2011 Detroit Lions

[Roq]

Personally I could give a rats' backside if old man Ford wants to acknowledge a mistake. Just fix them. .

My bad. I should have wrote...."acknowledge and fix a mistake". Keyrist, did Millen have pics of Ford and a hooker stashed somewhere?
But despite that, I think he's one of the better owners overall too.

[smogboy]

With training camp less than a month away, there really hasn't been any football discussions worthy of in-depth note here. The volunteer workouts for our Lions have been neat to see on a team building basis but that's been about it. It was a good move to see Titus Young show up to meet his new team mates but with no official team playbook to learn from, it's just terminology and vocabulary.

Ideally we'd be talking about who's moving around in free agency, other teams, trades and the other off-season football chatter... but sadly we're in limbo until the suits can settle the differences in divvying up that $9 billion dollar pie.

There is some cause for optimism though:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6623923

I just hope it leads to somewhere and it can be game on once more for the NFL.

[ejames01]

The lockout is over. Lets GO!!!!!!!!!!

[smogboy]

The lockout is over. Lets GO!!!!!!!!!!

Hot diggedty dang! It’s about high time these folks got themselves together and had this agreement ratified. Now let’s see if we’re going to be good for the next ten years before we have to re-visit this NFL lockout topic. The nine billion dollar pie has been divvied up and for the most part and all the parties are happy. The 133 day madness is now officially over with.

The madness now follows and I’m not even talking about the actual game on the turf. Teams like our Lions are going to be on the horn, being as nimble as possible trying to work the free agent wires. Un-drafted college players, unrestricted, and even restricted players are going to be getting phone calls; the wheeling and dealing will begin. We can only hope Martin Mayhew and his staff will have the agility and acumen to bring in the missing pieces to the re-build of this team.

Let’s go out and re-sign the likes of Chris Houston and/ or the other corner [[either a Joseph or an Ike Taylor would be a nice upgrade) to immediately ease our brows of that porous secondary. I wish we were in the Asomugha discussion but for the kind of money he’s going to want and probably the length of the contract, it’d be awfully tough for this team to swing. And who could blame him for not wanting to make top dollar or go to a team that’s a lot closer to the grail than we are?

Let’s also resolve the linebacker situation somehow too. Either we get Stephen Tulloch and move Levy to the outside or we go after the Tampa Bay Bucs, Quincy Black for the OLB position. I’m still curious as to whether the former first round Dallas draft pick, Bobby Carpenter can be a starter for us. He obviously had some skill coming into the league to be drafted that high and maybe he can revive his career here playing in our system. We need these three guys back here who can go sideline to sideline with some reckless abandon [[it almost makes me miss Ernie Sims) and to be able to erase that occasional guy that can dart past the front four.

Other immediate unrestricted signings I hope they’ll pick up would be Drew Stanton [[he knows his role here and is comfortable), John Wendling [[I liked his special teams coverage last year), Turk McBride [[I know the defensive line is solid but it never hurts to have some depth), and maybe Dylan Gandy [[just for some offensive line depth). I have faith that the restricted guys Cliff Avril [[long term contract please?), Andre Fluellen, and Jerome Felton will want to remain with this team. I can also see our team trading a guy like Fluellen or McBride because of their value but it’s always nice to see some of our own guys developing with us.

Another tough decision for Mayhew & Lewand to make is going to be to sign kicker Dave Rayner or not. It could signal the end of Jason Hanson’s glorious run with this sad sack team; he truly has been a pro and a gem in the sea of mediocrity for the longest time. And while we’re at it- and thanks to the new CBA’s structure, let’s get the rookies like Fairley, LeShure, and Young into the fold. I want to see these guys pounding the pads as well as the Lions playbook ASAP. It seems as though there’s finally some internal leadership within the organization [[thank you Kyle Vanden Bosch) to help the new guys along and get them up to snuff.

It’s going to be some scrambling but I know my Sunday afternoons will be exciting again. I know it’s early but it’s nice to take some of that fan excitement from last year’s four game winning streak into the new season. Play ball, gentlemen!

[Thruster315]

Other immediate unrestricted signings I hope they’ll pick up would be Drew Stanton [[he knows his role here and is comfortable), John Wendling [[I liked his special teams coverage last year), Turk McBride [[I know the defensive line is solid but it never hurts to have some depth), and maybe Dylan Gandy [[just for some offensive line depth). I have faith that the restricted guys Cliff Avril [[long term contract please?), Andre Fluellen, and Jerome Felton will want to remain with this team. I can also see our team trading a guy like Fluellen or McBride because of their value but it’s always nice to see some of our own guys developing with us.

We can kiss Turk McBride away. I just saw that he signed with New Orleans. We're still pretty deep on the D-line.