When a basketball team is down by 10 points with 20 seconds left in the game they usually have their best shooters chuck up 3-point shots, not because it’s the highest percentage shot to take but because they have nothing to lose and they are SUNK if they don’t hit a couple big ones.

Martin Mayhew is this Lions organization’s best shooter and he chucked up some 3-pointers in his own way by selecting a few highly-talented players with red flags hanging off of them.

I for one, do not blame the Detroit Lions general manager for doing so. When you’re rebuilding a team that lacked more talented football players than nearly the entire league for about a decade and finally bottoms out at 0-16 you are not put in the normal position of being able to play it safe.

Martin Mayhew didn’t get this team to 10-6 and the playoffs by playing it safe and making sure that all of his draft picks were boy scouts. He made sure that every player he selected was a superior player in his opinion.

BPA stands for best player available not best person available. Continue reading “You Can’t Fault Mayhew For Choosing Highly-Talented “Risk” Players” »

Ahhh, don’t you love the 20/20 view of hindsight? With so many Detroit Lions fans having their panties in a bunch(my Lion-print panties included) over the Lions current draft selections, I began reminiscing to the past years when the Lions drafts were praised and graded as an A almost across the board by fans and media.

Those were the good old days, it seemed that with each Matt Millen draft pick the excitement level would rise, along with my hopes and dreams.

How did you feel about Matt Millen drafting our savior and future Hall-of-Fame QB Joey “Heisman” Harrington? Weren’t you geeked up to get that blazing fast wide receiver named Charles Rogers out of our own backyard? He was going to be great alongside Roy Williams. Who could defend that offense? Remember?

Who wasn’t excited about the “track team” we were putting together when Millen and the Lions drafted the speedy Boss Bailey in the 2nd round of that same draft? Speed kills had become the mantra in the D! Woo hooo!

Let’s not forget about Kalimba Edwards (known as Kalimbust Edwards in my circle of friends), Mike Williams, and 2nd round “steal” Teddy Lehman!

Most of us were sooooooo excited at these draft selections, Mel Kiper and the other talking heads patted their buddy Millen on the back until they left bruises on the guy, Millen was the draft day guru!

But then the players had to actually play. WHOMP WHOMP…. Continue reading “Matt Millen’s Draft Picks More Celebrated Than Martin Mayhew’s – Detroit Lions” »

If the Detroit Lions had passed on a cornerback in the third round of the draft, Lions fans may have stormed the streets like an angry lynch mob. Fortunately, the Lions did finally address their dire need in the defensive backfield by drafting Louisiana-Lafayette cornerback Dwight Bentley in the 3rd round of the NFL draft(85th overall).

Bentley has a slight build but his fiestiness and willingness to hand-fight with bigger stronger players has been noted in scouting reports. Bentley is listed at 5-foot-10 and 179 pounds and has racked up 232 tackles, 13 for a loss, 1.5 sacks, 7 interceptions and 20 passes broken up in his collegiate career with the Ragin Cajuns.

During the NFL Scouting Combine, Bentley ran the 40-yard dash in 4.43 seconds. That speed helped Dwight Bentley return two interceptions for touchdowns in his senior year. He also earned All Sun-Belt Conference honors twice during his time at Louisiana-Lafayette. Continue reading “CB Dwight Bentley Picked by Detroit Lions in the 3rd Round of NFL Draft” »

After fully defending the Detroit Lions 1st round pick of Riley Reiff I am having a hard time understanding what the heck they are thinking with their second round draft selection. I’m not going to start throwing around the “MM word” because it’s not fair, but the Detroit Lions have shocked many Lions fans by drafting Oklahoma wide receiver Ryan Broyles with their second-round selection (54th overall) in the 2012 NFL Draft.

The Lions could have had C Peter Konz out of Wisconsin, Nebraska LB LaVonte David and various cornerbacks who were available. Evidently the Lions feel that Ryan Broyles is a better football player and they went with him. Continue reading “What?!?! Detroit Lions Draft WR Ryan Broyles In 2nd Round of NFL Draft” »

The Detroit Lions have selected Riley Reiff in the 1st round of the NFL Draft(No.23 overall). The Big Brute that anchored the Iowa Hawkeyes O-line at the left tackle position was projected to be a top-15 selection by many respected pundits.

Reiff, a 6-foot-6 and 313 pound junior, was named a first team All-America by Pro Football Weekly in 2011. Some of Reiff’s other honors include third team All-America by College Football Madness; honorable mention All-America by SI.com; first team all-Big Ten by league coaches and media; fourth team All-America and first team all-Big Ten by Phil Steele as well various other honors.

Riley Reiff is widely considered to be the second-best tackle in the 2012 draft and could eventually replace left tackle Jeff Backus. Continue reading “Detroit Lions Select Riley Reiff at No.23 – Not a “Sexy” Pick But a Smart One” »

Nobody is perfect. That should be understood by each and everyone of us who is currently breathing, but perfection is not needed in order to be exceptional. In professional sports, players, coaches, team executives and team owners are judged by wins vs losses and really nothing else.

Then there are extraordinary circumstances. When the team you take over has just endured the weapon of Mass Ineptitude named Matt Millen and just posted a historically horrible 0-16 record it’s pretty easy to assume that you have a bigger task at hand than most GMs on the first day of work. But fortunately for the bruised and mentally beaten Detroit Lions fan Martin Mayhew was and is up to the task in a major way.

Martin Mayhew was promoted to general manager December 29th, 2008 after the wildly celebrated firing of “All Talk” Matt Millen and reports directly to Mr. Ford on all football matters.

I’ve sifted through Martin Mayhew’s transactions since he took over the team and picked out some of the highlights. I’ve left out some of the more obvious moves like drafting stars Matthew Stafford and Ndamukong Suh in the top of the first round, even though he clearly still deserves credit for not screwing up top draft picks.

If you think not, let me remind you of Joey Harrington, Charles “puff,puff,pass” Rogers and Roy “first doooooown by 30 points” Williams. Even selecting at the very top doesn’t guarantee a marquee player, you must choose wisely.

There were literally hundreds upon hundreds of moves and transactions that I sifted through, you may remember something that I missed but here are a few highlights that took us from league laughingstock to league upper echelon in 3 short years after a DECADE of sheer misery. Some moves have helped long-term and some were the best that could be done at the time and definitely helped.

Here are your Martin Mayhew moves of note:
Continue reading “The Brilliance Of Martin Mayhew: GM Moves That Made a Difference For The Detroit Lions” »

Thank goodness the Lions have a smart GM that knows the true value of talented players that consistently contribute to winning.

I get so sick of slash and burn type fans that are quick to dismiss players who are clearly valuable to this football team.

You should see how (some) fans talk about Nate Burleson, as if he isn’t the highly productive emotional leader of the wide receiving corps.

Just because Corey Williams’ name isn’t all in the press and headlines doesn’t mean that he isn’t an absolute stalwart on this defensive line and another team leader.

With the Detroit Lions having the tight cap situation that they have, many have all but written Bobby Ross bus tickets out-of-town for these two integral team players.
Continue reading “Mayhew: Corey Williams and Nate Burleson Likely To Be Back With Team” »

It’s been made painfully clear that the Detroit Lions are in bad shape financially as far as the salary cap is concerned.

With so many of the team’s own elite players either being free agents or soon-to-be free agents they are currently in no position to make a huge splash in free agency for the defensive back that they so desperately need in order to take that leap to the next tier of elite NFL football teams.

So the dreams of signing a Courtland Finnegan who is reported to likely be looking for at least 10 million per year or a Brandon Carr who will also likely demand a large salary are likely to go as unfulfilled dreams.

With that it mind, it seems that the NFL draft might be the only way to go for the Lions in order to truly fill this gaping hole on the squad.

I’ve been watching a lot of the NFL combine lately and it’s getting my juices flowing and has me thinking about the next few elite-level players that are soon to be drafted by Martin Mayhew and crew. Cornerbacks ran 40 times and various drills yesterday and today and it made it hard for me to not think about the absolute TOASTINGS the Lions got in their last two games of the year.
Continue reading “Lions Probably Can’t Afford Top FA Cornerbacks – Should They Trade Up In The Draft For One?” »

It’s not the end of the world, but unfortunately for the Detroit Lions and Lions fans, the team is amongst the 5 NFL teams with the lowest available amount of salary cap space. After the new labor agreement NFL teams are now able to carry over their excess salary cap space from one year over to the next, that really doesn’t do our Detroit Lions very much good but here’s a look at every NFL team’s remaining 2011 cap space, as of today, February 12, 2012.

 

NFL TEAMS BY NAME & SALARY CAP SPACE AVAILABLE:

Jacksonville Jaguars:  $31.66 million.

Denver Broncos:  $27.88 million.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers:  $25.05 million.

Kansas City Chiefs:  $24.01 million.

Seattle Seahawks:  $21.27 million.

Buffalo Bills:  $19.29 million.

Cincinnatti Bengals:  $17.59 million.

Dallas Cowboys:  $17.14 million.

San Francisco 49ers:  $16.87 million.

Washington Redskins:  $13.6 million.

Philadelphia Eagles:  $11.01 million.

Miami Dolphins:  $9.05 million.

Cleveland Browns:  $8.98 million.

New York Jets:  $8.39 million.

Tennessee Titans:  $8.11 million.

Chicago (garbage) Bears:  $7.74 million.

Arizona Cardinals:  $7.04 million.

New England Patriots:  $6.66 million.

Baltimore Ravens:  $6.18 million.

Green Bay Fudge Packers:  $5.48 million.

New Orleans Saints:  $4.22 million.

St.Louis Rams:  $3.5 million.

Oakland Raiders:  $3.23 million.

Carolina Panthers:  $2.8 million.

Indianapolis Colts:  $2.5 million.

San Diego Chargers:  $2.1 million.

Minnesota Vikings(Viqueens):  $1.95 million.

Detroit Lions:  $1.47 million.

 
Houston Texans:  $1.08 million.

New York(worst Super Bowl Champs ever) Giants:  $1.06 million.

Atlanta Falcons:  $747,000.

Pittsburgh Steelers:  $506,000.

 

Look on the bright side Lions fans, we have very little salary cap space left in Detroit because we have great players, look at the top 5 teams WITH money to spend and you see a bunch of bad teams except for the Denver Tebows, oops, I mean Broncos.

You have to pay for talent and we have load of it bursting from the seams. Also remember that there will likely be contracts restructured, player cuts and even trades that can change the Detroit Lions cap situation for the better. GO LIONS!!!