One Roster, Well-Scrambled

In the past two days, the Lions have:

• Placed Jordon Dizon on Injured Reserve, ending Dizon's season and leaving his future in doubt.
• Cited the strong performance of seventh-rounder Willie Young—and the chance to catch on somewhere else—and released last year's part-time starting DE, Jason Hunter.
• Citing a need at DE (?), signed 236-pound(!?) DE Korey Bosworth, nephew of Brian Bosworth, a.k.a The Boz (?!??!??!?!!).
• Placed TE Richard Dickson on the waived-injured list.
• Put Jonathan Wade's broken finger in a weird soft cast/hard glove hybrid.
• Re-signed MLB Lee Campbell, presumably to replace Dizon, and CB Jahi-Word Daniels, presumably to fill in for Wade.  Word-Daniels immediately went down with a hamstring injury.
• Waived Word-Daniels, poor guy, and K Aaron Pettrey, then signed CB/KR T.J. Rushing, and claimed ex-Falcons kicker Steven Hauschka.

Got all that?  No?  Don’t worry, neither did I.  The most significant move is the release of Jason Hunter, a young guy who contributed significantly last year.  As a perfect physical fit for the Lions’ intended scheme, Hunter was a low-cost, high-upside player.  However, Willie Young looked great against Pittsburgh, and there are only so many long-term developmental DEs you can carry on a roster.  With no future in Detroit, the Lions did the stand-up thing and let Hunter go while he can still catch on somewhere else.

The confusing thing was that they turned around and signed Korey Bosworth.  Bosworth is a DE/OLB ‘tweener, a guy who’d be a great fit at 3-4 OLB—and in fact, had been a camp invitee of the Broncos.  I immediately presumed he’d be slotted as an OLB in the Lions’ system, given that he’s the exact same height and weight as Zack Follett, and about thirty pounds lighter than the just-released Hunter.  But, quoth the Grandmaster, Jim Schwartz:

“We had a need at defensive end,” Schwartz said. “He’s a guy that we had interest in from college scouts, a guy that was able to get here and looked like he was in shape and would be able to give us some work.

“He’s a tough guy, plays hard, he’s got a good opportunity here. I mean we threw him right into the fire. He got reps right away."

Last season, the acquisitions all fit the long-term picture—but Hunter is a guy who could have helped if he’d stuck around, and Bosworth flatly has no place in a scheme that requires the ends to contain the run on the outside.  Let’s change perspective for a moment: if Willie Young is now the developmental end, the long-term picture doesn’t have a Jason Hunter in it, does it?  Kyle Vanden Bosch, Cliff Avril, Jared DeVries, Willie Young . . . no, no Hunter. 

Knowing that Hunter's long-term future is elsewhere, they let him seek it.  But, just carrying your top four ends through half of training camp is going to work them too hard—the Lions needed a fifth body out there to burn reps.  They asked the scouting department for the next best DE on the list, and the scouts said “Korey Bosworth.”  So, Bosworth is here, and Hunter is not.

Let’s hope that the injury bug takes no more bites out of the roster, and the panicked acquisitions stop.  There’s a long way to go, though, before the Lions get down to 53 + practice squad—and of course we know that Martin Mayhew never stops churning the bottom of the roster, never stops scouring the waiver wire, never stops looking for the diamond in the rough.

Technorati Tags: nfl,detroit lions,training camp,korey bosworth,jason hunter,cliff avril,willie young

Read more...

Tinderbox: Fireside Chat & Big CBA Post Coming

This Sunday night, I’ll host the latest Fireside Chat podcast, which will include an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Tim Layden about his new book: Blood, Sweat, and Chalk: The Ultimate Football Playbook: How the Great Coaches Built Today’s Game.  Besides being a very well-written book, right up my alley, Tim’s a tremendous interview.  Incredibly well-spoken, well-researched, and quick-thinking, he gave a lot of great answers to my stuttering, “um-“ laden questions.  We’ll discuss the Lions, the zone blitz, Rex Ryan, and the sharing of ideas between the college and pro games.  I’ll also review the first full week and first padded practices; I’ll be soliciting your stories from training camp, and the annual Lions Uncaged event at Ford Field (which, unfortunately, I won’t be attending this year).

I’ve also been working on an enormous Here’s What I Think About the CBA post; if I don’t get it up today, it will certainly go up this weekend.  It’s big.

Mike Florio of Profootballtalk.com wrote that there’s chatter that Louis Delmas’ groin injury may ultimately require surgery—and some folks in the Lions organization believe he should be shut down now and surgered before it gets any worse.  Florio, though, relays the fact one of his own sources  insists that Delmas will be 100% for the regular season in the same story.  Local Lions writers immediately set about debunking the article.  Killer’s Delmas story quotes Jim Schwartz:

"I (can't) spend all my time addressing rumors and stuff like that. My policy in training camp is that I'm not going to specifically comment on injuries," Schwartz said after Thursday's practice. "I've done a good job of letting you guys know when there's short-term stuff and when there's long-term stuff, and there's nothing that's changed with Louis. Louis is a short-term guy and we're erring on the side of caution. He got a pulled groin in minicamp and he's conditioning. I'm not going to take that bait, I think that's foolish of me."

Reassuring--but then, Florio's story ended with this scary paragraph:

Expect the team and the player to deny the possibility that surgery is needed. But then pay attention to Delmas' health throughout the year -- and whether there's eventually an "aggravation" that results in the player being placed on injured reserve in advance of a procedure aimed at fixing the situation.

Eep.

Technorati Tags: nfl,detroit lions,louis delmas,sports illustrated,tim layden,training camp,lions uncaged,podcast

Read more...

Suh Has Signed—and The Blue Fire Roars

Late last night, word finally broke on Twitter—sorry, hundreds at the same time, no idea who was first—that the Lions and Ndamukong Suh had agreed to the terms of his first Lions contract (see what I did there?).  During last Sunday’s Fireside Chat, I’d noted, with growing distaste, how quickly Lions fans were beginning to turn on Suh.  Never before had the Lions’ fanbase been so united in their desire for a given player to be the Lions’ first draft pick—and yet, a few days’ worth of not being in camp had people jumping on Twitter and cussing out Ndamukong, and his sister Ngum.

It all got way out of hand.  Neil over at Armchair Linebacker penned a thoughtful piece called “Settle Down,” which I thought did a a nice job of cogently, if profanely, outlining all the reasons why the reactionary attitude was totally out of line:

Then again, the most likely explanation is that Ndamukong Suh is a dude in his early twenties who is going to spend the next decade of his life (if he's lucky) getting the utter shit kicked out of him, being beaten and broken, his body ripped apart and ravaged so that by the time he's 40 he'll barely be able to walk and won't be able to read any of the street signs thanks to all of the concussions. He'll then spend the next thirty or so years of his life (again, if he's lucky) dealing with the hellacious trauma of his chosen career, with mounting medical bills and aches and pains that most of us can't even fathom. Be honest, if someone told you that you were going to be finished at 35 and then were going to spend the rest of your life taking a half hour getting out of bed in the morning because the pain was just too damn much and trying to remember your kids' names and wondering if you would need a wheelchair before your fiftieth birthday, you'd probably press for as much money as you could too. And that's all assuming you'd even be good enough to play for a decade and not for three or four years. These dudes need to get paid and need to get paid quickly.

This is absolutely right: most quality players only get to sign two—or if they’re lucky, a few—of these big, guarantee-laden contracts.  Many never even get past one.  I wonder what Charles Rogers would do now to pocket one more million of that upfront money?

A big Lions fan on Twitter, @AKDW90, asked me “What difference would it be if he gets $40M or $50M?” and I answered “About ten million dollars.”  Frankly, ten million dollars is a lot of dollars, no matter how many dollars you already have.  Moreover, consider this: Ndamukong worked like crazy for five years at Nebraska, through two coaches, and trained like a madman to thoroughly dominate the NFL combine.  Why did he do that?  To be the best he could be—and to get drafted as highly as possible.  He earned his #2 overall draft slot through years and years of his own hard work; why should he throw any of that away and sign for less than he can get?  So he can make a handful of August practices?

Just as I was mentally composing my own "Settle Down" piece, Neil wrote a sequel.  It’s a little more firm in its critique.  As I like to keep it family here on this blog, there’s very little of it I can quote to you—yet, this one sentence might be the most salient:

Look, you know things have gotten out of hand when I am the one trying to be the voice of reason and preaching civility.

Commenter TimT—who I have the utmost respect for—objected to all of this Gonzo fan-on-fan aggression, but I found it cathartic and satisfying.  There’s no room around the the blue bonfire for people who will get on Twitter and viciously flame Ndamukong Suh’s little sister because the big man was four days slow on signing his contract.  Please, people, perspective.  This guy’s going to be the anchor of the Lions’ defense for years to come; is this what you want him to think of Lions fans?

Speaking of the blue bonfire, if there was an antidote to the nastiness of the Lions fans on Twitter, it was the awesomeness of the fans of the rest of the NFL on Twitter.  Raider homer @rnstrong immediately fired off a Tweet for the ages:

SUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I instantly became a Lions fan the moment they drafted him

You see?  It’s already beginning, people.  Ndamukong Suh is going to be everything I thought Aaron Curry would be: a once-in-a-generation combination of size, speed, ability, and intelligence.  A humble, honest, hardworking young man blessed with a philanthropic spirit.  The savior of the worst defense the NFL has ever seen, and avatar of renaissance for both the Lions, and the City of Detroit.  Today, as Ndamukong Suh practices with his teammates for the first time, the blue bonfire burns as brightly as it has in years.  As the Honolulu Blue flames reach for the August sky, people from all over are rushing to to see the source.  Join us.

We’ve got plenty of cider on ice.

Technorati Tags: nfl,detroit lions,ndamukong suh,twitter,aaron curry,armchairlinebacker.com

Read more...

Fireside Chat #3

Fireside Chat #3

Okay, last week I mentioned that I’d be quickening the pace on my, uh, biannual “Fireside Chat” podcast series.  Well, here’s the first one for you—it’s only ten minutes long, is rife with mistakes, and follows a horrific false start.  But on the positive side, there’s a lot of open-ended philosophizing about the hypocritical nature of fans and fandom.

Uh.  I’m sorry, I’m a terrible salesman.  Anyway, give it a listen.  My goal will be to up the quality of both the production and the content every week.  Please, please, please give me feedback of any sort in the comments.  When toe meets leather for Week 1, I want to have this stuff down cold.

Technorati Tags: nfl,detroit lions,training camp,ndamukong suh,podcast,ustream

Read more...

Ndamukong Suh Unsigned? A Plate of Perspective

“You know what I'm craving? A little perspective. That's it. I'd like some fresh, clear, well seasoned perspective. Can you suggest a good wine to go with that?”

Though players are supposed to report this evening, it's still about 24 hours before the 2010 Detroit Lions open training camp for real: on the field.  We should be buzzing about Matthew Stafford’s first camp as the established starter, positional battles on the offensive line, and the new.  Instead most talk is about whether or not the Lions’ two first-round draft picks, Jahvid Best and Ndamkong Suh, will sign their contracts in time.

Let’s take a step back for a second.  We’ve been discussing Ndamukong Suh, what an unstoppable he-beast he is, and how Suh’d be a plug-in dominator since December.  After the Big XII championship game, many people on this site and elsewhere began expressing their undying love for him, crafting treatises on Ndamukong’s glory, and expounding upon how Suh’d immediately make the Lions’ defensive line both powerful and flexible.

There’s a lot of fear, uncertainty, and doubt that comes with a late camp entry.  “He’s way behind,” “We’ve already installed 90% of the system,” and “If he can’t get the starting job in camp, he’ll be a backup all year,” are all phrases you hear at this time of year.  But, I’m going to remind you folks of something: Calvin Johnson missed the first eight days of training camp!

Oh, there was woe.  Oh, there were lamentations.  Oh, there was gnashing of teeth.  Calvin wouldn’t learn the offense in time.  He needed to contribute in 2007, and he couldn’t if he didn’t know the offense.  There wouldn’t be time to build a rapport with Jon Kitna.  If he couldn’t be an effective starter in camp, he wouldn’t get enough reps to play well in the preseason.  If he didn’t play well in the preseason, he wouldn’t have the confidence to excel right away in the regular season.  If he didn’t excel in his rookie season, he’d be a year behind!  Oh no oh no oh no his entire career hangs in the balance!

Believe me, people, I was right there with you all!  But then . . . well, Calvin Johnson signed.  He showed up for work.  And what do you know?  He turned out to be 6’-5”, with 4.35 combine-40-yard-dash speed.  He also turned out to be just as humble, hardworking, and serious about his craft as advertised—and now, you’d never know he missed a few days of practice as July turned in to August.

I wanted the Lions to draft Suh because his body is put together in an extraordinarily rare combination of size, strength, speed and explosion—and inside that body, he’s a humble, generous, intelligent young man who understands his place in the world.  None of that is going to change between now and Saturday or Sunday or Monday.  Ndamukong wanted to get signed and get into camp—and, give or take a few days, he’ll be signed, and he’ll get into camp.  I can’t recommend a good wine for that—but I do suggest you pick up a bottle of Lion Stout, and put a hearty mug in the freezer.

Technorati Tags: nfl,detroit lions,ndamukong suh,jahvid best,training camp

Read more...