View from Detroit Lions Rookie Mini-Camp

I spent, oh, about 20 minutes watching the Detroit Lions rookies work out this past Friday; and then the media was herded up and packed into a 20 x 15 room/cell, where we proceeded to spend the next hour trashing the Lions.

You'd think I was being sarcastic, and I wish I was. Turns out the guys from Flint feel the same way about this draft class as we from Grand Rapids do. It was a veritable who's who of Lions insiders and beat writers, and everyone had a varying opinion on what kind of players this year's crop of Lion's rookies will produce. I heard everything from "well-scouted diamonds in the rough" to "a bunch of no-namers who were drafted because among other things, they lack expectations to fail".

I entered Friday's workout firmly sitting on the fence, and here's what I witnessed during the session the media were allowed to view:

Calvin Johnson = As Advertised. This dude looks to be everything he was billed to be. He was extremely fluid running his routes, has a great stride, and caught everything thrown to him. He stood about 6 in. taller than everybody else the Lions had in catching balls, but in no way looked lumbering. I'm convinced this dude is going to have a great year, and with Roy's help, Kitna will too. It's like when Scott Mitchell was throwing to Herman Moore and Brett Periman...no matter how crappy a quarterback is, having good receivers to go catch his mistakes can help cover for his deficiencies (unless, of course, he's constantly being sacked 2.5 seconds after the snap). But you could see Drew Stanton drooling over the prospect of C.J. going up and grabbing his crappy passes. Speaking of which....

Drew Stanton = Quack Quack. Lock of ducks flying around Allen Park Friday, and most of them came off the arm of Stanton. Drew's never been known for his tight spiral, and you can expect him to struggle early on as Mike Martz completely remakes his delivery. You can look at it two ways: Either the Lions took a player with great intangibles and handed him over the best quarterback crafter of the past 10 years; or they overrated an under-skilled hometown boy and blew yet another chance at drafting an impact player at a different position of need (which is everywhere). There's plenty of people on both sides of this argument, but I'll reserve judgment until Game 3 of the preseason.

Ikaika Alama-Francis = Long name, Good player. I like this kid out of Hawaii, and not just because of his various tribal tattoos. The guy is huge, but as Coach Marinelli pointed out in the interview session after practice, he's very lean for his size, and looked pretty fluid and athletic running through drills. This is a guy who's only been playing football for about 4 years, so he'll take some time to develop, but you can't really put a ceiling on his development. Can't say that about many Lions draft picks, past or present.

So after spending a couple hours in Allen Park...I'm still confused. I've been burned so many times, I'm scared to give myself to this team. But honestly, it's the Lions. I should be numb to this by now. So I'll concentrate on the positives. I liked the energy the coaching staff showed during the practice. I like how Rod Marinelli runs his business. I like that Calvin Johnson should be a superstar, and Alama-Francis could be one. I liked the fact that they wrapped up in time for me to listen to the Smack-Off on the way home. So I'm happy. At least until the full team reports for training camp. Then...who knows.

Detroit Lions Draft Thoughts...

Not gonna lie, I'm a little perplexed by the Detroit Lions after this weekend.

On one hand, I'm pleased that the franchise had the cajones to select Calvin Johnson, despite the tragic miscues on Chuck and BMW. On the other hand, after multiple trades and 8 picks for a team that has SO MANY NEEDS on each side of the ball, why do I feel like none of them were addressed?!?!?

Overwhelming response On The Bench today was a collective "huh?" from the audience. After CJ and Drew Stanton, no one has heard of the rest of the players the Lions drafted. Either this is a stroke of genius and a humongous coup for the scouting department; or this is the most over-calculated and mishandled draft in the Millen Era (which, I am now convinced, will become a major reference point for a college sports management course in the near future).

So...I've injected myself with a mild sedative normally used on cattle, and that combined with my already fragile sanity has yielded these thoughts on the weekend:

-The Lions didn't trade Calvin Johnson, and that's a good thing. CJ will benefit from playing in the Martz system, and Mike Furrey (who teams basically ignored last year) will have another productive year out of the slot. Detroit held firm in their demands, and took the best player in the draft when they did not receive an equal offer. Kudos for that.

-The Lions mishandled the rest of Day #1. When the Lions traded back in the 2nd round, I thought it was a major mistake giving up the chance to take the likes of David Harris, Lamarr Woodley, Chase Houston, and others. When both those Michigan players were still there after they dropped, they instead took Drew Stanton. I don't buy for a second that David Harris couldn't have immediately stepped in and helped this team. Right after he got drafted by the Jets, it was heralded as a fantastic pick...and the Jets are GOOD!!! You're telling me that we're completely satisfied with one-legged Teddy Lehman and Paris Lennon?!?!? Give me a break. Drew Stanton could have been had with one of those later 2nd round picks, believe me. Every other team had Trent Edwards above Stanton, and he went in the third round.

-The McCown/BMW trade was fantastic. Think about it, what would you rather have...Randy Moss or a combo of Josh McCown and Mike Williams??? Well, apparently each is worth a 4th-round pick. Not bad when you consider McCown didn't play a down last year (at quarterback anyways...) and Mike Williams doesn't want to play football. The kicker...the Lions not even calling BMW or his agent to let him know that he'd been traded. That goodness for that ESPN ticker, or BMW would still be not showing up for the wrong team. Hopefully Al Davis's senility caused him to forget to pay for BMW's plane ticket.

-Picks I liked: Calvin Johnson (duh), Ikaika Alama-Francis (a big athlete who seems coach-able and with a real motor...aka "Marinelli guy"), and Manny Ramierez (Strong guard who has experience in Pass Pro...and should keep us from plucking replacement guys off the buffet line at least until Week 8.)

-Picks I groaned about: Stanton (nice player...too early), Gerald Alexander (didn't we draft a safety in the second round LAST YEAR???), and Johnny Baldwin (is it bad that Stanton is listed as being bigger than the linebacker we drafted?)


So...there's some thoughts. Welcome your comments. I feel this draft will continue to be a great mystery for at least a couple years, when we figure out if these guys can play. I'd like to agree with Tom Kowalski. But I gotta see to believe.

Maybe my buddies and I shouldn't have let a hard night of partying derail our plans to kidnap Matt Millen after all....

Report: Matt Millen continues to retain job due to fantasy football prowess

Turns out that Matt Millen truly is a football genius.

Millen, the much-maligned Lions CEO, holds the worst 6-year record of any GM in NFL history, and yet has inexplicably held on to his position with the team. Fans, media, and other league executives continue to scratch their heads as to why Millen enjoys so much job security. That is, until now.

For some time its been known that since 1999, William Clay and the rest of the Ford family have participated in an annual fantasy football league that included various top Ford Motor Company executives as well as Lions president of business operations (COO) Tom Lewand. Only recently it was revealed that during the team's struggles in 2004, Millen was extended an invite to join the fantasy league as a good-will gesture. Veterans of the league joked that it was unfair to compete against someone with insider knowledge about the NFL, but Millen assured them that he possessed none of this supposed knowledge.

However, in his first season as a member of Ford's league, Millen tore through the competition, annihilating the competition en route to winning the championship. William Clay was so enamored by Millen's performance that he immediately offered him a 5-year contract extension with his real-life team; convinced that the CEO's fantasy prowess would translate into solid personnel decisions for the Lions.

As any fan of the NFL knows, Detroit is still waiting for that knowledge to surface. Though the product that Millen was hired to put together has been putrid on the field, the Lion's CEO has proved to be unbeatable in make-believe football games. One competing fantasy owner begrudgingly admits that Millen has nailed fantasy sleepers year after year, but Lewand tells a different story:

After being promoted in 2003, Lewand began working more closely with Millen, and after Matt's fantasy championship in 2004, Tom wondered privately if the title was won because of Millen's fantasy genius, or because the Ford executives who made up the rest of the league were busy fearing for their jobs, and didn't bother to update their teams. That, combined with Mr. Ford's senility, led to Millen claiming the championship.

Lewand said that Millen spent an inordinate amount of time updating his team, so much so that he would occasionally jam the company printer due to the amount of fantasy printouts he would pull from over 20 websites. One company source reports that Millen was often late to meetings due to constantly checking his fantasy squad, and others say that Millen would routinely deflect conversation about the Lions, and try and steer the topic towards his fantasy team, the Hokendauqua Warriors. Lewand approached Matt with his concerns regarding Millen's growing obsession with his fantasy team, but Millen rebuffed him, saying that those who actually cared about fantasy football were "cowards".

After another Millen-dominated fantasy season in '05, Lewand began to suspect that the CEO's success had nothing to do with actual football knowledge, but was simply blind luck. Lewand noticed that Millen constantly announced his draft picks only by last name, and the other owners made assumptions as to which player he had chosen. Tom asserts that Millen's first two choices, Shaun Alexander and Larry Johnson, were really supposed to be Derrick Alexander and Keyshawn Johnson. Lewand contests that Millen's affinity for drafting receivers in the early rounds led him to believe he was selecting wideouts...only the fellow owners marked him down as drafting running backs, not believing that anyone would be moronic enough to waste their first two picks on wide receivers with questionable talent.

Lewand decided to test his theory this year by demanding Millen state his draft pick's full name; and was initially pleased when Matt's announced his first three picks as Randy Moss, Eddie Kennison, and Chris Chambers. Tom expected Millen's team to unravel and in turn expose the supposedly brilliant CEO as being nothing more than a lucky SOB. However, Lewand's plot was foiled when Millen duped the 81 year-old Bill Ford into trading Ladamian Tomlinson and Peyton Manning for Brett Farve and Bob Sanders, a player whom Millen led the senile Ford to believe was Barry Sanders. Though angry that the move quashed his theory, Lewand conceded that Millen is showing progress, having finally figured out how to pull off a trade where he came out on the winning end.

While the Lions flounder at 2-11, Millen's team is tearing through the fantasy playoffs. How is this possible? Perhaps Millen is exerting all his football knowledge on his fantasy squad. Perhaps it is because that Millen is not required to assemble either an offensive or defensive line for his team. Or it might be due to the fact that Millen has yet to include a Detroit Lion as a member of his fantasy squad.

Whatever the reason, for all you haters out there: Matt Millen is a genius. I mean, who else gets paid millions of dollars to be good at fantasy football???