2008 NFL Regular Season Thread.

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Machiavelli

Oh, that stuff. I thought it was all media hyped-up. Didn't really seem to be a big deal.

It is TO. With him there is always a fire even if you don't smell the smoke yet.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

Turning into a joke? I think if you looked up joke in the dictionary there would be a Detroit Lions helmet beside it. I'm sure the Lions fans on here would agree. Its not like this team has fallen from grace over the past few years. This is a team that hasn't done a thing since the 1950's. By promoting someone from within after the worst record in NFL history just sums up the entire reason the Lions have stunk for so long. The ownership is the problem here. As long as fans continue to spend on the Lions the Ford's will continue to conduct business as usual. Which won't help the Lions win anytime soon.

The Cincinnati Bengals would be another fine example of ownership keeping the team down. Where every front office position is taken up by a Brown family member. I'm surprised a Brown isn't the head coach of the Bengals.

If this was an isolated event, then I certainly think they should see what happens next year. However the Lions have been losers for so long that they're can't even accept the crown of lovable losers. I'm sure that fans of every team pity Detroit fans, and with the recession coming, Detroit fans will stay away in droves until this team starts winning.

I honestly think that there should be next to no one coming back to the Lions next year. They should probably take a strong run at Matt Cassels and try to build around him. However with that offensive line in place, they'd be burying him by the 8 game mark of next year.

I doubt that there will be much patience for next year.

[moon]

Originally Posted by Pagal4321

Question for the CP faithful. Hypothetically speaking, if you owned an NFL team and it went 0-16, would you clean house or promote people?

http://www.detroitlions.com/document...ment_id=479753

Tom Lewand has been promoted from COO to President, and Martin Mayhew has been given the permanent position of General Manager.

Unbe-freaking-leivable.

I am not too concerned about bringing Lewand back as he is more of a business guy rather than the football guy.

What I don't understand is how they can't even do a search and see who is out there that they could get.

If they had the chance, no matter how small, to get Parcells or Cowher how do they not at least try?

What was the rush? It wasn't as though teams were all trying to sign Mayhew away from the lions. If he is the guy you want at least pretend to the fans that you are trying to get the best guy rather than the 250th best guy that we now have.

I am glad that we didn't go after Pioli as that could have very well meant getting Cassel as well, which would have been a disaster. However, having a smart football guy and overpaid mediocre-bad QB would have been better than the situation we have now.

[CaptainCrunch]

Wow, I love the end of season blood letting as the Lions, Jets Jets Jets and the Browns all fire their coaches.

Loves it.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

If this was an isolated event, then I certainly think they should see what happens next year. However the Lions have been losers for so long that they're can't even accept the crown of lovable losers. I'm sure that fans of every team pity Detroit fans, and with the recession coming, Detroit fans will stay away in droves until this team starts winning.

I honestly think that there should be next to no one coming back to the Lions next year. They should probably take a strong run at Matt Cassels and try to build around him. However with that offensive line in place, they'd be burying him by the 8 game mark of next year.

I doubt that there will be much patience for next year.

I'm not so sure Cassel would be the best fit for that team. Their best player by a long shot is Calvin Johnson who is a down field receiver, and Cassel is more of a precision short pass type of guy. The Lions first order of business should be to try and fix that defence. But as is the case with any 0-16 team there is a lot of holes to be plugged.

I tried looking up 2009 NFL draft prospects today, came accross this mock draft.

2009_NFL_Mock_Draft

Has the Lions taking strong armed QB Matt Stafford 1st overall.

Has the Chiefs taking Sam Bradford 3rd. Hard to say QB has been an achilles heel for the Chiefs forever and Bradford could be a good one. But man....10 sacks all year...that defence needs a pass rushing presence in a really bad way.

[moon]

I don't get why the Jets fired Mangini, unless it was a move designed to take the spotlight away from the terrible Favre trade. He did more with less talent than other coaches (Belicheat) and yet because the management threw some money around he is the one that takes the blame.

He is a good coach and is going to be a good hire for someone whether as a co-ordinator for a short time or as a head coach again.

Certainly in the top half of coaches this season and in the league overall.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

I'm not so sure Cassel would be the best fit for that team. Their best player by a long shot is Calvin Johnson who is a down field receiver, and Cassel is more of a precision short pass type of guy. The Lions first order of business should be to try and fix that defence. But as is the case with any 0-16 team there is a lot of holes to be plugged.

I tried looking up 2009 NFL draft prospects today, came accross this mock draft.

2009_NFL_Mock_Draft

Has the Lions taking strong armed QB Matt Stafford 1st overall.

Has the Chiefs taking Sam Bradford 3rd. Hard to say QB has been an achilles heel for the Chiefs forever and Bradford could be a good one. But man....10 sacks all year...that defence needs a pass rushing presence in a really bad way.

From a marketing standpoint, signing Cassel would be the way to go, then pick up a stud on defense with their first pick. The Lions have very few offensive weapons right now, but they also have no o-line either.

How did they let it get so bad?

[Chicken Burrito]

I think there's a good chance that the Lions may sign Mike Vick. Someone will take him. Why not a team that is terrible year after year? The Raiders are already set at QB/RB so they won't need him.

[moon]

Originally Posted by Chicken Burrito

I think there's a good chance that the Lions may sign Mike Vick. Someone will take him. Why not a team that is terrible year after year? The Raiders are already set at QB/RB so they won't need him.

I doubt that they would sign Mike Vick. There is no upside for them doing that at all.

The franchise already looks bad with fans and is in a city that might be hit harder than any other with this recession.

Now they are going to alienate their fans even more by signing a guy that wasn't that great when he was in the league before and will have missed 2 seasons?

Not sure how having a guy overthrow their best player will make them a better football team either.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Chicken Burrito

I think there's a good chance that the Lions may sign Mike Vick. Someone will take him. Why not a team that is terrible year after year? The Raiders are already set at QB/RB so they won't need him.

I really doubt that anyone is going to sign him to a contract until they see if his skills are still there.

He will probably be busy with evaluation camps once he gets released from the little house.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

How did they let it get so bad?

Well from what I remember they were at least making the playoffs once in a while with Barry Saunders. Than they got the brilliant idea to give Dan Marino's backup QB Scott Mitchel a nice big fat contract after he'd looked pretty good for about 6 games....and it really backfired.

You think they want to replicate that mistake? Than again if they pick a QB first overall they'd just be redoing Joey Harrington over again.

[Chicken Burrito]

Harrington wasn't drafted first overall. He was drafted third behind David Carr and Mike Williams (Bills RT), if I'm not mistaken.

The other two big mistakes they made were drafting those two WR's in the top five in back to back years. Both were busts.

How did they let it get so bad? Two words: Matt Millen.

[moon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

From a marketing standpoint, signing Cassel would be the way to go, then pick up a stud on defense with their first pick. The Lions have very few offensive weapons right now, but they also have no o-line either.

I am not sure overpaying for a mediocre QB is that good from a marketing perspective. Lions fans have been down that road before and don't need to be burned again.

How did they let it get so bad?

Terrible, terrible drafting. Not bad but absolutely horrendous drafting.

Bad choices in individual players, bad choices in which positions to focus on etc.

FA has been a problem as well with them focusing on getting garbage older players that weren't that good when in their prime and obviously aren't worth anything now. I think over the past two years they have added 15 guys from the 1997 TB defense.

Finally, the team totally switched styles a few times during Millens time as GM and therefore had poor players for the systems they were trying to use.

They had Marriucci's West Coast offense, then went to Martz's pass, pass, pass system and finally went to Marienelli's run, run, run offense. So they ended up with a mish mash of offensive linemen that don't really fit and haven't had proper development.

The Lions have a handful of guys that are better than average starters in the league (Sims, Johnson, Raola, maybe White) and a few younger guys that have shown that they could be players but realistically of their 22 starters and 5 main defensive subs I would say there they are roughly 10 guys that should be there on a successful, winning team.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

I'm not so sure Cassel would be the best fit for that team. Their best player by a long shot is Calvin Johnson who is a down field receiver, and Cassel is more of a precision short pass type of guy. The Lions first order of business should be to try and fix that defence. But as is the case with any 0-16 team there is a lot of holes to be plugged.

I tried looking up 2009 NFL draft prospects today, came accross this mock draft.

2009_NFL_Mock_Draft

Has the Lions taking strong armed QB Matt Stafford 1st overall.

Has the Chiefs taking Sam Bradford 3rd. Hard to say QB has been an achilles heel for the Chiefs forever and Bradford could be a good one. But man....10 sacks all year...that defence needs a pass rushing presence in a really bad way.

"The Lions won't win for 50 years" Bobby Layne in 1958 after being traded after injury and upon leaving the Lions offices.

Matthew Stafford graduated from the same high school as Bobby Layne. 50 years is up.

It's destiny.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

Will be an interesting off season in Denver. If they can fix the defense they'll be in the mix next year.

I've been saying the same thing about the Browns for a few years, and it hasn't happened yet. Denver has a good one in Cutler.

[JD]

The Lions' biggest problem is definitely their offensive line, and moon hit the nail on the head as far as how that situation developed. The Lions have been bad to mediocre for pretty much a decade now, and as a result have changed coaching staffs and therefore philosophies way too frequently.

Add to that some terrible drafting and an even worse development program, and you have all the parts that sum up to this season of perfection.

Look at their first round draft record in the 2000s:
2000 - Stockar McDougle - OL - 20th overall - nothing special here, but he wasn't a high pick
2001 - Jeff Backus - OL - 18th overall - still on the team, not a bad player
2002 - Joey Harrington - QB - 3rd overall - complete dud, but the organization deserves blame for poor development.
2003 - Charles Rogers - WR - 2nd overall - great talent, poorly utilized, injured a lot. Didn't like using a top 5 pick for a WR.
2004 - Roy Williams - WR - 7th overall - a really good player. This was probably their best pick. Can't believe he did so poorly in Dallas.
2004 - Kevin Jones - RB - 30th overall - smallish RB that got hurt a lot. In Chicago now, doing nothing.
2005 - Mike Williams - WR - 10th overall - awful awful pick, especially with Williams and Rogers already in the stable
2006 - Ernie Sims - LB - 9th overall - good pick, showed good promise but really regressed this year. Struggles with his tackling at times.
2007 - Calvin Johnson - WR - 2nd overall - another good player, but you can still question whether they needed another WR when the rest of the team was obviously weak
2008 - Gosder Cherilus - OL - 17th overall - this guy flat-out sucked in his rookie year. They had the right idea picking a lineman, but Cherilus disappointed big time.

As a Lions fan, I'd say getting rid of Marinelli and Millen is a good start as far as housecleaning goes. I don't know much about the guys they promoted, so I will reserve judgment on that. I agree with moon that the optics would be better if they waited a bit.

But the whole thing doesn't bother me. The Lions have been so bad that it's almost inevitability coming to fruition that they went 0-16 this year. That was a whole lot less painful than the 6-2 start last year followed by the complete and utter collapse.

You kinda like to see the whole thing blow up like this so they can start over from the ground level. After last year, there seemed to be the feeling that they were on their way back to respectability and only needed to tweak some things. Clearly that wasn't the case!

[Sylvanfan]

Well as bad as the Lions have been in the past 24 games....they're even with my Chiefs over the past 25 games! If not for a fluke set of results the Chiefs would only have one more playoff appearance in the past 11 seasons than the Lions as opposed to their current awesome number of 2. So although the Lions and Bengals are bad...the Chiefs I think have joined them in terms of the NFL's most inept teams, they've just had the fortune of a bit more mediocrity mixed in.

[GirlySports]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html

The Pro Bowl will be played one week before the Super Bowl in 2010 and both games will be staged in Dolphin Stadium, a person directly involved in the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.

One week BEFORE the Super Bowl? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Plus that the NHL All-Star Game week.

[Displaced Flames fan]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200....ap/index.html

More on next season...and I agree Girly Sports, that is about as stupid a scenario as I can imagine!

Anyway, here are each teams opponents for next season. Of course, a lot can change during the offseason, but Denver's schedule looks brutal to me.

[PIMking]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Well as bad as the Lions have been in the past 24 games....they're even with my Chiefs over the past 25 games! If not for a fluke set of results the Chiefs would only have one more playoff appearance in the past 11 seasons than the Lions as opposed to their current awesome number of 2. So although the Lions and Bengals are bad...the Chiefs I think have joined them in terms of the NFL's most inept teams, they've just had the fortune of a bit more mediocrity mixed in.

what the hell are they waiting for? everyone else canned the horrid coaches and are lining up interviews for new gm's and coaches. Kc needs a qb first before D. You dont draft a dlineman 3rd overall. Thats were FA will come in. Hopefully KC doesnt get a retread coach go for someone new and get a good GM with a plan other than King Carls 20 year plan of medoricaty(sp)