Why Lions blew it taking Calvin Johnson | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
Is everybody finally ready to concede what’s now painfully obvious? The Lions blew it when they drafted Calvin Johnson last year with the second overall pick instead of offensive tackle Joe Thomas or running back Adrian Peterson. The final piece of damning evidence against the decision is the team’s preparation for next month’s draft.
Despite the need for impact on the defensive side of the ball, the Lions will opt for offense once again in the first round with the No. 15 pick — either an offensive tackle or a running back.

They’re still looking for their Joe Thomas or Adrian Peterson a year later.

Lions release S Kenoy Kennedy, sign CB Brian Kelly - NewsFlash - mlive.com
The Lions released safety Kenoy Kennedy on Friday and signed cornerback Brian Kelly to a three-year deal.

Kennedy, an eight-year veteran, spent the past three seasons in Detroit. He started 15 of 16 games in 2007 and had 91 tackles, two interceptions and two forced fumbles. He spent his first five seasons in Denver.

Kelly spent his first 11 seasons in Tampa Bay. He started four of 11 games last season and had 25 tackles and two interceptions.

Jones, Edwards are latest high draft picks to go - Detroit Lions: News, Blogs, Photos, Audio, Schedule & Stats - MLive.com
This off-season has seen a parade of former Lions high draft picks leave town:

– Jones was a first-round pick in 2004 while Edwards was a second-rounder in 2002.

— Two second-round choices — linebackers Boss Bailey 2003 and Teddy Lehman 2004 — left the team as free agents. The Lions made no effort to try to re-sign them.

— Second-round pick Shaun Rogers 2001 was traded to the Cleveland Browns.

— First-rounders Joey Harrington 2002, Charles Rogers 2003 and Mike Williams 2005 are long gone.

— From the 2002 draft, the Lions have one player remaining fifth-rounder John Owens, who has bounced around the league. From the 2003 draft, the Lions have one player remaining Cory Redding. The Lions do not have a starter on the roster, other than Roy Williams, from the 2004 and 2005 drafts.

Drafting RB becomes higher priority - Detroit Lions: News, Blogs, Photos, Audio, Schedule & Stats - MLive.com
The Detroit Lions are reportedly bringing Tatum Bell back for one more year, a sure indication that the team will target a running back in the first three rounds of the draft. If the Lions had signed a veteran free agent like Julius Jones to a long-term deal, drafting a running back wouldnt have been as crucial. Now that both Bell and Kevin Jones will be unrestricted free agents after the 2008 season, acquiring a young running back has gained priority.

 Good thing the Lions signed Tatum Bell- (or not) Dunn sign with Bucs

ESPN - Veteran running back Dunn signs with Buccaneers - NFL
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are bringing back one of the most popular players in franchise history, signing free-agent running back Warrick Dunn on Monday night.
Dunn was drafted in the first round by Tampa Bay in 1997 and was the teams feature back until leaving for Atlanta in 2002. He remains third on the teams all-time rushing list with 4,200 yards. The Bucs initially let Dunn go because of concerns about salary cap space and his durability.

Lions near the bottom in 2009 Super Bowl favorite odds | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
How have the Lions’ off-season moves influenced how the rest of the nation feels about them? One place that still isn’t high on Detroit’s star power is Las Vegas.
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Bodog Sportsbook has its NFL Super Bowl odds out, and they aren’t too confident about Detroit’s chances to do much damage this season.

The Lions have 65/1 odds to win the Super Bowl - quite a contrast from favorite New England’s 10/3 odds.

Lions’ Millen: No plans to trade Williams
The Detroit Lions have had trade proposals for Roy Williams but are not shopping his services or actively pursing any trade talks for the one-time Pro Bowl wide receivers, team president Matt Millen said Friday.

The Philadelphia Eagles have been mentioned prominently as having an interest in Williams, but all proposals have been one way, Millen said.

“I’ll listen to any offer,” Millen told The Detroit News. “I’ve said that I’ll listen to any offer for anybody. We want Roy Williams. That’s the deal — whatever the terms are.”

Millen would not elaborate further.

Cornerback Lito Sheppard, the Eagles’ first-round draft pick in 2002, has been mentioned as the player the Eagles are offering. Sheppard has played well when healthy but missed 14 games the last three years because of injuries.

Detroit Lions fumbling in free agency - Detroit Lions: News, Blogs, Photos, Audio, Schedule & Stats - MLive.com
As of Friday, here’s the scoreboard for Detroit Lions’ roster moves since the free-agent signing period kicked off.

It got off to a fine start with the Lions picking up a starting corner and a bonus third-round draft pick from the Cleveland Browns in exchanged for defensive tackle Shaun Rogers.

Since then, the Lions have made a number of suspicious moves, including letting running back T.J. Duckett and right tackle Damien Woody sign elsewhere, throwing $10 million at a tight end named Michael Gaines from the Buffalo Bills who’ll apparently serve as a blocking back in Detroit, and signing or re-signing a group of players who’re special teamers or backups.

Detroit Lions Site: Plugging in Playmakers: CB Leigh Bodden Becomes Detroit’s Most Recent Defensive Playmaker Added to the Roster
Before he left for the NFL Combine, Head Coach Rod Marinelli talked about placing a premium on defensive playmakers with strong ball skills.

Now, just four days into the free agent signing period, the Lions have added two - safety Dwight Smith and cornerback Leigh Bodden - and retained one in cornerback Keith Smith.

The trio had a combined 13 interceptions between them last year: Dwight Smith finished with four, Bodden with a career-best six and Keith Smith with a career-best three.

“I think a lot of the time people say, ‘well, how do you define ball skills?’ ‘What does (having) ball skills mean?’” said Defensive Coordinator Joe Barry. “Well, look at how many times the guys’ hands are touching the ball. Just with the statistics – the cold hard statistics – these guys have ball skills because they get their hands on a lot of balls and make a lot of picks.”

The lions offseason(s) is alway interesting, compared to the season. (fire) Millen seems to always pick up a few new pieces to add to the team. This year it was the RB position, lions signed former Spartan T.J. Duckett, Traded for Tatum Bell and re-signed Aveion Cason. Where are they going to put everyone? Do they not think Kevin Jones is healthy enough to make a legitimate come back? That remains to be seen. I hope for Kevin’s sake (and ours) he is on his way back.

Kevin Jones, RB, Lions: Ah, the dreaded Lisfranc fracture. Jones was on pace to finish the season with 919 rushing yards, 693 receiving yards and 11 TDs when he went down in Week 14 against the Vikings. There have been conflicting reports out of Detroit ever since the injury — some say Jones will never fully recover, and others saying he’ll be 100 percent by training camp. Jones has begun running and cutting on his injured foot. He’s a gamer who’ll play through injuries and he fits in well with Mike Martz’s offense, having caught 61 balls in just 12 games last year. On the other hand, it’s a tell tale sign that Detroit brought in Tatum Bell and T.J. Duckett in the offseason for insurance, and there have been rumors that KJ will start the season on the PUP list. The prognosis is simple: if you’re a dynasty owner of KJ, don’t sell him low — he will be back to full health, just not in 2007. He’s still young enough to bounce back and pick up where he left off in 2008. Seasonal owners can take a chance on him toward the end of their drafts and hope that his rehab accelerates in the coming months. SI

Well-Well, it’s the the Lions version of the Pistons Guaran-sheed it’s Krazy-Kinta. Jon Kitna re-ups his look in to the future on how many wins the Lions will have in 2007.

I’m still thinking it will be at least another 2 years before they get to the level of 10+ wins and possibly making the playoffs. Good thing we have the Tigers, Wings and Pistons in this town.

“See, that was 10 games before I saw the schedule, too,” the quarterback told WDFN-AM (1130) this week. “I’ll keep to myself what I think we actually will win. But it’s more than 10 games.”

The Lions went 3-13 last season and are 24-72 in the Matt Millen era.

“I think, last year, man, it really sucked,” Kitna said. “But the good thing about it, like coach (Rod) Marinelli said, he found out who wanted to be here, who didn’t, and he’s been able to put his stamp on this team.” freep

James Hall who was traded this offseason doesn’t have much to say about his former team. Nothing we haven’t heard before i.e. Dre Bly or Joey Harrington.

“I personally didn’t feel that the organization was going in the right direction, as far as the people they were bringing in to make it a winning team,” he said. “I just got tired of, every two years, rotating the coaching staff, guys going in and out, not really having any continuity on the team. I just felt like I wasn’t going to have the opportunity to get something done there. “It got to the point where it was so frustrating, disappointing, that (the playoffs were) hard to watch.”

Finally, asked to compare the Rams and Lions, Hall said, “I can see a huge difference in the team speed. It’s like night and day here.”freep