SB Nation - Landon Cohen

Tuesday Notes: Grady Jackson Finally Practices

Sean Yuille — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:31:57 -0000

More photos » by Duane Burleson - AP

4 months ago: Detroit Lions linebacker Curtis Gatewood takes a drink during their morning workout at NFL football training camp Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009, in Allen Park, Mich. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Browse more photos »

Grady Jackson practiced today after missing the first few days of camp with an illness. He spent most of the offseason recovering from knee surgery, so it's good that he is finally practicing again, though he only participated in individual workouts and line drills.
Other injury updates: Brandon Pettigrew, Casey FitzSimmons, Keith Smith, and Eric King all missed practice on Monday. King was back on the field today, but the other three missed practice for the second day in a row. Pettigrew and Smith seem to be day-to-day, but FitzSimmons reportedly has a high-ankle sprain, which probably means he is week-to-week.
Today was the first day of practice in pads, and the players responded well to that, wanting to get more physical. Jim Schwartz liked what he saw, noting that this was probably the hottest day of practice so far.
In yesterday's two-minute drill, Matthew Stafford and Drew Stanton led their units into field goal range, whereas Daunte Culpepper's unit turned the ball over on downs at the 40-yard line.
It seems like the Lions' receivers are dropping a ton of passes, especially in the 7-on-7 drill. Tom Kowalski pointed this out, saying that outside of Calvin Johnson and Dennis Northcutt, the receivers are struggling to catch the ball on a consistent basis. I guess this explains why the Lions made a trade for Northcutt, as the other receivers certainly aren't cutting it. The loss of Bryant Johnson is also a bigger blow than I originally anticipated. Having him back will be nice for the quarterbacks, especially if this case of butterfingers keeps up.
Adam Jennings did make a nice catch yesterday, snagging a pass from Drew Stanton by diving in the end zone for a TD.

(More after the jump)

Phillip Buchanon likes practicing against Calvin Johnson, as lining up against one of the top receivers in football on a daily basis will only make him better.
Julian Peterson thinks Cliff Avril can be one of the league's top pass-rushers.
Scott Linehan doesn't feel like Matthew Stafford is a rookie when he coaches him.
Louis Delmas has already showed off enough skill that he is expected to be a starter.
Yesterday was Landon Cohen's birthday. He is really starting to make a name for himself, from his impressive bench press performance to making plays in practice.
The Lions are expecting Sammie Hill to become NFL-ready pretty quickly.
Offensive line coach George Yarno already seems like an upgrade over Jim Colletto.
Lions linebackers like the 4-3 defense, especially the ones that played in the Tampa-2 under Rod Marinelli.
Jim Schwartz likes to practice different situations rather than just go out there and practice.
Roar of the Lions recapped his visit to practice.
It looks like Vikings receiver Aundrae Allison will soon be on waivers. He is a great returner, and Kevin Seifert wonders if the Lions will claim him.
The Patriots now are reportedly showing interest in Kevin Carter. If they give him an offer, I think we can officially give up any hope of him signing with the Lions.
Don't forget, tomorrow practice opens up to the public for the first time. If you go to Allen Park and check it out, write a FanPost and share your observations with us.

New Approach, Same Results?

DrewsLions — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:45:30 -0000

More photos » by Carlos Osorio - AP

5 months ago: Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) throws during football practice at the team's training facility in Allen Park, Mich., Thursday, June 25, 2009. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Browse more photos »

Disclaimer: I guess even the most resilient and optimistic of fans can let a little pessimism set in from time to time. Maybe it's more of a level-setting of expectations, but I'm feeling a little of that after my daily rounds of Lion's articles on the internet. Take it as a "mood-of-the-day" thing and not an overall drowning of my hope.

I'm sure we all have our daily internet rituals geared towards dredging up all things Lions. Mine starts, of course, with POD. I'll give the site a quick once over and check out any new posts, articles or comments. After I leave a few new comments of my own, it's on to MLive.com, Freep.com and DetNews.com to finish with my dose of the local vibe. From there, it's on to the major publications like SI.com, NFL.com, CBSSportsline.com, FoxSports.com, ESPN.com, ProFootballWeekly.com and a few others. Today was no different. It's like a sacred ritual; performing the morning scour while I'm enhancing my cock-crow view with a strong cup of freshly ground dark roast (and I mean fresh... as in I grind my own beans. It's the only way to go!)

As it's been for the last few days, the news is all training camp. The optimism from Allen Park exudes in each and every article. The topics for today included the healthy quarterback competition, the continuation of Landon Cohen's meteoric rise, Schwartz's team-first versus defense-first approach, Buchanon's stick-like-glue coverage to Calvin Johnson, Delmas' firm grasp on a starting role and the new offensive line approach that is sure to get the most from the group. This stuff should all be put on a new cable network. The call letters would be H.O.P.E... all optimism, all the time. Very little negativity coming from the local journalists right now, but that's good, right? I mean would we rather read that everyone is stinking up the joint and we are setting the stage for another 0-16 season? Of course not. Granted, there are a few tidbits out there that talk about thrown interceptions and the offensive line not looking great, but those are in the minority. Most of the articles coming out in the past few days have been heavily weighted to the overly-optimistic side of things.

By now, you're probably saying "Yeah, so what? That's a good thing". Right... it is. But as I was reading these articles today, I was feeling something other than warm fuzzies and hope. I was feeling déjà vu. I've read all of these articles before... last year. And you know what? I read them the year before that and the year before that, too. So how do we trust that this year's set of journalistic chronicles are any different than those of the past few years. Truth be told, we can't. Thus, my morning discouragement begins.

The consistent theme with most of these articles is the "new approach, new coaches, new scheme, new results" premise. But is that really always the case? History says no... not for the Lions, anyway. We've all heard this same song and dance before. Whether it's the West Coast offense or the Tampa 2 defense, optimism abounds because we are forcefully given the yearly training camp handbook "1001 Reasons Why This New Approach Will Work" as our daily reading assignment. Mostly, we simply scan it and then buy into it - fully. Journalists and coaches feed us scoop after scoop of why this new approach will work and we are so starved for positive news, we can only say "Please sir, may I have some more?" They formulate it to make perfect sense to us. The end result is us saying, "Yeah, he's right. How can this fail?" Then 0-16 happens and we wonder what happened between the new no-fail approach and the utter destruction of our franchise. This gets most of us every year. Not that we don't fuel the fire feverishly ourselves. I'm just as guilty as most... maybe more. I buy into things. I guess I'm just another mouth that's ready to ingest a full plate of something positive.

Just like last year, I have that feeling that things are different. Just like last year, the training camp handbook has been given to us as our daily reading assignment. And just like last year, we are all starting to buy into it. Is that a negative thing? I don't necessarily think so. But there is a lesson to learn here. I think the lesson I'll take away from this morning's bout of déjà vu is that I simply need to be aware of the training camp optimism game and how it's come back to bite so deeply in the past. Hopefully, I'll be able to step back and form my own opinions on expectations for this year and not be completely swallowed up by either the media hype or simple giddiness of the start of a new NFL season. Excitement for a new season and high expectations for the Lions are sometimes mutually exclusive. It's okay to feel genuine excitement and still maintain realistic expectations of this year's team. You have to realize that all 32 fanbases are feeling the same exact thing right now. All 32 media outlets are handing out their versions of the training camp handbook and millions are so hungry for the optimism they are simply swallowing before they chew. The result is going to be a lot of stomach-aches.

Again, don't read to deep into my mini-revelation here. I'll no doubt continue to take in as much of the feed that comes my way and in the end, my hope will probably far exceed the appropriate expectations I should have for this team. My charge to you the fan is that we continue to test and scrutinize the information that comes our way. That's why I would much rather read the information in a fan-blog over the one-sided articles written by paid journalists. Fans have more heart and more sensibility than the average, hardened media lackey (not including you in that mob, Sean). To feed into the hope and hype are not bad things. It's part of the fun of this time of year. But we need to put forth an effort to make our own assessments and keep ourselves from becoming misguided in our interpretation of how good this team really can be this year. Some may disagree and say that being a true fan requires blind faith and a perpetual assumption that your team is capable of winning a championship every year. I know we've had discussions along those lines here before. I say that being a good fan is about holding to undying loyalty while allowing for honest expectations and assessment of your beloved club. I think you can expect a team to play poorly and still be a devoted fan. If you feel I'm off-base with that evaluation, let me know.

Anyway, thought I'd share this with you today. I guess tomorrow morning I'll have to rededicate myself to the handbook and eat two helpings of journalistic nourishment to get my optimism meter to read "FULL" again. Dig in!

Monday Notes: Brandon Pettigrew Injures Quadriceps

Sean Yuille — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:12:16 -0000

More photos » by Duane Burleson - AP

4 months ago: Detroit Lions tight end Brandon Pettigrew, right, hauls in a pass in front of cornerback Phillip Buchanon during NFL football training camp Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009, in Allen Park, Mich. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Browse more photos »

Brandon Pettigrew suffered a quadriceps injury and left the afternoon session of practice yesterday. The injury doesn't sound too serious, though, so hopefully he will be back soon.
Casey FitzSimmons also suffered an injury, one that appeared to be bad at the time. He apparently was on the ground grabbing his knee, but he returned to practice and later said, "Just one of those bumps and bruises you get in training camp."
Ephraim Salaam didn't practice in the afternoon. He was given the session off, though, which is likely because he isn't one of the younger guys out there. Adam Jennings missed the morning session (he was excused) but returned in the afternoon.
None of the Lions' three quarterbacks were able to lead the offense to a touchdown in the two-minute drill. If Keary Colbert wouldn't have dropped a pass, Stafford's unit would have scored, so it wasn't completely bad. (Colbert did push-ups as a punishment for dropping the pass.)
According to Tom Kowalski, a couple "minor skirmishes" happened on Sunday. One was between John Standeford and Eric King and the other involved Damion Cook and Landon Cohen.
Aaron Brown, Aveion Cason, and Derrick Williams are currently the Lions' kick returners.
The defensive line seems to be having its way with the offensive line. Look at that however you want, but either the D-line has suddenly gotten a lot better or the O-line is really struggling.
Calvin Johnson likes what he sees in Matthew Stafford. I'm sure Stafford feels the same way about Calvin.
The team's first day of practice in full pads is tomorrow.

(More after the jump)

Martin Mayhew is a huge fan of Kevin Smith.
Tom Kowalski relayed a funny encounter Louis Delmas had with a Central Michigan fan after practice. As usual, players went over to the crowd to sign autographs, and one person presented a CMU hat for Delmas to sign. Delmas, as you probably know, is from Western Michigan, and this was his reaction to seeing the hat:

"Oh, hell no,'' Delmas said of signing the hat. "The guy was actually laughing about it. I think he was testing me.''
Delmas signed something else the guy had, so it seems like it was a joke. I'm sure if gave Drew Stanton a Michigan hat to sign, his reaction would be similar or even worse.
Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey attended practice on Sunday.
Referees Ron Winter, Mike Spanier, and Scott Helverson are going to be at practice from August 6-8 to get themselves ready for the preseason as well as help the Lions see any penalties they may be committing.
The FanHouse has video of Matthew Stafford answering questions at the ESPYs.
Travis Fisher has signed with the Seahawks.

Sunday Notes: One Day of Practice in the Books

Sean Yuille — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 08:28:40 -0000

More photos » by Duane Burleson - AP

4 months ago: Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, second from left, talks with quarterbacks Drew Stanton (5), Matthew Stafford (9) and Daunte Culpepper (11) during the Lions NFL football training camp, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, in Allen Park, Mich. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Browse more photos »

The Lions completed their first day of training camp yesterday, kicking off the start of football once again. Although the regular season is still over a month away, once training camp arrives, football is officially back. Sure, the next month will only be practice and preseason games, but it is simply an appetizer to the main course: the regular season. Besides, with fantasy football drafts and the release of Madden 10 taking place in the next few weeks, September will be here in no time.
Jim Schwartz changed things up a bit by not having the first practice until the afternoon. In the morning, the team held a meeting and then went through a series of strength and conditioning drills. The meeting seemed to be pretty typical until the very end, which is when Schwartz lightened the mood by having some fun at Matthew Stafford's expense. Schwartz reportedly went through a PowerPoint presentation of what he did during the summer and capped it off by delivering the following line as relayed by Tom Kowalski: "I thought I had a fun vacation until I saw this." Schwartz then showed the team Stafford's now famous pictures from what appeared to be a very joyful Independence Day celebration with quite a few girls in bikinis. As you can imagine, the team got a kick out of the pictures, and Stafford found it funny as well. If I were him, I would have simply shouted "Jealous?" to my teammates.
With the meeting out of the way, the team went through an NFL Combine-like workout. The players had to go through a series of drills that tested their strength and conditioning. Defensive tackle Sammie Hill, offensive tackle Ephraim Salaam, and wide receiver Demir Boldin failed the conditioning part of the workout, which was a 300-yard shuttle run (12 runs of 25 yards) that had to be completed in 65 seconds. Because of that, they had to sit out the afternoon practice. Thankfully, all three did the test again in the afternoon and passed it, meaning they should be on the field for some football today.
The other two parts of this test were vertical jump and bench press. The latter saw defensive tackle Landon Cohen show off how strong he is by doing 50 reps. Jim Schwartz called the effort "superhuman," and really it is an example of how this team has gotten much stronger during the offseason. That is one of the goals Schwartz had when he was first hired, and he definitely has to like the results the team has produced so far.
The three players that initially failed the conditioning test weren't the only ones that didn't practice on Saturday. Defensive tackle Grady Jackson and wide receiver Bryant Johnson both missed practice, and I don't believe it is known when they will be able to get on the field. Jackson has an illness that apparently isn't related to his knee, which kept him out of all the Lions' minicamps this offseason. Johnson, on the other hand, was placed on the Non-Football Injury list, as he is still suffering from the effects of a golf cart crash. You read that correctly, a golf cart crash.

Johnson was driving around in a golf cart in his community and somehow lost control of it, leading to an accident that included the cart falling over on the driver's side and sliding for 10 yards. Johnson also mentioned that there was a hill involved, though "it wasn't a steep hill." His injuries don't sound like they are anything more than wounds, but those wounds may keep him off the field for a couple weeks, according to Tom Kowalski. If you're having trouble imagining what these wounds are like, think back to your childhood and try to remember if you ever crashed your bike. The cuts and scrapes you got from sliding on the cement are probably similar to what Johnson got from the accident. Those types of wounds are sensitive to simply touch, so until they really heal, it would be tough to play football.

(More after the jump)

If any of you truly believe that Drew Stanton has a shot at starting, you may want to reconsider that opinion. The fact of the matter is that Stanton merely has a shot at making the team, as evidenced by this quote from Martin Mayhew:

"I like our two quarterbacks," Mayhew said. "I think we have probably the two most talented – physically talented – quarterbacks we’ve had since we’ve been here, and I feel good about those guys."
Mayhew is referring to Matthew Stafford and Daunte Culpepper, which shows that Stanton is on the outside looking in when it comes to the battle for starting QB. You would expect Mayhew to keep his statement completely politically correct by praising every QB on the roster, but he only singled out two of them. What's more, when asked about adding another quarterback to the roster (perhaps one of the three that worked out earlier this week), Mayhew said it's "possible" and declined to elaborate on whether or not it had to do with how Stanton looks.
Mayhew confirmed that running back Antone Smith was released, a move that actually excited him in the sense that they had to get rid of such a good player. The release was strictly due to numbers it appears, and the fact that their worst running back was still pretty good has Mayhew excited about the Lions' depth at that position.
While he is happy with the backfield and the linebackers, Mayhew did say there are "areas of concern" and made a point that making the roster better is an ongoing process.
Only media, season-ticket holders, and other guests got a chance to watch practice yesterday, but from the sounds of it, Matthew Stafford did quite well. Based on the following quote from former Division II center Jeff Chaney, the offensive line didn't do too hot.
"If first impressions mean anything, Stafford's going to be throwing from his back a lot this year," Chaney said.
That's never good to hear, especially with a rookie quarterback on the team. I'll give the O-line the benefit of the doubt for now, though, as it was the first day of practice. Plus, I'd like to get a live look at the team before I make any rash judgments. I will make an exception, however, for Calvin Johnson, as Megatron was Megatron yesterday.
Charlie Sanders thinks highly of Brandon Pettigrew.
During his press conference on Friday, Jim Schwartz made a joke about his visit with Jim Leyland, saying he could get in on the class-action lawsuits against tobacco companies after spending some time with the Tigers manager.
The Detroit News' Tim Twentyman provided a look at the behind-the-scenes people that make training camp run smoothly.
In a release on their official site, the Buccaneers mistakenly said they went 0-16 in 1976. The Lions just can't get any credit, even for failing.

Monday Notes: Falcons Game Observations

Sean Yuille — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:00:09 -0000

Off the top of my head, Ernie Sims, Paris Lenon, and Dan Campbell left yesterday's game with injuries. Sims was actually carted off the field with an ankle injury right before halftime and was listed as questionable to return. He was really the only defensive player that wasn't having problems making tackles, so his loss definitely hurt.

Lenon hurt his knee and had it heavily wrapped on the bench and Campbell went out after re-injuring his hamstring. Campbell has been limited due to the hamstring injury and hurt it again after only one catch. I think Michael Gaines may have also been hurt, but I have not heard any details about what happened to him.

We should have an update on all of the injuries from the Atlanta game later today.
Jon Kitna was very, very frustrated in the first half of yesterday's game. He not only was yelling at teammates but actually started to get in the face of a couple offensive coaches. On two separate occasions he called a timeout and quickly went over to the sideline and started yelling at a coach. The first time it was passing coordinator Kippy Brown that felt Kitna's wrath, and the second time it was running backs coach Sam Gash.

Kitna did calm down once the Lions started to score some points, but it was pretty discouraging to see him that angry. I like that he was showing passion, but there's a fine line between being fiery and being out of line. I tend to think the latter was where Kitna was as he really had no right to get in the faces of his coaches like that.
Calvin Johnson is this team's new #1 receiver as far as I'm concerned. He caught 7 passes for 107 yards and was clearly Kitna's go-to guy. Roy Williams hauled in 3 passes for 47 yards and a touchdown and made a couple nice plays, but Johnson is the Lions' premier receiver now.
Jon Kitna shouldn't be blamed for the interception he threw at the start of the second half as it apparently was Roy Williams' fault. Roy ran the wrong route and left Lawyer Milloy by himself to make the diving interception.
Despite their improvements during the preseason, the defense was absolutely pathetic. I don't know if I've ever seen a game with more missed tackles. That was a big reason why the Falcons ended up with 318 rushing yards. Michael Turner set a single-game franchise record for rushing yards with 220 of his own. He also scored a pair of touchdowns and would have had three had it not been for a holding penalty. Even their backup, Jerious Norwood, ran for 93 yards and a touchdown.
The passing defense wasn't any better. Matt Ryan went 9/13 for 161 yards and 1 touchdown. That touchdown came on his first NFL pass as he hit Michael Jenkins for a 62-yard score. Travis Fisher looked terrible on multiple occasions and Leigh Bodden didn't look much better at times.

To make matters worse, the dominant defensive line we saw in the preseason was rarely dominant in yesterday's game. The Lions only had a single sack and never got much pressure on Matt Ryan, resulting in his nearly 70% completion rating.
Detroit did seem to get closer to becoming a balanced team offensively. They ran the ball 21 times and had 33 passing attempts. Keep in mind, if the Lions weren't playing from behind during the entire game the amount of passing attempts would have been lower. Since they were trailing, though, they had to air it out more to give themselves a chance to win.
Kevin Smith only rushed for 48 yards on 16 carries in his NFL debut, but he didn't look bad by any means. There were more than a few plays where the offensive line was blown up and Smith had literally nowhere to run. Once or twice he was able to actually gain yards despite the terrible blocking, and on plays when there was a hole open he made a play. Plus, he did score a touchdown, which is great for any rookie in their first game.
Rudi Johnson only had 3 carries for 14 yards in this game. It's not surprising he didn't get more carries as he still is learning the playbook. The announcers said he barely knew any blocking assignments for passing plays, which is probably why he went in motion to the outside on the passing plays he was in the game for.
As mentioned when discussing Kevin Smith, the offensive line did not play well. Smith was tackled right when he got the handoff a few times, and Kitna's protection wasn't that great, either.
The Lions' inactives against Atlanta were as follows: QB Drew Stanton, OG Manny Ramirez, DE Ikaika Alama-Francis, DT Andre Fluellen, DT Landon Cohen, LB Gilbert Gardner, and CB Ramzee Robinson. Alama-Francis was bumped to the inactive list by DE Cliff Avril.
Even though there are still two games tonight that will affect the opening week of fantasy football, I am in good enough shape to start bragging about how sweet of an owner I am. In all three of my leagues I am not only ahead but am destroying my opponents. In the official POD League I am currently up on Maize 'n' Blue Jays 109.70-77.16. In the POD Overflow League I control a lead of 117.88-57.40. And finally, in the league that involves bloggers from both SB Nation and the AOL FanHouse, I am up 97.00-37.90.

I wasn't expecting to have all three of my teams turn out to be this good already, but I'm pleasantly surprised. Even my poorly drafted team in the official league put up 100+ points, although the big reason for that was that I had Michael Turner starting. We all got an up close look at how great of a game he had.
As far as fantasy football goes, I plan on posting an update on the official league every Tuesday. The update will include scores from each game and a quick recap of how each team did. I will also keep you guys updated on how I do in the overflow league as well as the SBN-AOL one.
Regarding my general posting schedule for the week that I will follow throughout the season, on top of the fantasy football update, I will also do a week whatever recap every Tuesday. I haven't decided on the exact format just yet, but I will try to briefly provide a recap of each game and/or will direct you to other SBN blogs for more information.

In general, what I expect my posting schedule or routine to look like is this: On Sunday nights/Mondays, I will recap the Lions game and discuss general things from it. On Tuesday, I will update fantasy football and the NFL. Moving on to Wednesday, I will wrap up coverage on the Lions' last game and begin to look ahead to their next one. Then Thursday will be spent really looking at the Lions' next opponent, and Friday and Saturday will get you ready for Sunday. I'll still have notes every day and keep you updated on any Lions news, but that will be in addition to what I listed above.
Ex-Lions tight end Sean McHugh was signed by the Steelers.
Chad Johnson, err, Chad Ocho Cinco, wasn't allowed to wear his new last name on his jersey this week due to a dispute with Reebok over unsold merchandise. I'm sure Ocho Cinco will have no problem buying his old unsold jerseys considering his new one will have little trouble selling.
The Jets were left in a predicament against Miami after kicker Mike Nugent got hurt in the first quarter of yesterday's game. Backup QB Kellen Clemens and safety Kerry Rhodes were actually attempting kickoffs before the second half in warm-ups. Thankfully for the Jets' sake neither was needed as Nugent returned in the third quarter.