me and some friends are going to be at the Cincy game this Sunday, so everyone keep an eye on the tv for what I'm guessing will be the only/large minority of blue in the stadium. It wont be hard to see us if we win, as we will storm the field and attempt to tear down the goal posts. I'm guessing that if the Lions offense can look decent and our special teams show up it will be a good game, as the Bengals seem to never blow teams out and are content with winning by a field goal, so who knows, I smell an upset. GO LIONS!!!!!!

Hey, I'm a Lions fan, as you can tell by the subject. Me and some friends are driving down from West Michigan to attend the game on Sunday (the matchup looked better during the offseason needless to say, ha) and are staying at the Spring Hill Marriot in midtown, and I had a couple of question...

What are the best sports bars/general bars in the area (preferably walking/cab distance)?

Are there any shuttles from the hotel to the game or within the area?

Any other info we should know about downtown would be appreciated, we'll be there Saturday morning through Sunday night, so let me know.

Anyways, thanks in advance and good luck on Sunday, congrats on the great season so far, but  for my sake, I'm hoping theres a speed bump come Sunday.

McCauley was waived by the Vikings yesterday and is a former 3rd round pick in 2007.

This is the first of many waiver wire acquisitions, hopefully. Anything to help out the secondary is a good move in my opinion. Perhaps a trade or two as well as 3-4 more pickups would be awesome. Dline as well as seconday should be top concern. And then maybe look for Oline help with someone like Tony Pashos.

heres a link: Pro Football Talk

Saturday. Culpepper will play a quarter and a half and Stafford will do the same with Stanton playing the 4th quarter. Culpepper and Stafford will both play with the 1st offense with all recieviers rotating in and out. Also, Phillip Buchanon, Anthony Henry, and Dennis Northcutt will sit out. The rest of this story can be found at www.mlive.com/lions.

Essentially, this is the final battle for the starting QB spot, no excuses, both contenders will have a level playing field and will have major weapons with Johnson & Johnson and Pettigrew playing for the first time all preseason. Let's hope they will also have K. Smith so we can see how he does in significant action in the new power running scheme. The only concern is Sims could sit out on defense and with our two starting CB's out, they miss a good opportunity to get better playing against Peyton Manning.

According to John Niyo of the Detroit Free Press, John Thornton has turned down an offer to play for Detroit next year:

" I would probably have to gain weight. That was the situation with Detroit [and] Coach [Jim] Schwartz, who coached me in Tennessee.

"I went up there and we kind of agreed to a deal and a few days later I sort of backed out of it for various reasons," Thornton added.  "I would have had to gain about 20 pounds actually.  He wanted me to be pretty big in the middle, so I would just have to start eating a lot.  I'm in pretty good shape."

"I wouldn't be able to come back right now and play 60 plays, but I don't think anybody can right now."

 It's nice to see that Schwartz is sticking to his "Get Bigger, Get Better" mantra and not bending on it just to get a solid free agent. It's also nice to see a player turn us down for a reason other than "it's the Lions".

Essentially this leaves Kevin Carter or even possibly Simeon Rice to help out our defensive line, unless some players get released during training camp or leading to training camp to make it to 80-players, but obviously these cuts aren't exactly the cream of the crop. Perhaps we could organize another trade before training camp for a solid DT. Only time will tell.

Heres a link to the original article: 

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090713/SPORTS0101/907130368/1265/SPORTS08/Free-agent-says-no-to-Lions

I know alot of people are upset at waiting to draft key defensive players or offensive line, but if you look at the Titans, they are built upon mid-late round picks. On the defense last year in Tennessee they had only 4 1st round picks I believe (Griffin, Haynesworth, Kearse, and Bulluck). And the rest of the players are pretty much 4th round and later.

The same thing can be said about their offense, as the whole line is middle round picks, and only their "flash" positions have 1st round talent.

I think his system relies heavily on successful coaches, to get more from their "value" players than other teams get from their "star" players. If we can pick up some players that will become free agents throughout the remaining offseason that can be solid contributors, then I think Schwartz can his staff can coach them up and create a quality team as opposed to stars.

Then again, I am an optimist, and also understand that this is going to take a couple of years to make us a serious/respectable playoff team every year. I'm not saying that we wont make it to the playoffs this year, because anything is possible, but I figure we gave Millen 8 horrible years, we can give the new guys at least 4.

And one last thing, I think with the coaches we have, Sammie Lee Hill will end up being the next Shaun Rogers, but with a better work ethic and motor. He'll be a cornerstone of our defense along Avril, Sims, and Delmas.

Ok, I don't mind ESPN, even though they seem to be behind on news by about an hour or two to a day or two. Its a nice change from NFL Network so I can get the scoop on all the other sports. But with some of the stuff that their "experts" say is rediculous.

Here's what Eric Allen just said about Eugene Monroe being the best pick in the draft(this is a generalization):

"He's the best because of his motivation and desire to play. He said following bein picked that he just wanted to play, he said he'd be fine to be picked in the 8th round. He even said he's ready to go out and beat Pittsburgh."

doesn't that sound alot like another 1st round LT, Michael Oher. C'mon guys, if you're getting paid, what I assume is a prett nice salary, get your facts straight. The Jags aren't even rivals with the Steelers, so why would that be relevant.

Ok, let me make one thing clear, I totally understand why there are plenty of people upset about this pick. For one, Joey Harrington, for two, Andre Ware, for three, 32nd ranked defense, and for four, 40+ millions dollars.

I wouldn't call myself a 100% Stafford supporter, because honestly, I was going to be happy with Stafford, Curry, or Monroe/Smith. I was leaning more towards Stafford because I've seen him play and he is a playmaker, he reminds me alot of Brett Favre(even though I hate his guts, we are Lions fans afterall). Anyways, as far as the whole "bust" issue is concerned, every player can be a bust, Aaron Curry could have a career ending injury in preseason, he could get into the wrong system and his 1st 3-5 years could be ruined by it and he will be just another MLB.

As far as our defense is concerned, we have no.20 and no.33 to draft for sure starters, and then two 3rd rounders to draft possible starters/excellent depth/2nd-3rd year stars.

And for the huge contract, everyone has to realize that it's not the Lions or Staffords fault, they are just gears in the machine. If you look at Matt Ryans contract from a year ago, you have to assume that any QB take no.3 and higher this year will have a larger contract, since salaries get higher every year. Now add to that the fact that Stafford wasn't no.3, but no.1 and you get the salary he has.

My main point is that I hate seeing Lions fans be so upset and so negative about this decision. We have plenty of opportunities to fill holes in the rest of the draft, along with the fact that our defense has already been imporoved via free agency/trades. The other thing that bugs me is the hypocrisy all the anger. If the Lions pick Curry in this situation and pass Stafford, and Stafford goes on to be the next Elway or Montana, and Curry goes on to be the next Chris Claiborne, then the organization sucks for caving to the fans demands and trying to sell jerseys. People are quick to jump ship(you aren't a fan of the team if you say they will lose every game in 2009 and are the stupidest/worst team in the league and you hate them) and be fair-weather fans or to point the finger when things don't happen the way they would like.

Anyways, I think everyone has the right to say what they want about the matter, but if you were a true fan or even an ok fan, in my opinion, it would sound more like this "man, I wish they would've taken Curry, but they must know something about Stafford that I don't. Let's hope the rest of the draft is defensive minded and it all pans out. LETS GO STAFFORD" and less like this "f!!! mayhew, f!!! schwartz, f!!! stafford, we're doomed and I hate this team and they have down syndrome. Go Pack Go!"

Ok, I've wen't back and forth with what I think the Lions should do with this draft. First off, I've come to the conclusion that I will be happy no matter what picks are made. (well, unless they take Crabtree no.1)

Secondly, the Lions should try to trade down with the no.20 and no.33 picks to get as many 2nd and 3rd round picks as possible, as we can get quality depth and starters with these picks.

As far as draft picks, here is what I've come up with after reading everyones opinions and the millions and millions of mock drafts on here and all over the internet. First, you have to draft a QB no.1, because it's the only place you can realistically get quality at that position, in this draft anyways, so you take Matthew Stafford. Sure, Rhett Bomar could be the next Tom Brady, but unless a team that has a team full of pro-bowlers signs him, he wont be.

The other two picks here, Aaron Curry and Jason Smith, fill positions/areas that can be addressed later with starting calibre players. At no.20 we can take James Laurainitus or Rey Mauauluga to fill our MLB spot, and they have the potential (especially between Julian Peterson and Ernie Sims) to be future pro-bowlers. Then at no.33 you can take Alex Mack/Max Unger/Duke Robinson to beef up the interior line and get us to a point where next year with our 1st pick we can take a LT and solidify our OLine once and for all.

With the remaining picks, you look at all Defense, starting with DT, possibly taking a TE if a quality one falls into your lap.

After the draft, the starting QB would most likely depend on how the offensive line looks. If giving Backus quality help on the left side with say, Duke Robinson solidifies the line, then we could see Stafford starting on day one. But if there is even one concern, then you sit him behind Culpepper and let him learn the ropes and don't put him in until he is set up to succeed.

Our defense will also look 100x's better than it did last  year, so we'll be able to actually win some games. If you look at last year, we could score points, we just couldn't stop the opposition from scoring twice as much.

My point is that we can't put off taking a qb until next year, because we may have the no.10 pick, and the teams ahead of us could take Tebow, McCoy, and Bradford before they fall to us, and those QB's aren't as good/pro ready as Stafford is either in my opinion.

Anyways, thanks for bearing with me through this, if you actually made it this far. I know we're scared of a QB because of Harrington, Ware, and Long, but Stafford is better than all of those players, and we have a competant coaching staff/front office around him, as well as options to start him now or sit him, since I also think that Culpepper is a quality qb if he's in shape and knows the team/playbook.

Ok, I'm going to get a lot of angry looks for this one, but here it goes...If they Lions draft Aaron Curry it will be a bad pick.

No, not Mike Williams,Charles Rogers, or Joey Harrington bad. He will come in and perform and be a playmaker, but with the acquisition of Julian Peterson, our LB corp goes from top priority to 3rd or 4th on the list. If we draft defense, I would rather see B.J. Raji since our Dline looks far worse than our linebackers. The pick I would lean more towards would be E. Monroe or J. Smith as that would help at two spots, LT and G, and our offensive line would pretty much be set.

Another reason I'm against Curry, is that the linebackers available at no.20 or no.33 are better than the offensive linemen. I would rather draft E. Monroe and Rey Maualuga/James Lauarainitus than Aaron Curry and Beatty.

Here's what my draft would look like (1st 5 picks)

1a-J. Smith

1b-Rey Maualuga

2 Robert Ayers

3a- Ron Brace

3b- Best corner available

Then pick up Terrence Taylor in the 6th and a WR/TE.