren’t noted for their intelligence, nor are they often going to win awards for their superb and un-impeachable character. In other words, they are human like the rest of us, JUST REALLY DAMN BIG ones. Still, these issues shouldn’t be ignored.

The Precedent Has Been Set, NFL Free Agents Aren't Usually Good Fits in Detroit

SI.com’s Don Banks has been particularly supportive of Martin Mayhew’s 2009 draft, and makes several enlightened statements in regard to the Lions 2010 off-season:

DETROIT LIONS — Can the Lions continue building on last year’s strong draft class and take a much bigger step than 2009’s two-win improvement?

Though the Lions’ record didn’t show it, there’s hope in Detroit, thanks to a 2009 draft that yielded four starters in the opening three rounds: quarterback Matthew Stafford, tight end Brandon Pettigrew, safety Louis Delmas and linebacker DeAndre Levy. And now to that bounty head coach Jim Schwartz can add either Oklahoma defensive tackle Gerald McCoy or Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh — one of which will be the choice when Detroit’s No. 2 pick comes up April 22. At that point, each level of the Lions defense will have added a stud player in the span of two drafts. This much Detroit has learned and won’t be repeated: Signing a bunch of older free agents to late-career deals does not improve a bad team. Additions like Larry Foote, Julian Peterson and Phillip Buchanon fell flat last year.

*And another thing: Running back Kevin Smith had an injury-marred sophomore season, and who knows if he’s still capable of fronting the Detroit running game? But the Lions offense can’t put it all on Stafford’s shoulders, so finding another potential lead rusher in free agency or the draft is fairly vital.

I don’t entirely agree with Banks’ assertion that Foote and Peterson “fell flat” as performers last season, but I do heartily agree with his sentiment. The solution to the Lions problems does not reside in being agressive during free agency, nor do the top tier of the NFL free agents consider Detroit to be a legitimate landing spot for them, either.

Perennially, the Lions have added a Pat Swilling, Rick DeMulling, Dre Bly, Grady Jackson, Damien Woody, Daunte Culpepper, Ernie Holmes, Jeff Garcia, Az Zahir Hakim, Bill Schroeder, and Phillip Buchanon, through various means, only to leave Lions fans considerably disappointed, after some preliminary anticipation and unwarranted excitement. Why would prospective Lions players like Donte Stallworth prove any different?

Top 10 Lions Free Agent Busts of the 2000’s
1. Fernando Bryant CB-just a miserably awful defensive back during his Lions tenure. Plus, he was incredibly fragile, too.
2. Damien Woody G-Woody was a lazy, sulking presence with the Lions, after winning a Super Bowl with the Pats. Attended the Duke Weight Loss Clinic during off-season, while with Lions. He was a highly-motivated individual, for the record.
3. Rick DeMulling G-coming from the Colts, DeMulling was expected to help shore up a weak Lions offensive line, oops!
4. Bill Schroeder and Az Zahir Hakim, inseparably awful Lions WR’s. Schroeder had “alligator” arms and Hakim was maddeningly inconsistent. Millen brilliance, personified.
5. Tai Streets WR-Another in a long line of disappointingly bad Lions receivers, sort of the precedent for this season’s lack of production from Bryant Johnson.
6. Marcus Pollard TE-a disappointingly sad shell of himself at the end of his career, and more importantly, a failure without Peyton Manning.
7. Brian Kelly CB-over the hill, complete non-factor, part of Rod Marinelli’s “the band, Elwood, the band!” plan to reinvent the Tampa-2 by taking the Bucs aging, non-essential cast-off’s to “improve” the Lions roster.
8. Olandis Gary RB-an injury-plagued, non-entity with the Lions who had some success while with the Broncos, (whose running backs not named Clinton Portis, generally failed elsewhere, during the Mike Shanahan-era) which was never to be seen again.
9. Kenoy Kennedy S-a liability in pass coverage, meanwhile losing a step in run support, and shackled by league rules which severely penalized his headhunter ways, Kennedy was a non-factor as a Lion.
10.Brendan Stai G-the player whom I reserve the most enmity for, since his addition was the result of the first failed free agent decision of the Millen-era, not re-signing Jeff Hartings, who enjoyed several productive post-Lions years in Pittsburgh.

Double FacePalms...Because I Couldn't Find a Pitcher of Three FacePalms

At any rate, the consensus seems to be that the Lions can do no wrong at pick #2, given their likely choices will be between either of two DT’s, Ndamukong Suh or Gerald McCoy. Unless the Ghost of Millen’s past enters the draft room in April and selects:

With the 2nd Pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, The Lions Select WR Dez Bryant, From Oklahoma State...