Ok, so we all know that Calvin Johnson is a pretty humble dude.  Not one to orchestrate a fancy celebration a la Chad Ochocinco, TO, or Joe Horn (to go back a few years).  That said, in light of the ridiculous ending for last week's game, I figure he has to at least address the situation for his next TD dance, right?  Here's hoping it comes early on this Sunday against Philly. 

Anyways, we PoD members are internationally recognized (by Kevin Seifert at least) as being among the best and most creative in the blogosphere.  That said, what should CJ's dance be?  A couple thoughts came to mind.  There's the classic "glue" maneuver where he shakes his hand over and over again, scrapes it on his shoe, but the ball won't come loose.  I also kinda hope for a "process of the catch" dance where he stands up and falls down over and over again.  I think my personal favorite is for him to take the ball, run to the ref, and just point at it in his hand (a classic, subtle move).  By all means leave your thoughts in the comments here.  Who knows, maybe Megatron himself is checking this out.

Jay Clemons, who writes a fantasy column for si.com, made a fascinating point that might be a legitimate advantage for the Lions:  

5. It's quite possible the Lions won't have any bad-weather games this season.

Detroit, which enjoys eight games inside Ford Field, travels to Chicago, Minnesota and Green Bay in September and has three warm-weather roadies in November/December (Dallas, Tampa Bay, Miami). The only potential roadblock: A Nov. 14 tilt at Buffalo.

For a team constructed to play in a dome, I think this is a HUGE boost for us.  Speed guys like CJ and Best will reap the benefits, and it will help Stafford (a Texan who went to school in Georgia) with his accuracy.  And the one possible cold game, at Buffalo, is one of the few games this year where we may be favored.  

That being said, some could argue that a team with a secondary as shaky as ours would benefit from some cold weather games (case in point: we played decently in the finale at Chicago last year in the cold).  Thoughts?

I'm pretty new to this whole twitter thing (i finally caved last month).  It's nice, cause it lets me see random thoughts from the likes of Peter King (SI's NFL guru).  Here's a post from today:

SI_PeterKing     RT @DavidHeyza: Lions prediction? Drinkin the kool aid again, like every year... I so wish Lions would win. Sorry. Supposed to be impartial.

I don't suppose any of you guys are David Heyza, are you?  The name sounds kinda familiar.  I just figured PoD users have the kool-aid line pretty much trademarked.  That said, Peter didn't use any of his 140 characters providing any actual prediction.  Oh well.  Fine with me, keep the predictions to the minimum, keeps the pressure off (or something).  At least we know that if/when the Lions get some momentum, PK is going to give them some legit coverage (which is always a nice bonus).

Twitter also teaches me cool things, like, for example, Kevin Smith is apparently cousins with Don Varner, one of the best WR's in the ACC (who also happens to play for my beloved Blue Devils).  I feel like I can openly root for Duke football here at PoD, you guys are amongst the only people who have any sense what I'm going through.

Also, if you haven't already, you should join the PoD pick'em league that got set up last week.  I'm too lazy to repost the link though.  Someone else should rec it so it gets put up higher (I already did).

So I apparently missed the first wave of all the leagues being set up here (I know we're still waiting on word about the official league, but I'm not counting on anything).  If I set up another league, how many people would want in?  12 is obviously standard, but if there's a lot or a little interest, I could make it 10 or 14.  I'm thinking espn.com for the league, because I'm a poor grad student and don't want to pay sportsline.  I've never used it before, but I'm sick of paying yahoo for live score updates, and I'm on espn.com all the time anyways.  If you're interested in joining the league, reply to this post.  If I get enough commits, I'll set it up.  

I'm also toying around with the idea of a crazy stats/crazy scoring league (as a secondary league, not the above one).  The kind of thing where only TDs count, or where each team gets two QBs and 5 flex spots, or something else weird like that.  I've done these in the past, and they're always fun and random.  Would people be interested in that possibility?  If so, what weird rules would people want?

There is a pretty cool article up on SI.com right now talking about the rule of 26-27-60 as an excellent way to predict QB success.  Basically, a college QB prospect should have a wonderlic score better than 26, should start more than 27 games in college, and should have a completion percentage higher than 60%.  Seems pretty simple, right?  

Here's a list of people in the past 20 or so years who did not made the cut:  Ryan Leaf, JaMarcus Russell, Michael Vick, Akili Smith, Tim Couch, David Carr, Vince Young, Daunte Culpepper and, yes, Joey Harrington.  See any commonalities there?  All disappointing and/or terrible picks (with the possible exception of Culpepper initially), and mostly busts.  

Now, let's look at the QB's who have passed the test: Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, Tony Romo, Eli Manning, Matt Schaub, Kyle Orton, Kevin Kolb, Matt Ryan and, you guessed it, Matthew Stafford.  Pretty good company, right?  This certainly does not guarantee that Staff will have success, but it's definitely enough for all of us to have a little mid-summer hope about his prospects.  

I'm not going to lie, my most optimistic time ever as a Lions fan was either A) after we drafted Mike Williams and we legit thought that we had three stud WR's (along with Roy Williams and Charles Rogers, completely foolish in hindsight) or B) After Shaun Rogers returned an INT for a TD, helping us crush the Broncos a few years ago and moving our record to 6-2 (too bad they then went 1-7 the rest of the way).  That said, I'm officially saying that this is my 3rd most optimistic time to be a Lions fan.  I feel really really good about the direction this team is going, and I'm legitimately pumped to see these guys hit the field.  Here's hoping it turns out differently than the last two times I felt this way.

If you're curious, here's a link to the article: http://j.mp/akscya

So in my group of friends, I'm the only Lions fan, and pretty much everyone else has their own favorite team (this is what happens when you're raised in LA).  The other day we played a hypothetical game where each of our teams could poach one player from any other team in the league (not including QBs, cause that's too obvious).  It could be any player, any non-QB position, but it really factors in three elements.  1) What position on your team most requires a single infusion of talent?  2) Who are the marquee names in that position?  3) Of those marquee names, which one would you feel most comfortable rooting for over the next XX years?

This game factors in contracts and unruliness and injury history and all those things.  The obvious answer most people do is to immediately say "oooh, I'd take Chris Johnson."  And sure, there's a logic to that if you want to support it.  But I'm of the mindset that more thought is necessary rather than a random polling of the Pro Bowl Roster.  What are your guys thoughts for this Lions team?  It's arguably harder to play this game for us cause there are so many holes, but I'd be intrigued to see your pick.  

For the record, my pick when we played was for Darrelle Revis.  I think this Lions team is BEGGING for a shutdown corner, and Revis is young and superlative.  I'm not too concerned about the contract issue, since I assume the Lions would pay to keep him (hell, I'd chip in), and the man legitimately deserves to be the highest paid corner in the league.  My runner-up was Ryan Clady, because I have a soft spot for Boise State and young franchise LT's are too valuable to pass up.  

I'd put a poll up here, but there are really too many options to list.  I'm curious to hear all of your takes on this.

(note - even if QBs were eligible, I think I still would have picked Revis.  I believe in Staff, and honestly think he can get us there before too long.)

So this may be a logical leap, but did you guys notice that this past year we had horrible interior line play (our guards were a revolving door), which happened to also coincide with our weakest ever defensive line?  Sure, the two could have happened the same year by coincidence, but don't forget, 5 days a week, our d line and our o line go at it.  As much as Suh will terrorize centers and guards around the league this year, he'll terrorize Sims and Raiola and crew five times as often.  In other words, for all of you who were lobbying to pick an OL this year, DRAFTING SUH MAKES OUR O-LINE BETTER!!  The better the defenders, the more intense and the more worth while the practices are.  After a week of facing the suhnami (not to mention KVB and corey williams), our line will be far far more equipped to deal with the competition every Sunday.  So that's an added perk to picking Suh (not like we needed any).

Also, for those of you who like seeing Matt Millen looking like an idiot (and that's all of us, right?) here's a clip from recent draft coverage.  I don't know if this link was already posted, so I apologize if this is a repeat, but I've been around a lot and haven't seen it.  Apparently Millen insulted Polish people everywhere on the air, and here's his apology.  I, personally, just love watching him squirm.

http://www.tiricosuave.com/2010/04/24/matt-millen-apologizes-to-the-polacks/

I know by now everyone has stated their case for or against Jahvid Best at least a dozen times each, and I'm glad that the majority of you guys seem to be in favor.  I'm on the band wagon of "it's not how I would have drawn it up, but based on how the draft actually went, I'm thrilled with the pick".  There were no CBs without major question marks, and all of the available LBs were 3-4 type OLBs.  Overall, I think Best is going to make this team very, very watchable.  Don't forget, guys, that before his concussion, he was running away with the Heisman.  It wasn't even close.  He was the best CFB player for the first half of the year (no pun intended).

I also want to point out this one nugget from Yahoo Sports (and former SI) writer Michael Silver's twitter page (@RealMikeSilver)-

Jim Schwartz confided to me in January he lusted for Jahvid Best... and that if I told anyone, he'd have to kill me. #GoBears

That is such a Jim Schwartz thing to say.  It really makes you wonder what sort of stuff football writers know but are forbidden to say.  FYI, Silver is a Cal grad, so the bears he's rooting for are the golden variety, not the crappy chicago version.

So the SBNation official mock draft is going on now.  I know many of us checked out after Sean submitted the Suh pick, but the blogger for the Seahawks blindsided conventional wisdom with the 6th overall pick.  With Eric Berry still on the board, along with Spiller, Bulaga, and other talents for the OT/playmaker less Hawks, the pick came in and they went with....

Taylor Mays, S, Southern California

(http://www.mockingthedraft.com/2010/3/25/1387179/2010-sb-nation-nfl-mock-draft)

I'm mentioning this not because the Hawks blogger is an idiot.  I'm saying it cause he's a genius.  Don't forget the most important rule of draft season: GM'S ARE F**KING CRAZY!  Peter Carroll would totally lobby to bring his boy to Seattle with him, and the logic behind the pick is completely legitimate.  Is it a good pick?  Of course not!  But it could totally happen and, honestly, we should probably expect it.  The top couple pick (including ours) will probably play out as we expect, but you just know that crazy stuff is going to happen, including the possibility of us using our 2nd rd pick to sneak back into the first round should one of our guys fall (and there's a very decent chance one of our guys will fall).

Draft fever!  I love it!  

So I recognize that this comparison is a real stretch, and that the situation probably doesn't apply, but it's a thought that I want to put out there for you guys to save in the back of your mind.

This is the story of two players eligible for the draft.  Both hugely praised, both play the same position, both "for sure" top 5 picks in the draft.  The "more praised" of the two played college ball for a BCS school but not a real contender, and he puts up out-of-this-world stats.  The scouts go nuts for his abilities, and there are hours of game tape of him destroying the competition.  He seems like a good, fun-loving guy.  Slam dunk type player.  The "less-praised" player isn't really less praised, he's just less hyped.  Everyone knows he's a complete stud, but he doesn't get quite the same accolades, and his highlight reel isn't quite as impressive.  He didn't win the award given to the best player at his position (the other guy did).  That said, he spent 4 years playing for a legit contender, made appearances in the BCS championship game during his career, and played outstanding football at every level.  Also a slam dunk, right?

Well, we Lions fan know this story a little too well.  This is the 2003 draft, and the first "more hyped" player is Charles Rogers.  The second "less hyped" player is Andre Johnson.  Seven years later, we know this to have been arguably the worst decision of the Millen-era, the kind of move that arguably set us back 3 years (not counting the years of setbacks from the other awful deals).  Johnson is a perennial Pro Bowler who leads the league in receiving yards even though he's playing for a mediocre team with a mediocre QB.  Rogers is in a jail cell somewhere.

If this situation sounds familiar, that's by design.  This also applies to Ndamukong Suh (more hyped) and Gerald McCoy (less hyped) in this years draft.  Now, I have no reason to think that Suh will turn out like Rogers.  All I'm saying, though, is that if we do end up with McCoy, well, perhaps that's for the best.  Given the Lions' track record, I don't think I'd even be that sad about it.  Just a thought.  

Sports Illustrated every year puts out an article of how the first round of the past year's draft should have gone, based on the info we've learned from the season to date.  As Detroit fans, we should be proud to know that of the Lions draft last year (which I think we'd all agree has been largely successful so far), SI has declared that four players should have actually been first round picks.  Matthew Stafford of course was there (although they had him at no. 2, saying that Oher should have gone no. 1.  Hard to argue with that), and Brandon Pettigrew stayed put at no. 20.  But Louis Delmas cracked the first round, getting "picked" by the Broncos at 18, and surprise starter DeAndre Levy was "picked" at no. 30 by the Titans.  I know that media praise isn't nearly as satisfying as wins, but it's sure nice to see that with the benefit of hindsight, the Lions 2009 draft looks to have been one of the best in the league.

Here's the article: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/don_banks/12/15/redraft/index.html

This was Stafford's schtick on Letterman tonight.  I didn't think it was too funny, but judge for yourself.

Top 10 Thoughts to go through Matthew Stafford's mind on draft night.

10.) You don't often hear "Congratulations, you're going to Detroit".

9.) Why am I the only one who came to Radio City Music Hall dressed as a Rockette?

8.) If the Lions win one game this year, I'm a hero.

7.) Anybody dumps gatorade on me and I'll deck 'em.

6.) Holy crap, I think I just pulled a hamstring.

5.) I didn't think anything could top the excitement of Heide and Spencer getting married.

4.) Is it me or or is NFL commissioner Goodell look like a young Larry Hagman.

3.) Why am I here when I could be at that movie where Beyonce and that babe fight.

2.) Why does Jessica Simpson keep calling me.

1.)  I'd gladly go number 2 if it means not having to go on Letterman.

Or at least one possible reason.  I'm sorry I can't find the link to support the following argument, but it's late and I don't feel like looking too hard.

That said, I definitely read somewhere over the past month that Coach Schwartz (and most other coaches) were looking for three down players.  That is, defensive players who could stay on the field in running and passing downs.  The article made some sort of breakdown of the number of snaps a 2 down player vs. 3 down players actually plays over the course of the season, and it reveals that (surprise!), three down players, while they're paid about the same, play about 50% more snaps, thus making them a much better value.  Why do I mention this?  Because Rey Ma was the ultimate two down player.  GREAT against the run, suspect in coverage.  This from his Pro Football Weekly scouting report:

"Lacks lateral agility and is not fluid dropping in coverage.  Can be exposed in space...takes some questionable angles...did not play much man coverage and can be outquicked by fast backs."  Plus, regarding his maturity, it says that he "still requires extra monitoring and has shown questionable judgment.  Would be best in a strong locker room where teammates hold him accountable."

So that's two big strikes against him.  I guess the Lions figure that Delmas will help the run game and pass game, but ReyMa would only help the run game.  I'm not sure I 100% agree, but at least I understand.  Cunningham will never have to take Delmas off the field, but ReyMa would be sitting out any nickel or dime formation.  Ultimately, they couldn't rationalize a pick this high on a part time player.  Plus, I don't know for sure, but I would guess that the Lions do not have a particularly strong locker room to keep him in check.  Who would provide the veteran leadership?  Sims?  Hanson?  Seems unlikely.  I'm sad that we missed out on a potential defensive stud but I think it'll be OK in the end.

Here are Detroit's rankings in the entire league in interesting categories from last year:
Passing: The Lions were 29th in the league in passer rating.  30th in completion percentage.  27th in passing first downs.  They had the 5th most interceptions.  They actually had the 12th most plays of 20 yards or more (thank you, Megatron), but that just makes it so much more striking that they finished 24th in total passing yards.  
Defense: We all know how atrocious the defense was.  Dead last in yards allowed, points allowed, etc.  Of note, though, is that the Lions finished a respectable 16th in the league in sacks.  And, curiously, they forced the third most fumbles (and recovered the 2nd most).
What is my point?  The defense is clearly broken, but the passing game is also totally abysmal.  Bear in mind that we were playing from behind almost the whole season long and we still couldn't accumulate legit passing stats.  I love Aaron Curry.  I think he'll be a stud.  But a stud QB goes further towards fixing an offense than a stud MLB goes towards fixing a defense.  I know defense wins championships, but 100% of the time a QB is more important to a team than a MLB.  
In my ideal draft, they take Stafford first over all, an o-lineman with the 33rd pick, and every other selection is on defense.  Curry will be an excellent player, but he won't have the same effect on this team that Stafford would.  He may be better from day 1, but what about day 101?  Or 1001?  And, like I've said before, QB requires more time than any other position to develop.  Getting Stafford in the pipeline now means we can focus next year on the best available defensive talent.  Odds are that person will be more capable of starting from day one, meaning that 2010 we might actually have a shot.

Not to divert too much from the draft talk, but I want to point out how much I love the volume of new people who are visiting the site and posting and contributing.  As a Lion fan who doesn't live in Detroit, this is where I go to feel like a part of a community.

Now, that said, the draft is like our super bowl, so I understand why volume is at an all time high.  PLEASE!  Everyone!  Keep posting during the season!  Take part in live game threads and post links and put up commentary.  Last season it felt like the same 15 guys were making all the posts.  With any luck, this season we could have over 100!

I certainly was not amongst the first PoD regulars, but I'm not Johnny-come-lately to the site either.  All I want to say is that everyone has been awesome and opinionated.  Let's just hope this keeps up even after the hoopla surrounding the draft is over.

P.S.- I'm really warming up to Stafford.  Every quantifiable measure that we have he excels in.  He's smart, a good leader, and has a strong arm, and he wouldn't (shouldn't) play this year if Daunte is strong.  Plus, say what you will about his Georgia career, but he knows how to play in the clutch.  Do you guys remember his final game against MSU?  See the link below.  He struggled early, but made some key adjustments and was dominant in the second half.  The way I see it, QB takes longer to develop than any other position.  Might as well get one in the pipeline earlier so that we can legitimately compete in 2010 or 2011.

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=290010127

Somebody finally wrote what many of us have been thinking.  Jamie Dukes from the NFL network proposed that the Lions would benefit hugely from signing Mike Vick as soon as they're legally able to.  His point centers around the fact that Vick is instant offense (if he's in shape, which is no guarantee), he controls the ball which helps the defense, and he'd be a major draw.

Look, I'm a dog owner, and I think that what Vick did was absolutely reprehensible.  He deserves to rot and suffer for an extended period of time.  That said, I think everyone deserves a chance to recover from rock bottom.  Honestly, where else to do that than on the Lions?  It would justify our not drafting Stafford (although I'm personally torn on the Stafford decision), plus our o-line would look better by comparison if the d-line has prepare for a Vick-led offense.  He has a cannon for an arm, so CJ would love him.  Plus, CJ is the perfect WR for a slightly inaccurate QB anyways.  If nothing else, it should be worth a tryout, right?  The Lions are officially beggars in the NFL, and I'm pretty sure they can't afford to be choosers.  Right?

What are your thoughts?

Here's a link: http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Dukes-The-answer-for-the-Lions-is-Vick?urn=nfl,156948