2008 NFL Regular Season Thread.

[burn_baby_burn]

Everybody knows it isn't Millen's fault. Its the curse of Bobby Lane.

http://www.curseofbobbylayne.com/

In 1958, after leading the Lions to 3 NFL Championships and providing Detroit nearly decade of Hall of Fame play, the Lions traded Bobby Layne. Bobby was injured during the last championship season and the Lions thought he was through and wanted to get what they could for him. According to Legend, as he was leaving for Pittsburgh Bobby said that Detroit "would not win for 50 years". In the pages that follow we present evidence that supports and confirms the existence of this curse which has been plaguing this team for nearly half a century. If you don't believe in curses, you will!

[Pagal4321]

Millen tried his best though. Look at these first round draft picks since 2000.

2000 - OT Stockar McDougle
2001 - OT Jeff Backus
2002 - QB Joey Harrington
2003 - WR Charles Rogers
2004 - WR Roy Williams
2005 - WR Mike Williams
2006 - OLB Ernie Sims (might be the best pick of the bunch)
2007 - WR Calvin Johnson (falls in their lap)
2008 - OT Gosder Cherilus (drafted even after being arrested)

Now how many of those players are still playing in the NFL?

[Bobblehead]

McDougal, Rogers and M.Williams are the only ones who are out of football, I think.

[Sylvanfan]

Still it's not like these picks were 20th overall every year. They were all like top 10 picks. Millen should have been axed about 3 years ago...it's unbelievable that he held the job as long as he did.

[Sainters7]

I still can't believe Charles Rogers turned out to be a bust. I remember his first two games in the league, he got what, 3 TD's? Including one gorgeous diving TD reception in his first ever game, against Arizona. Then he broke his collarbone(and then again the next season), and he's never been the same.

I really wonder what he would've been like had he not incurred those injuries. For that very brief time before he was injured, he looked like a ridiculous stud.

[Pagal4321]

Yup, those 3 are gone. You could say Harrington is barely in the league after just being signed by the Saints.
So that's a 20th overall, 2nd overall, 10th overall and 3rd overall (if you count Harrington) that are all not starters in the NFL?

Like Syl said, it's hard to beleive he held his job for so long.

[Sylvanfan]

Millen and Mibury should collaborate on a book about how to survive as completely incompetent managers of pro sports teams.

[Bobblehead]

With Millen, I think he could recognize good players, but he couldn't put together a good team. He didn't have a vision or plan on who he needed to replace in order to make the rest of his players better. Martz was able to do that on offense the last 2 years (and got fired for not running enough). Millen knew what good teams need to do to win. He knew some good players (Kitna), but he never knew what good players to get to make his team into the good teams. If Millen wanted a running team, he needed to draft the horses for a run game, not 4 WRs in 5 years and try to depend upon a RB who can't stay healthy or the rest of the leagues cast offs. You want to run, you need an o-line and a quality, durable RB. I'm far from a football guru, but with who Millen drafted, he was going to get a pass centric team. And to fire an offensive coordinator who recognized that and was able to win with that was just the final obvious nail in Millen's coffin.

[moon]

Originally Posted by transplant99

Millen seems like a great guy and was a terrific football player and TV analyst...but his record is abhorrent.

I am not sure where the quote you posted came from but they did not win any play-off games under Millen. They didn't even play in a play-off game with him as GM.

Originally Posted by Sainters7

I still can't believe Charles Rogers turned out to be a bust.

I really wonder what he would've been like had he not incurred those injuries. For that very brief time before he was injured, he looked like a ridiculous stud.

He apparently had a terrible attitude and was very lazy as well so I doubt that he would have ended up being that great of a player.

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

With Millen, I think he could recognize good players, but he couldn't put together a good team.

I don't think he could recognize good players at all. His draft picks were for the most part terrible and made no sense at all, he failed to bring in a single good FA and made bad decisions in the coaching hires as well. This last draft they had multiple picks in the first 3 rounds and got not a single guy that is likely to help the team this year or ever. They made a good move to trade down and then wasted the pick on Gosder Cherilus. With Millen it always seemed like one step forward 5 steps back.

This move is about two years too late and it concerns me a bit that the same "brain trust" that gave Millen an extension is going to hire his replacement.

The Lions have a ton of work to do as there is not one area of the team that could be considered strong other than the WR's.

They have some good young talent in Johnson and Sims but need a RB, QB, OL, DL, and a ton of help in the secondary.

The team needs someone to come in and completely remake the team and that likely means another 2-3 years of crap football.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by moon

His draft picks were for the most part terrible and made no sense at all,
<snip>
They have some good young talent in Johnson and Sims but need ....

The Lions have "good young talent" but "His draft picks were for the most part terrible".

You're being inconsistent.

Hey, I'm no Millen apologist. My team just thumped them, and if they get better for the rest of the season, I'm all for it. Millen was a crappy GM, his record proves that.

I'm just saying not everything he did was bad. He probably has more football knowledge than most of this board combined. But he could not put together a good team.

[troutman]

Millen was a nut job as a player. I remember him swinging his helmet at the Patriots after they upset the Raiders in a playoff game.

[Pagal4321]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

I'm just saying not everything he did was bad. He probably has more football knowledge than most of this board combined. But he could not put together a good team.

Isn't that the case with most GM's in professional sports when compared to fans who post on message boards?

We al have our own opinion's of the guy, I for one LOVED him because he made sure the Lions were always worse than the Vikings.
But now they might hire someone competent to run the team....and that saddens me.
But you've got to hand it to Ford Sr. he really stuck with his guy, through thick and thin(mostly thin).

[Sylvanfan]

Well this sort of thing really seems to plague NFL teams where the owners get really close to the GM and his family type of thing and end up keeping people around that they like. I guess they make their money whether the team wins or not, but when you fail that epically, for that long...change needs to happen. I remember Millen as being a decent TV guy, but fact is that team was really bad for really long and he never showed to have anything that resembled a plan. I understand that a rebuild can take 3 years....but he had what...8, and the team's as bad as they've ever been.

[burn_baby_burn]

You guys are over analyzing this whole situation. Its obvious that Millen was doomed to fail because of the curse.

[moon]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

The Lions have "good young talent" but "His draft picks were for the most part terrible".

You're being inconsistent.

I said they have some good young talent. Two good young guys when they have had 5 top 10 draft picks is not good enough. I guess you could include Roy Williams as well so he has managed to get 3 quality players in 6+ draft years with many, many high picks. To me that shows that his drafting is terrible.

I can't think of one guy drafted outside of the top 15 that has become a good or even very good player. The Lions have a few a guys that have become adequate starters but not once found a "diamond" in the rough and have been killed by numerous first round flops.

Hey, I'm no Millen apologist. My team just thumped them, and if they get better for the rest of the season, I'm all for it. Millen was a crappy GM, his record proves that.

I'm just saying not everything he did was bad. He probably has more football knowledge than most of this board combined. But he could not put together a good team.

He certainly has more football knowledge than us and I really liked him as a commentator but he was terrible as a GM/President. I really would find it difficult to find anything that he did that was positive.

Even when he brought in a good player like Calvin Johnson there were many other areas that could have been addressed with the pick or by trading it.

Thats what I was getting at with the 1 step forward 5 steps back. Even when he made a "good" move there was a better move that could have been made.

[Cheese]

Pre-Game Coin Toss

[Sylvanfan]

http://blogs.nfl.com/2008/09/24/coul...-another-team/

Well it probably wouldn't happen until the off season, but unless the Chiefs show some form of progression there could be a pretty good tight end come available. I'd hate to see it happen, but I think I'd hate seeing a guy like Gonzalez go out without even getting a shot at a Superbowl in his last 5 years more. If he's only got a couple years left after this year...than he'll need to be traded to get a realistic shot at one.

I think he handles it pretty well when asked about the question. If Brett Farve can finish his career somewhere else, so can Tony Gonzalez.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

http://blogs.nfl.com/2008/09/24/coul...-another-team/

Well it probably wouldn't happen until the off season, but unless the Chiefs show some form of progression there could be a pretty good tight end come available. I'd hate to see it happen, but I think I'd hate seeing a guy like Gonzalez go out without even getting a shot at a Superbowl in his last 5 years more. If he's only got a couple years left after this year...than he'll need to be traded to get a realistic shot at one.

I think he handles it pretty well when asked about the question. If Brett Farve can finish his career somewhere else, so can Tony Gonzalez.

He's a loyal guy, but IMO the Chiefs have NOT been loyal to someone who is quite possibly the best player in team history. He probably should've went when his last deal was up.

He's only 32. I think he's got a few good years left. IMO, he is the only TE in the last 20 years that compares favorably to Shannon Sharpe. Well, let me clarify....he's the only tight end since Ozzie Newsome that compares favorably.

First ballot HOFer.

It's a shame that none of the California teams are good fits. It's nice to see guys go home to finish their careers in situations like this. I could see him in Minnesota rather easily.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

He's a loyal guy, but IMO the Chiefs have NOT been loyal to someone who is quite possibly the best player in team history. He probably should've went when his last deal was up.

He's only 32. I think he's got a few good years left. IMO, he is the only TE in the last 20 years that compares favorably to Shannon Sharpe. Well, let me clarify....he's the only tight end since Ozzie Newsome that compares favorably.

First ballot HOFer.

It's a shame that none of the California teams are good fits. It's nice to see guys go home to finish their careers in situations like this. I could see him in Minnesota rather easily.

How have they not been loyal? He is very well paid.

[Sainters7]

Here's a mixed marriage that may rub some people the wrong way:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slu...v=ap&type=lgns