SB Nation - Andre Fluellen

Injury Report: Detroit Lions (2-9) @ Cincinnati Bengals (8-3)

Kirkendall — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:18:59 -0000

BENGALS	WED	THUR	FRI	STATUS
C Jonathan Luigs (back)	DNP	DNP	DNP	Doubtful
DT Domata Peko (knee)	DNP	DNP	DNP	Doubtful
RB Bernard Scott (toe)	DNP	DNP	DNP	Doubtful
WR Laveranues Coles (chest)	LP	LP	LP	Probable
S Kyries Hebert (hip)	LP	LP	LP	Probable
DT Tank Johnson (knee)	LP	LP	LP	Probable
LB Rey Maualuga (foot)	LP	LP	LP	Probable
DE Frostee Rucker (neck)	LP	LP	LP	Probable
CB Morgan Trent (knee)	LP	LP	LP	Probable
RB Cedric Benson (hip)	FP	FP	FP	Probable
LB Keith Rivers (calf)	FP	FP	FP	Probable
DT Orien Harris (illness)	--	DNP	--	--
S Tom Nelson (foot)	--	--	DNP	Probable

DETROIT	WED	THUR	FRI
G Daniel Loper (back)	DNP	DNP	DNP	Questionable
S Kalvin Pearson (hamstring)	DNP	DNP	DNP	Out
S Louis Delmas (ankle)	LP	LP	LP	Questionable
WR Eric Fowler (knee)	LP	DNP	DNP	Out
DT Grady Jackson (knee)	LP	DNP	LP	Probable
LB Ernie Sims (hamstring)	LP	LP	LP	Questionable
DE Dewayne White (toe)	LP	LP	LP	Questionable
DE Andre Fluellen (toes)	FP	FP	FP	Probable
LB Zack Follett (neck)	FP	FP	FP	Probable
WR Calvin Johnson (knee)	FP	FP	FP	Probable
QB Matthew Stafford (left shoulder)	FP	FP	FP	Probable

Official Vikings/Lions Injury Reports

Gonzo — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 04:54:02 -0000

Good evening/morning, campers! Glad to see that things have been relatively normal here, with the exception of some of the more creative FanPosts (all of which have been deleted). I would have gotten to these injury reports a bit sooner, but I spent my evening last night in New Orleans at a retirement party for a very good friend of mine that is moving on to the civilian world after putting in his 20 years. Let me tell you. . .Disney World might advertise themselves as the happiest place on Earth, but they've got nothing on Bourbon Street.

And I'll just leave it at that. This is, after all, a family show.

So, let's move on to the injury reports. As is customary here, we'll look at the visiting team first, so his Minnesota's injury report for tomorrow's game.

Minnesota Vikings Injuries

Probable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Anthony Herrera	back	09/18/2009
Jim Kleinsasser	hand	09/18/2009

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Heath Farwell	hamstring	09/18/2009

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Erin Henderson	calf	09/18/2009

Henderson is going to be out, we know that already. The big question here is Heath Farwell's status. According to Access Vikings, Henderson was the only member of the team that didn't practice on Friday, so since Farwell practiced, I'm guessing that he'll be a go for tomorrow's game, barring anything surprising. So, the Vikings should basically have their entire complement of players going into Ford Field tomorrow.

And here's the injury report for the Lions:

Detroit Lions Injuries

Probable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Grady Jackson	knee	09/18/2009
William James	foot	09/18/2009
Jason Hanson	knee	09/18/2009
Phillip Buchanon	neck	09/18/2009
Daniel Loper	knee	09/18/2009

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Eric King	shoulder	09/18/2009
Andre Fluellen	knee	09/18/2009

Doubtful

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Cliff Avril	hamstring	09/18/2009

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Cody Spencer	knee	08/18/2009
Daniel Bullocks	knee	08/20/2009
Jared DeVries	achilles-tendon	08/11/2009
Chris Roberson	undisclosed	09/05/2009
Damion Cook	triceps	08/07/2009

Grady Jackson is probable despite not having practiced on Friday, and his matchup against Vikings' center John Sullivan will be one of the more interesting ones to watch tomorrow. Sullivan had his difficulties with Shaun Rogers last week in Cleveland, and while Jackson is no longer in the class of guys like Rogers, he's still a big run-stuffing body in the middle of the Detroit defense.

Cliff Avril will likely be inactive for the Lions tomorrow, and I haven't seen anything indicating that anyone else on the Lions' injury report is a definite deactivation for tomorrow.

So there are the bumps and bruises for both teams going into the Week 2 matchup at Ford Field. Not a lot of hugely game-changing injuries for either side. We're about 12 hours away, folks, so make sure you're here for the Game Thread and all the fun that's involved with that. We'll see you here then!

Did The Draft Help The Lions?

Brandon — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:00:14 -0000

More photos » by Paul Sancya - AP

Browse more photos »

How could it not?

The mid-season trade of WR Roy Williams provided Detroit with Dallas' 1st and 3rd round picks, giving them five picks in the top 82. With nearly every spot on the roster in need of improvement, this was a very important draft for them.

Detroit slipped from a promising 6-2 start in 2007, to a 7-9 finish, to a 0-16 disaster. Their defense was the worst in the NFL in 2007, based on total yards allowed, and it got even worse in 2008. Their offense was respectable in 2007, thanks to a solid season from QB Jon Kitna. But Kitna got off to a poor start in 2008, was soon thereafter lost for the season with an injury, and eventually traded to Dallas this offseason.

Now they're building around No. 1 overall selection QB Matthew Stafford.

Looking back, I gave Matt Millen a thumbs up last season. He drafted two offensive starters, RT Gosder Cherlius and RB Kevin Smith, and added three defensive players in the first three rounds. Cherlius was good last season, when he wasn't taking a shot at DE Jared Allen. Smith was good too, but he had too many carries in college to expect a long NFL career and his mouth isn't doing him any favors. Millen did waste his 2nd round pick on LB Jordon Dizon, who seems destined to remain strictly a special teams player. 3rd round DT Andre Fluellen is strickly a backup. 3rd round DE Cliff Avril had 5 sacks as a rookie and has been described as one of the three best players on the team. Not a bad haul.

Here's what Detroit found in this April's draft:

1st round (No. 1 overall) - QB Matthew Stafford. I'm not a fan of this pick. He's a combine superstar who doesn't play like it on the field. That said, he's a high risk-high reward pick in a draft without a clear top player. As much as the franchise needs a boost, they can't automatically name him the starter. In recent seasons, I've watched QB Aaron Rodgers and QB Brian Brohm struggle horribly as rookies. They have to wait until he's ready.
1st round - TE Brandon Pettigrew. At first, this seemed like a luxury pick. Few tight ends are drafted in the 1st round and Detroit has so many holes on the roster. But GM Ted Thompson considered drafting Pettigrew with the No. 9 overall selection and he was the best receiver available at that spot.
2nd round - SS Louis Delmas. He's a good tackler, good in coverage, and very aggressive. But at 6'0" and 200 lbs. he's also undersized at safety. I would have liked this pick if Delmas could play cornerback. He's similar to, but a little lighter than, SS Atari Bigby, but I doubt anyone in the NFL would trade a 2nd round pick for Bigby.
3rd round - LB DeAndre Levy. I really want to like the selection of a Wisconsin Badger, but I don't like this pick. Levy is a little too slow and a little to small to play outside linebacker in the NFL. And he rarely stood out when I watched the Badgers play.
3rd round - WR Derrick Williams. As Sean notes, they could really use him as a return man. The Lions depth at WR behind Calvin Johnson is really weak, so they needed to address this position in the draft. But it seems like they drafted him a couple rounds too early.

They might strike gold with one of their later picks, but it's hard to expect anyone drafted outside top 100 players overall to be an impact player.

The more I look at this draft class, the less I like it. If Stafford and Pettigrew are future Pro Bowlers, then it's a good (maybe great) draft. But I'm not high on any of their top 5 picks except Pettigrew.

And as Sean points out, new GM Martin Mayhew doesn't represent a break from the Matt Millen era, but a continuation of it:

I will just say that I am furious with the promotion of Lewand and Mayhew. Both are from the Millen era and need to be relieved of their duties as well. No offense to Mayhew especially, but it's time to get some new faces in the front office.

Maybe it is the beginning of an improved Lions franchise. But it's more of the same; a weak draft class, signing pointless free agents like WR Keary Colbert, and a Millen inspired front office. Now they need to make a horrible trade, like when they gave away DT Shaun Rogers, and it will be like Millen never left. The Lions look like they're still at least one more front office change away from providing the Packers some real competition.

Poll

What draft grade do you give to Detroit's 2009 class?

A

68 votes

B

211 votes

C

164 votes

D

54 votes

F

26 votes

523 votes | Poll has closed

Recent Draft History: Detroit Lions

mgrex03 — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:09:50 -0000

We all know the running joke in the league is that the Lions only take Wide Receivers in the first round, especially when they are in the top 10. Thankfully for Lions' fans, Matt Millen is no longer drafting for them, even though I think he had learned from drafting the same position in the top 10 3 years in a row.

I took a look at the last 3 drafts for the Lions, to try and see if they had any tendencies, which may help shape where they will go in 2009. Here's a list of their picks from the first 3 rounds, as well as the number of games played by those picks:

Year	Round	Player	Position	Games
2008	1	Gosder Cherilus	OT	16
2008	2	Jordon Dizon	OLB	12
2008	3	Kevin Smith	RB	16
2008	3	Andre Fluellen	DT	8
2008	3	Cliff Avril	LB	15
2007	1	Calvin Johnson	WR	31
2007	2	Drew Stanton	QB	3
2007	2	Ikaika Alama-Francis	DE	19
2007	2	Gerald Alexander	FS	21
2006	1	Ernie Sims	OLB	48
2006	2	Daniel Bullocks	SS	31
2006	3	Brian Calhoun	RB	11

Some notes:

After a few years of really struggling in the draft, the last 3 years have been pretty good. I'd consider Calvin Johnson the best player drafted in that time frame, and I credit the Lions organization for taking the PR lumps, taking another WR, and ending up with a fantastic player.
The Lions had 5 picks in the first 3 rounds last year, which is the same as 2009. They went 3 on defense, all up front. I'm guessing they'll take at least a Safety this year, as they've brought in 2 CBs since Friday. They'll probably stay away from a RB as well, especially with the signing of Maurice Morris on Friday.
These 12 guys have played in 231 of a possible 352 games, which is 65.6%. I don't know what the league average is, but this seems pretty low. Only 3 players have played in every game of their career, with 2 others being just 1 game short.
Of the 22 starters in Week 1, only 11 of them were drafted by the Lions. Again, I don't have any stats from other teams, but I'm guessing the more successful teams are in the 15 to 16 range. They'll need to work on drafting and retaining their talent to get back to competing for the playoffs.

With the Lions choosing #1 overall, here are a few interesting notes:

The last time the Lions had the #1 overall pick was 1980, and they took Heisman trophy winner RB Billy Sims. Had 2008 Heisman winner Sam Bradford decided to come out this year, I think the Lions would have selected their 2nd Oklahoma Heisman winner.
Over the past 20 years, there have been 11 QBs taken #1 overall, but only 5 have turned out to be NFL quality QBs (Aikman, Bledsoe, Manning x 2, Palmer). The Lions should tread wisely when contemplating taking Stafford #1 overall.
The last 2 times the Lions have taken a QB with their first pick, they've come away with Joey Harrington and Andre Ware. Again, there's no need to take the QB #1 just because everyone says you should or will.

Lastly, here's a chart of what positions the Lions have picked over the past 3 years. This should give us a glimpse into what the Lions could do in 2009:

Position	QB	RB	WR	TE	OT	OG/C	DE	DT	LB	CB	S
Drafted	1	3	2	0	2	2	2	1	5	3	3

From a sheer numbers look, the Lions have drafted heavily on defense the past 3 years. I expect them to focus a little more on offense than in the past, but still get at least 3 or 4 defensively, as that's where they really struggled last season.

Where We Actually. . .Get This. . .Talk About Today's Game Against Detroit

Gonzo — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:16:29 -0000

I have to start here by giving a pretty massive apology to the good folks over at Pride of Detroit. With all the StarCaps news and the stuff about the Williams Wall that's come out this week, I've managed to pretty much ignore this afternoon's contest. I'll make up for as much of that as I can in this post here.

Let's start out by looking at the injury reports for both teams for today's game, and then we'll get into a few other things. We'll start with the injury report for the Beloved Purple.

Minnesota Vikings Injuries

Probable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Kevin Williams	legal/disciplinary	12.5.2008
Pat Williams	legal/disciplinary	12.5.2008
Jared Allen	shoulder	12.5.2008
Bryant McKinnie	ankle	12.5.2008
Darren Sharper	ankle	12.5.2008
Madieu Williams	shoulder	12.5.2008
Letroy Guion	ankle	12.5.2008

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Artis Hicks	elbow	12.5.2008
Garrett Mills	ankle	12.5.2008

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
E.J. Henderson	foot/toes	10.6.2008
Heath Farwell	knee	8.11.2008
Kenderick Allen	wrist	8.19.2008
Drew Radovich	shoulder	10.13.2008
Jayme Mitchell	knee	8.11.2008
Michael Boulware	wrist	8.30.2008
Charles Gordon	ankle	11.13.2008

This is one of Minnesota's longer injury reports of the year. And it should be longer, because this particular report doesn't contain the name of DE Brian Robison. Robison had arthroscopic knee surgery earlier in the week and will be out for a couple weeks.

Of the remaining players on the injury list, Hicks and Mills both had limited participation in Friday's practice, and I wouldn't be surprised to see both of them inactive this afternoon. This would mean another start for Ryan Cook at right tackle, which would be his second in a row after getting benched just prior to the Jacksonville game.

The rest of the players shown on the injury report had full participation in Friday's practice, according to NFL.com.

Now, on to the Lions' injury report:

Detroit Lions Injuries

Probable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Cory Redding	knee	12.5.2008
Stephen Peterman	knee	12.5.2008
Kevin Smith	ankle	12.5.2008

Questionable

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Keith Smith	groin	12.5.2008
Chuck Darby	calf	12.5.2008
Shaun McDonald	ankle	12.5.2008
Andre Fluellen	back	12.5.2008
Drew Stanton	concussion	12.5.2008

Out (IR / Out / Suspended / Physically unvailable)

Player	Injury Type	Injury Date
Jon Bradley	shoulder	8.19.2008
Mike Furrey	concussion	12.1.2008
Stanley Wilson	Achilles	8.11.2008
Teddy Lehman	hamstring	8.10.2008
Dan Campbell	hamstring	9.9.2008
Jared DeVries	hand	11.24.2008
Jon Kitna	back	10.14.2008
Gerald Alexander	neck	10.13.2008
Brian Calhoun	undisclosed	8.30.2008
Reggie Ball	knee	7.26.2008

There are three players for the Lions that NFL.com has listed as "Out" that don't appear on the report above. Those players are LB Alex Lewis, DE Dewayne White, and QB Dan Orlovsky. QB Drew Stanton is also unlikely to play, which means that journeyman Drew Henson will be the primary backup to Daunte Culpepper this afternoon for the Motor City Kitties.

Of the remaining players on Detroit's injury report, Peterman and Redding are both listed as having full participation in Friday's practice (as is Stanton, but he's already been ruled out), while the remaining players were all limited in their participation.

One name that you didn't see on the Vikings' injury report. . .and won't be seeing there for the rest of the year. . .is WR Robert Ferguson. The Vikings cut the former Packer a couple of days ago in order to make room for their newest signing. That newest signing? That would be defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy.

Yes, the same Jimmy Kennedy that many people were angry that the Vikings passed over for Kevin Williams in the 2003 draft. . .and I'll admit to being one of those people at first. But while Kevin Williams has gone on to become the best all-around defensive tackle in the National Football League, Kennedy has been a pretty massive flop. (And at 6'4" and 320 pounds, "massive" is a pretty accurate description.) By signing with the Vikings, he's already up to his fourth NFL team, having been drafted by the St. Louis Rams, then moving on to Chicago and finally to Jacksonville, who had released him after their game against Minnesota a couple of weeks ago.

Kennedy is kind of intriguing. . .he's big, and someone obviously thought that he had talent at some point in time. If anyone can get anything out of the guy, it would be Vikings' DL coach Karl Dunbar. With the Williams Wall being intact for this week's game, I'm not sure how many snaps he'll actually see. . .heck, I'm not even sure what number he's going to be wearing. . .but hopefully he can get some work in at some point this afternoon.

I'll get a post about what this game means for the Vikings in the playoff standings here shortly. The game thread, as per usual, will be going up right around 10:00 AM Central time. Keep it tuned right here, ladies and gentlemen!

Week 14 Injury Report

Sean Yuille — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 08:30:46 -0000

DETROIT LIONS
Pos.	Player	Injury	Status
QB	Dan Orlovsky	Hand	Out
QB	Drew Stanton	Concussion	Questionable
RB	Kevin Smith	Ankle	Probable
WR	Shaun McDonald	Ankle	Questionable
OG	Stephen Peterman	Knee	Probable
DE	Dewayne White	Calf	Out
DT	Chuck Darby	Calf	Questionable
DT	Andre Fluellen	Back	Questionable
DT	Cory Redding	Groin	Probable
LB	Alex Lewis	Pectoral	Out
CB	Keith Smith	Groin	Questionable

MINNESOTA VIKINGS
Pos.	Player	Injury	Status
TE	Garrett Mills	Ankle	Questionable
OL	Artis Hicks	Elbow	Questionable
OT	Bryant McKinnie	Ankle	Probable
DE	Brian Robison	Knee	Out
DE	Jared Allen	Shoulder	Probable
DT	Letroy Guion	Ankle	Probable
S	Darren Sharper	Ankle	Probable
S	Madieu Williams	Shoulder	Probable

NFL INJURY REPORT GUIDE
Status	Definition
Probable	75% chance that the player will play in the game
Questionable	50% chance that the player will play in the game
Doubtful	25% chance that the player will play in the game
Out	0% chance that the player will play in the game

Friday Notes: Culpepper to Start; Orlovsky Out for Vikings Game

Sean Yuille — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:53:23 -0000

Daunte Culpepper is going to start for the Lions on Sunday. Dan Orlovsky attempted to throw in practice and things didn't go well. He had pain in his ligaments, signaling that he is not ready to return just yet.
Also not ready to return is Drew Stanton, who missed practice on Wednesday because he is still suffering from the symptoms of the concussion he got against Tampa Bay. That means that Drew Henson will be Culpepper's backup for the second game in a row.
Daunte Culpepper currently weighs 270 pounds.
William Clay Ford needs to read Alex Marvez's recent column on why the Lions should hire Scott Pioli. Marvez came up with a blueprint for the Lions to follow that basically is this: Hire Pioli, who would then bring Pats offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels with him to be the head coach, and then sign Matt Cassel. Pioli would be at the top of my wish list for potential general managers even if he didn't bring a coach and a QB with him. The possibility that he would makes him all the more enticing.
Martin Mayhew is preparing for the draft in the complete opposite way of how Matt Millen did so as the Lions' GM. Mayhew has actually watched potential draft picks in person, and this line pretty much sums up the entire Millen era:

According to two different Lions officials, Mayhew has done more in-season traveling this year than former president Matt Millen did in his seven years on the job combined.
I've made it known on this blog before that I want everyone involved with Millen gone after this season. I believe that a completely new staff is necessary to succeed. That's no slight against Martin Mayhew, who has done a good job as GM so far; he is guilty by association in this case.
Rookie defensive linemen Cliff Avril and Andre Fluellen may start for the Lions on Sunday.

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.

Matt Millen Discusses Shaun Rogers

Sean Yuille — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:55:39 -0000

Here's what Matt Millen said to Peter King about Shaun Rogers recently:

"Mark my words: If Shaun Rogers is healthy, he'll be the NFL defensive player of the year.''

Cue up the questions about why Millen traded him to Cleveland if he thinks he can be the defensive player of the year. I even feel like asking that as well, but I'm not going to because the trade had to happen. Regardless of how well Rogers plays for Cleveland this season the trade will benefit the Lions.

Leigh Bodden, the player the Lions got in exchange for Rogers, will be a solid cornerback and part of the reason why Detroit's secondary is much improved compared to last year. Also, the Lions drafted Andre Fluellen with the pick they got from Cleveland, and someday he could become a starter. For now, he will provide depth at defensive tackle.

Probably the biggest reason why the Lions will benefit from this trade is because Shaun Rogers is gone. The Lions defensive line was great in the preseason and did an amazing job of putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Rogers did a great job of that during his Lions career as well, but he wasn't consistent enough. Whether it was games where he just stunk or couldn't play much due to fatigue, Rogers actually did hurt the Lions' pass rush in some situations. That's not to take away anything from the great things he did do, but in the long run I think him going to Cleveland will benefit all parties involved.