Peyton Hillis a Detroit Lion?

Ever since Barry Sanders retired, Detroit fans have been waiting in anticipation for the next feature running back.  Personally, my hopes were the highest when they drafted Kevin Smith out of UCF, a guy with a gazillion rushing yards in college.  As it turned out, he wasn't the outstanding back I had hoped for.  The list goes on...

Now we've got Mikel Leshoure, unproven in the NFL coming off an achilles injury, Jahvid Best coming off of two more concussions, and Kevin Smith back after being let go by the team.  Just like when Kevin Smith was drafted, my hopes were high and then dashed on the rocks with the draft and then injury of Leshoure.

So what should Detroit do now?

The optimist in me looks at the potential of Leshoure, Best, and Smith healthy and my mouth waters.  If Leshoure could be anything like LaGarrette Blount, and Best a poor man's Darren Sproles, Kevin Smith could back up both those guys and we'd have one of the better running back groups in football.

But hoping for the best doesn't do much for you.  The old adage "hope for the best and plan for the worst" is probably Detroit's best course of action.  that mean's bringing somebody else in that is starter quality.  Which finally gets me to the my point.

If the price is right, the Lions should go after Peyton Hillis.

Here are my reasons

• He's young
• He's proven he can be a 1,000 yard plus back
• He's the kind of runner that doesn't need great run blocking due to his straight-ahead and straight-through style of running
• He's coming off a bad season stat-wise so the price might be affordable

http://fantasysports.usatoday.com/content/player.asp?sport=NFL&id=4965