Nick Injured? It’s Fairley Insigificant

Nick Fairley showed up to this morning’s practice in a walking boot, obviously unable to work. Confirmed by a  Tweet from the Detroit News’ Chris McCosky, the previously-thought-to-be-minor injury became a possible stress fracture. To steal a meme from MGoBlog:

PANIC?

No, no panic. For starters, this is training camp—bumps and bruises happen. For seconds, this training camp comes after the longest absolutely-no-work layoff in modern NFL history. Normally, these guys have already gone through several sessions of “no contact” (but actually mostly full speed) OTAs, plus a full minicamp. The player-only workouts were just conditioning and 7-on-7 stuff; this is the first real football of 2011 and it’s already August. There were bound to be more nicks and dings than usual.

Here's the other thing: depth. Remember The Parable Of The One-Eyed Beggar? This is partly why the Lions have Corey Williams AND Ndamukong Suh AND Sammie Hill AND Nick Fairley AND Andre Fluellen: so that they can lose one or two of those guys for a while without much of a dropoff.

The flipside is that the Lions’ defensive line must keep rolling waves, so they’ll need Fairley back—but not the way they needed Ndamukong Suh last season. Suh played a thousand snaps, nearly every single down the defense was on the field last season. Fairley was never going to carry that big of a load even if he showed up to camp in the best shape of his life, dominated every rep, and didn’t suffer so much as a paper cut. He’s an extremely talented player and he seems like a nice, fun-loving guy—but he doesn’t need to be an All-Pro for the Lions to have a good defense this year.

If you want to read the tea leaves for how this season’s going to go, don’t scour the injury report, check out Tom Kowalski’s first “Camp Observations” posts:

An interesting play developed during the first period of team work. The Lions' offense went to the line of scrimmage and center Dominic Raiola changed the call. Safety Louis Delmas sensed something and quickly changed the defensive call and shifted the defensive alignment. Seeing that, Raiola quickly reverted back to the original call and snapped the ball. It was a running play wide left and Jahvid Best broke it for a long gainer, bringing cheers from the crowd.

I love every single thing about that quote. I love that we see the value of Raiola: there are bigger centers who can run block better, but he improves the whole offense with his ability to read a defense and change the protection—or even the play. It’ll never show up on a stat sheet, or even in Pro Football Focus’s grades, but it Dominic Raiola brings a wealth of value to this team that that cannot be denied.

Second, I love that Louis Delmas is maturing. His groin healed from last season, allowing him to again play like “Da Missile” we saw in 2009—but he’s coming into his own as a complete safety now. He has the recognition skills and leadership ability to put the rest of the defense in position to succeed; he’s not just flying around putting shoulders into people.

Third, I love that Jahvid Best can still hit the home run. We didn’t see much of his “jets” after the first few games, but I believe he’s going to make a believer out of everyone this year. Delmas and Best were two guys who were supposed to be huge for the Lions last year, and they weren’t. If they can play at the level described above, they’ll improve the team just as much as Tulloch, Durant, or any of the offseason additions.

Technorati Tags: nfl,training camp,detroit lions,louis delmas,dominic raiola,jahvid best,nick fairley

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Ndamukong Suh Big-Timing Detroit Media: OUTRAGE?

NFL Network showed up to film the Lions’ player-led workouts today, and for the first time, Ndamukong Suh showed up to participate. I’ll let the various reporters’ Twitter feeds break it down from there:

Several fans, including longtime friends of TLiW @jacoblrussell and @Dustin_aka_D, were taken aback by this news. Was Ndamukong Suh big-timing the local media? Was he making a phony show of being a great teammate for the national media? Is his “awesome guy” persona just that—a thin façade  covering a monstrous ego?

As if the lockout weren’t reminder enough, there are two words in the phrase “professional football,” and the first word means it’s their job. These men are paid to do a job, the same as you. Some players see talking to the media as an essential part of that job. Some see it as an annoyance. Some see it as a necessary evil. Some see it as an opportunity to get their face in front of your eyes, when they play a game where everyone’s head is covered. Most see it as some combination of the above, varying by circumstances and mood.

Chris McCosky, Paula Pasche, Dave Birkett, and Tom Kowalski are professionals, too. It’s their job to cover the Lions, to come up with fresh angles, to get good quotes, to keep us informed, to tell good stories, and keep us coming back for more. In the midst of a lockout, such stories have been incredibly difficult to come by—and Ndamukong Suh showing up to the voluntary workouts is, relatively speaking, compelling stuff. Add in a decent quote or two, and that’s a real actual football story they can write, and we can read. To get blown off after doing on the heels spot for the national media . . . it’s understandably upsetting.

It's tempting, as fans, to overreact to this, and assign all sorts of motivation and blame to Ndamukong Suh and his handlers—just like we assigned all sorts of motivation and blame when Suh didn’t immediately sign and report to camp. Remember all that hullabaloo? How Suh went from being the Best Guy Ever to a no-good spoiled money-grubber in a matter of hours? How a few missed days of would leave him scrambling to catch up? How falling behind in his rookie year would set his development back months—or maybe years?  How Lions fans took to Twitter and started hurling invective at Ndamukong and his sister, Ngum?

How’d that turn out?

The mild grumpiness I saw on Twitter about this incident wasn’t out-of-line. I thought it was a little out-of-character for Suh, too. But remember—part of what we love so much about Suh is his intelligence, his personality, his self-awareness, his selflessness, his engineering degree, his marketability, and his ability to be represent the franchise. He’s so much more than a monster between the hash marks; that’s what makes him special. He realizes that people across the nation associate him with the Lions, and the Lions with him—and he needs to maintain that relationship in our minds. He’s taking care of himself and his family first—and c’mon. We all know he’ll be ready for football when football happens, whether he’s pumping iron in Detroit or Lincoln or Portland or Belgrade.

So, don’t crucify Suh for this. It’s one little tiny spot on an otherwise spotless record so far. This doesn’t make him a prima donna or a problem child or Just Like Big Baby or any of that. It’s just another day at the office.

Technorati Tags: nfl,detroit lions,ndamukong suh,media,twitter,tom kowalski,dave birkett,paula pasche,chris mccosky

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Something’s Rotten in Delmas

Sometime during OTAs, Louis Delmas injured his groin.  He missed June minicamp completely, and started off training camp on the PUP list.  With lots of rest, and a little rehab, it was presumed that Delmas would soon be back to normal, running all over the field and making plays as usual.  All seemed to be going according to plan, with rumblings of Delmas returning to practice soon—when out of nowhere, ProFootballTalk.com published a rumor that  Delmas’s injury might not only be serious, but season-threatening:

Though he's widely expected to hit the practice field soon -- indeed, a source with knowledge of the situation insists that Delmas will be ready to go when the regular season begins -- we're hearing that there's quiet concern within the organization regarding the possibility that Delmas ultimately will need surgery to repair the injury.

If you parse the story carefully, you realize something interesting.  Mike Florio and/or the PFT staff heard the rumor about the Lions considering surgery for Delmas, and attempted to confirm with a source—and instead, that source insisted Delmas would be ready to go!  Apparently, the intial rumor was strong enough to run the story anyway, with this foreboding prophesy at the end:

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.

This story sent Lions writers scurrying to their figurative Rolodexes:

Chris McCosky of the Detroit News declared the PFT rumor debunked, citing sources calling the report inaccurate.

Carlos Monarrez of the Freep quoted Schwartz as saying "Louis is a short-term guy. We're erring on the side of caution," though The Grandmaster admitted surgery had been discussed at one point.

Tom Kowalski of Mlive.com dismissed the "internet rumor" as well, noting that when Delmas was asked if he had any concerns about starting the season, he said: "Not at all, not at all".

With all the various stories and angles, a picture was emerging: Delmas had seen a specialist, surgery had been discussed, but rest and rehab was thought to be the best option, and everything was on track.  Nobody was worried, it was a short-term thing, and as soon as his conditioning was up to speed, he’d be going full-bore in no time.  But PFT’s story haunted the situation like a specter, filling our heads with terrible knowledge:

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.

This grim prophesy weighed on me as I read this week’s practice reports.  Delmas was constantly in and out of the sessions—though Schwartz claimed it was all according to schedule.  But, when Delmas missed practice on Thursday, and admitted he’d be missing today’s session as well, it became clear that he’s not nearly ready for a full slate of full-speed practices and games.  Delmas admitted to the Freep’s Dave Birkett that it’s something that’s going to affect him for quite a while, possibly into the season:

“It’s a groin injury, so the more you beat it up, the more it’s going to affect you in the long run,” Delmas said. “Take one day on, two days off, one day on, two days off; that’ll be the best treatment for it.”

And how long does Delmas expect to follow that schedule?

“The groin injury is never going to heal if you keep aggravating it, so I guess that’ll be something I have to deal with,” he said.

The Lions and Delmas are absolutely right to be cautious with the injury.  Further, if the specialist Delmas saw didn’t recommend surgery as a first course of action, then why do it unnecessarily?  But this is clearly more serious than “a short-term thing.”  I don’t believe that limited practice reps are going to seriously harm Delmas’s play in 2010—but if going full-speed sporadically isn’t “restful” enough for the groin to completely heal before the season starts, Delmas may not be able to go at full speed all year.

Delmas’s impact on the defense last season was immediate, and dramatic.  Given the state of the rest of the secondary, his importance cannot be overstated.  If his groin can’t take the punishment, if he goes under the knife and on the shelf—if, indeed, his noble heart were to crack . . . the rest would be silence.

Technorati Tags: nfl,louis delmas,preseason,training camp

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Sunrise, Sunset: Changes for Mlive.com’s Highlight Reel, John Niyo, Chris McCoskey, & Dave Birkett

They say you leave bad news for Fridays, and . . . well,  Phil Zaroo, over at Mlive.com, has closed the doors on the Highlight Reel blog.  The Highlight Reel was a great place to find stuff other than “what everyone was talking about,” and home of the farthest-reaching Lions link-dump around.  Phil also let me pen an article or two over there.  His Lions writing, and Mlive.com’s Lions coverage, will of course continue at http://www.mlive.com/lions, but the Highlight Reel is no more.

In happier news, the Detroit News’ John Niyo has gotten a well-deserved bump—he’s now a full-time sports columnist.  Chris McCosky takes over the Lions beat, and Tim Twentyman will continue covering the Leos as well.  The Lions

One-time Lions beat writer for the Oakland Press, and current coverer of U-M football for AnnArbor.com, Dave Birkett confirmed via Twitter he’ll be replacing Nick Cotsonika on the Lions beat at the Freep.  This is great news.  Birkett’s stuff at the Oakland Press was always fresh; he always seemed to zig when everyone else was zagging, repeatedly coming up with fresh angles.  Dave’s also been extremely cool to me personally, going all the way back to the beginning.  I’m really excited to be able to read his stuff again.

Watching the carousel  spin like this is hauntingly familiar.  If life reflects art, I guess the media reflects its subject, right?

Technorati Tags: nfl,detroit lions,detroit news,detroit free press,mlive.com,john niyo,chris mccosky,tim twentyman,phil zaroo,sports media

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