I started to right this as a reply to the "We need a running game" but it got a little to lengthy so I created a new thing

I am not a wanna be football coach but from what i can see it isn't our backs fault. Our o line doesn't get any push nor does it create any seems holes or really anywhere for the running backs to go. Best does have a propensity to bounce it outside too much but also he cuts it back a lot and that is pretty much all our running game is at this time. I know people say we need backs to "hit the hole" but what hole? Best's small stature doesn't allow him to do that so I would also like to see  Keiland Williams more; but that is still an indictment on our run blocking. Basically it is saying o well our o-line can’t do anything so let’s just have them stand there while we have a big back run as fast as he can at the defense and try to stumble forward for a few yards.  Sadly i think this is what we are going to have to do; just to have some balance. But in the future I think the o-line needs some major work:

LT: Jeff Backus: I'm not going to over react with the crap he put forth today especially on that last drive in regulation. He is a pretty good pass protector not great but not horrible. As for running meh he is ok. I would say he isn't the problem with the run game but he doesn't help much either. Eventually he will need to be replaced but that is WAYYYYYY easier said than done.

LG: Rob Sims ill keep it short he is good IMO the best o line man we have. Enough said

C: Dominic Raiola: You have to love this guy he is a hard worker a good leader and pretty smart..... But he is tiny (as much as 300 pound lineman go) He gets absolutely no push and when some NT way probably 100 pounds more than him the best he can do is keep them from blowing up the play. As much as I hate to say it I think we need to start looking for a better center; it inst our first priority but it is something that we need to start to look towards especially because he isn’t young anymore either.

RG: Stephan Peterman: UGH!! As I said earlier Raiola isn’t our top priority…. I think Peterman our top priority not only on the O line but probably the whole team (I think or DB’s are a lot better than people give them credit) Peterman is supposed to be that great run blocking guard…. I don’t see it. I see no push from his side. I’m not saying he is the worst guard in the league but I really think the combination of a small center and a below average guard is really killing our run game especially between the tackles. Although his superman impression was pretty funny looking our offensive line can’t have anymore stupid penalties like that. I think we should look very hard at Leonard Davis… This man is a giant and could really compensate for the small size of Raiola.

RT: I don’t know what to say…… I think Hilliard looks pretty good and Gosder is getting some very tough love (although maybe no love is there). I’m not really going to address this because in Schwartz I trust. I see talent in both of these guys and I think we will be ok. I don’t know if it is possible putting Cherilus in at guard where he can be that aggressive player I like. Just an idea I have no idea if it would work . Maybe Fox will get thrown into the mix as well.

Many Lions Fans like me are unable to watch our beloved Lions because we live out of state. This and the fact that a blackout sometime this season is inevitable, is why I'm writing a lesson on watching streams.

1. Web based streams suck, they are bad quality, often hard to find, and inconsistent. So download Stream Torrent
some people use other software but for now ill stick to stream torrent for its simplicity.

2. Install stream torrent

3. Go the myp2p.eu this is a guide for the lions but the also have tons of other sports.

4. Find Lions vs Eagles line and press the little tv with the arrow in it on the right.

5. At least one link will say stream torrents press Play and depending on your web browser (I use firefox) it will ask you to open an application and it should already have stream torrent selected in that case press ok.

6. Sit back and watch the lions!!!! :) 

HERE IS THE STREAM LINK FOR THE DAY  LINK

I set up a yahoo fantasy football league for anyone who wants to join. It is free because I am a poor college student. The draft is September the 4th. I hope that it will be a 20 person league  with four, five team divisions which will be kind of cool. The other cool feature is I added one DL,LB,DB to each team. I have played in a league like this before and it was very fun, I can remove it if you want though. The url for the leage is :  http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/184477

league id is:184477

password : golions

comment with questions.

In the wake of the 75th NFL draft almost every sports media outlet will be releasing draft grades. I will admit; like every other fan I love looking at these to see what “experts” think about my favorite team’s draft.  The more research I have done the more I realize how pointless these draft grades are.

It is not a novel idea that draft grades are extremely inaccurate, most people say to look at them with a grain of salt. I go a bit further and say to ignore them altogether. There should be a warning in the title that says for entertainment purposes only.

To prove my point let’s look at the core of former Lion’s GM Matt Millen’s drafts. Please folks prepare for the worst, young children should leave the room now.

2003: Let me first say HAHAHA. Ok now that is over; this draft is absolutely worthless. Charles Rogers had the potential to be a great a wide receiver and I understand why people were excited about him. As a foolish 13 year old at the time, I was excited to see my favorite MSU player wear blue and silver. Too bad Rogers smoked more blunts than he did defenders while in the NFL. I won’t get into Rogers sad demise (like opting to go to jail rather than going to an alcohol rehab program) because it will make me too sad.

The linked article doesn’t give the draft a Z- because of Cory Redding. Redding has sense bean traded after two unproductive seasons. He was a solid 3rd round pick but not a good one. I would go with a solid F on this draft judging by the fact you number two overall pick isn’t in the league anymore.

2004: Wow another A+ draft for Matt Millen. Why was he ever fired and classified as the worst GM ever by all Lion’s fan (satire is harder to write than say). First off this is probably the best draft of Millen; not that that is saying much. I will not completely bash the picks; Kevin Jones was pretty darn good until he got injured. Millen was able to make some trades to pick him up. (I just complimented Matt Millen I may have just thrown up in my mouth) Roy Williams only had some talent and had successful years, mostly in a pass happy offense though. I can’t call Williams a bust because we got 1st and 3rd round picks for him.

2005: yet another A+ for Matt Millen. This draft was absolutely awful, Mike Williams just signed with Seattle, which I guess makes it better that we can say he is still in the league. Other than the big fat bust Mike Williams (pun intended) I haven’t heard of a lot of the guys the Lions drafted. Oh that’s right most of them don’t play football anymore. Dan Orlovsky is the only salvageable pick in this draft. As a 5th rounder he became what he was supposed to be, a solid back up.

Well now you have some evidence about how deceiving draft grades can be. As for now be happy that this organization acquired some talent college players; and hope that they will be productive in the NFL.  Just as another example look at the grade for last year’s draft. I think one year with this draft class has shown that it is worth more than a B-. However classes cannot be truly analyzed until 3 or 4 full seasons. I hope the 2010 draft headlined by Suh and Best, will turn around the Lions.

Today is by far the most boring day of the combine. As much as it is funny to watch 300 pound man running a 40 yard dash it isn't that applicable to their success in the NFL. I watched the offensive lineman over the tight ends (who would be much more fun to watch) because the Lions have much greater need for a lineman after the pickup of Brandon Pettigrew. Three players caught most of my attention during the workouts.

1. Russel Okung came into the combine as the undisputed highest rated offensive tackle in the draft. He did nothing to change this view (unlike Andre Smith did last year). Okung looked strong in drills and had the second highest amount of reps in the bench press (38). After the combine I think it is safe to say that the Okung will be picked high in the draft unless he completely flops during his pro day.

2. Mike Iupati was a little disappointing. I have not seen him very much mostly because Idaho doesn't get very much national exposure. I really have only heard great things about him and I was disappointed in his numbers. Numbers really don't mean that much with offensive lineman compared to film, that being said I still would like to have seen him put 225 up at least 30 times. However this might be a blessing in disguise, he might fall into the second round where the Lions could snatch him up.

3. The most impress combine performer of the day was Bruce Campbell. He looked very athletic (32 inch vertical and a 4.85 40) and has the prototypical frame of 6 foot 6 and 315 pounds. Before the combine he was slated as a late first round pick with a lot of upside. After today I wouldn't be surprised if he was the second OT taken. Jason Smith proves that the NFL is moving toward more athletic tackles to counter the speed rushers prevalent in the NFL I doubt that the lions would get either of these tackles but mike Iupati is still a possibility.

Tomorrow the QB, RB and WR will take the field.

Reports released yesterday by NFL network’s Jason la Canfora confirm that Detroit will “actively shop” their number 2 overall pick in the 2010 NFL draft. In order to get the most value out of this pick there needs to be a highly touted prospected that people are willing to move up in the draft to get. The easiest way for the Lion’s number 2 to pick rise in value is for one of the top rated quarterback’s stock to skyrocket. This would create two possible scenarios: 1. The Saint Louis Rams would use the first pick in the draft to pick up their future franchise QB or 2. One of the big defensive tackles (Suh or McCoy) is picked first overall leaving the top rated quarterback still on the board. In both of these situations a big named prospect would fall to a number two spot where a plethora of teams may be willing to move up to pick this individual. Both of these scenarios depend on at least one of the quarterbacks proving to be a potential franchise quarterback.

You may be skeptical of why the Lions should move down in the draft when a possible game changing player at a position of need is available. The answer is simple though; the Lions need as many good players as they can. If they can get two defensive starters by trading down rather than one this would be a huge plus for their abysmal defensive. The Lions need talent at every position; overall talent is much more important for the team’s success than a potentially great player. The key word there is potentially; as much as people try to say Suh is a “sure thing” there is no real way to know. A bust at this point in the rebuilding process would be extremely detrimental for the Lion’s future.

The remaining of this post will simply be speculations of trades that could be made that involve the Lion’s moving their no. 2 overall pick. The most likely of suitors for the 2nd pick in the draft would be the Seattle Seahawks if they fall in love with one of the quarterback prospects. The Seahawks are in one of the weakest conferences in the NFL and therefore might find it hard to be at the top of the draft again. Seattle also needs to find the next franchise QB to replace the aging Matt Hasselbeck, and Seneca Wallace (currently their back up) Who does not appear to have what it takes to be a starting NFL QB.

There is the possibility that Seattle might put of drafting a QB high in hopes that Jake Locker, the Washington Native, in the 2011 draft. This is highly unlikely because Locker will surely be the first QB taken in next year’s draft; and quite possibly the first overall player taken.  However, if a deal is completed between Detroit and Seattle it would most likely involve Detroit getting both of Seattle’s first round picks (the 6th and 14th overall). The deal would also include the swapping of 2nd round picks or Detroit’s the 3rd round pick for Seattle’s 4th The backend of the trade has many permutations (involving future draft picks) but the crucial part of the trade would be Detroit picking up two first round picks and Seattle moving up to take their future QB.

Other teams that might move up:

Jacksonville: Also need a QB for the future, but don’t have the pieces to move up unless the Lions wish to stockpile picks for next season’s draft.

Cleveland: May want to solve their QB situation once and for all, but either a third team must be involved or they would have to somehow drop Quinn or Anderson before the trade. Overall this is unlikely because of their difficult QB situation and with their new president Mike Holmgren picking off the radar QB’s like Farve and Hasselbeck.

Washington: Might want to move up from the 5th spot to nab their future quarterback before anyone else can, like they tried last year with Sanchez. This is unlikely unless there are many teams trying to pick up the top QB in the draft.

I just watched a video about Tim Tebow and how he is preparing for his NFL career. While the video was fairly interesting the last 5 seconds were classic.  Steve Mariucci (ex Lion’s head coach who now is a  NFL network employee) leaned over to give Tebow a handshake and said, “You can play quarterback for me any day”. I could only stop laughing long enough to write this post. I am not a big fan of Tim Tebow and unless a miracle happens I don’t think he will ever succeed in the NFL. No wonder Mariucci was never a good coach in Detroit and Joey Harrington never developed.  This video made me like Jim Schwartz even more.