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Cliff Avril No Deal with Lions

http://www.detroitlions.com/news/lions-insider/article-1/Avril-I%E2%80%99m-kind-of-disappointed-it-couldn%E2%80%99t-happen-but-it-is-what-it-is/8ac049c8-ff36-4bec-9725-9488025732ff

Hopefully Avril and the Lions can work something out after this season.

2012 NFL Schedule

The NFL schedule was released last week.  The highlight for me will be the Lions in Chicago on October 22 for a Monday night game.

Draft 2012

Just one week and a handful of hours until the 2012 NFL Draft.  I've really enjoyed them the last few years as Detroit has been doing a great job getting talent and meeting needs.

All five analysts at  http://www.nfl.com/draft/2012  have predicted the same first five pick which pretty much guarantees that those will NOT be the first five players taken.  Two of the three have the Lions taking offensive tackle Mike Adams with the 23rd pick.  If that happens, I'll be pretty happy.  I think that with the talent left at that spot, and the troublesome cornerbacks that we should pass on, he would be a great possible replacment for Jeff Backus in a year or two.

I'll also be very interested in seeing where Michigan State's Jerel Worthy and Kirk Cousins end up going.  I think Cousins would be a nice pick for the Lions in one of the later rounds if he's still available.  Not sure if he has the physical skills for the NFL or not but he definitely has the leadership skills to excel.

Lions need depth at safety and healthy Delmas

Was just reading an article on the Lions website about Louis Delmas and evaluating the safety position.  Delmas went down in the Thanksgiving game against the Green Bay Packers and the secondary wasn't the same for the rest of the year.  Amari Spievey was also injured the second half but was able to play through that injury so there's no telling how good he would have been healthy.  The safety position works as a tandem anyways: those guys have to work together.  It hurts when that guy, Delmas, is also one of the more vocal players.

I thought the Lions secondary looked really good until the Delmas injury.  I hadn't realized until reading this article just how thin we were the second half of the year.  After Delmas went out, we had two other guys that were brought in also get injured before Chris Harris became the starter.  Hopefully the Lions will see one of the top safeties in the draft fall to them for some much needed depth.

http://www.detroitlions.com/news/lions-insider/article-1/2011-Position-Breakdown-Safety/5bbdbe7e-39e6-4fb1-837a-61380c470810

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

The Broncos are a better team than Detroit Right Now

My argument is simple: The Denver Broncos won their playoff game and moved on to the next round.  The Detroit Lions did not.  This is surprising as we look back at where each team was after the first 5 games of the season.  Detroit was flying high looking like they might take a run at going 16-0 while Denver was 1-4 and had just benched Kyle Orton in favor of Tim Tebow.

So what happened?  How does a team that looks unstoppable look tired and worn in their first playoff game in 12 years?  How does Denver start out looking horrible and now seem like world beaters?

I believe this is still partially due to the history of the two franchises.  Detroit is a place that winning is something new and Denver is a place where winning and competing for championships is expected.

Take a look at the playoff droughts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NFL_franchise_post-season_droughts

Look no further than a couple stats: Detroit hasn't ever been to a Super Bowl in 53 years.  Detroit hasn't won a playoff game in 20 years.  That said; Detroit has taken huge steps this year towards building a fan base and an attitude that create an environment where going to the playoffs isn't an achievement but the minimum expectation.

Detroit Lions Cliff Avril and other Free Agents

Detroit's defense has a couple key players without contracts.  Cliff Avril and Stephen Tulloch should be kept and given new contracts as they were 2 of the better defensive players we have.

http://www.mlive.com/lions/index.ssf/2012/01/detroit_lions_defensive_end_cl.html