Lions Gab

TaylorMade-adidas Golf Company, a subsidiary of the adidas Group, has introduced a new line of hats and visors, which features the primary colors and logos of all 32 NFL teams. Golfers across the country can now fly the colors of their favorite teams on the golf course (not on Sundays of course).

Fans can choose from all 32 NFL teams at on-course and off-course retail locations, in addition to select sporting goods retailers. If you are a displaced fan and don’t think you will be able to find your favorite team locally, go to www.taylormadegolfgear.com for a complete selection.

Each hat and visor will feature an NFL team’s logo blazoned on the left panel. The team’s name will also be stitched onto the left corner of the hat/visor. The TaylorMade logo will appear in 3D embroidery on the front panel of the hat.

The hats will be available at retail at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $27.99.

The Lions got good news as safety Louis Delmas was back at practice and could see action in the preseason finale.

Detroit Lions safety Louis Delmas returned to practice this morning, increasing the possibility that he’ll see action in Thursday’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills at Ford Field. Delmas is recovering from a lingering groin injury suffered during the offseason, and said he didn’t feel 100% six days ago.

The Lions have trimmed four players from their roster, Chris McCoskey of the Detroit News reports.

Undrafted rookie linebacker Lee Campbell and defensive end Chima Ihekwoaba were joined by wide receiver Eric Fowler and fullback Jake Nordin on the waiver wire as the Lions move to cut their roster down to the league-mandated 75 by 4pm ET on Tuesday.

Veteran linebacker Rocky Boiman will be signed, meaning the Lions will need to move two additional players off the current roster.

Later on today, the Detroit Lions are expected to sign linebacker Rocky Boiman to a contract, according to the National Football Post.

Tom Kowalski over at MLive.com further adds that the team will sign Boiman to add further depth, which is usually a sure-fire sign that Boiman will automatically make the team’s 53-man roster.

Boiman and Lions coach Jim Schwartz are familiar with each other as Boiman played under him while Schwartz was with the Tennessee Titans. He also has played under current Lions Gunther Cunningham while with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Looks like from the sounds of CBS Sports, Aaron Brown did enough vs the Browns to push forward of Maurice Morris in the RB battle with the club.

Lions RB Aaron Brown has surged ahead in the battle for the third RB spot with his second-half performance Saturday against the Browns. Brown had five carries for 34 yards and two scores, and he also added one catch for 16 yards. Brown is reading defenses much better this season and has eliminated the mental errors that plagued him last year, and he has likely moved ahead of Maurice Morris for the role behind Jahvid Best and Kevin Smith. “It was probably his best complete game as a running back,” Schwartz said. “I’d like to see him get a little bit more aggressive on some of his returns, but (he also) did a nice job in the passing game.” Brown had four kickoff returns for 96 yards. Morris, meanwhile, had two carries for 4 yards and one catch for 5 yards. “I was out there on special teams – every little thing I was trying to get away from last year, I’m trying to show them I’m the kind of player they believed (me to be) last year,” Brown said. Morris could be in danger of being released if Brown continues to play like this.

It was a nasty play for Lions first round pick Ndamukong Suh, and as Pro Football Talk describes it, he can expect to have a fine coming his way after a throw down of Browns QB Jake Delhomme.

Suh was called for a personal foul in the second quarter of Saturday night’s game, but he could have been called for the penalty three times during the play.

After Jake Delhomme let go of a pass, Suh grabbed Delhomme’s facemask and yanked it. Then he wrapped his arms around Delhomme’s head. For good measure, he then tossed Delhomme to the ground like a rag doll.

In one play Suh did everything that the league is trying to protect quarterbacks from. Honestly, it was sort of awesome.

Profootbaltalk.com is reporting that the Eagles have lost TE Cornelius Ingram is expected to miss his second consecutive season with a cyst on his knee.  The same issue ended one of his seasons at Florida.

The Eagles are thin at tight end and the Lions may be a good trading partner since they have a glut of tight ends, all of which can’t make the roster.

The Lions won’t part with Pettigrew or Scheffler but Will Heller, Dan Gronkowski, and Jake Nordin most likely won’t all make the team.  The Lions could chose to part with one of them and get some valuable depth at a position of need in return.

The Lions have an established trading relationship with the Eagles, so keep your eyes open for a potential move.

DE Jared DeVries was placed on Injured Reserve today for the second consecutive year.  DeVries had knee surgery and his recovery time was too unpredictable for the Lions to keep a roster spot saved for him.

DeVries was a 3rd round pick in 1999 and was the epitome of a blue collar player.  His veteran presence and non-stop motor will be missed.

I want to be very clear, I love football.  I’ve devoted a lot of time to football and will continue to devote time to watching, researching and writing about football.  I record all seven rounds of the draft and re-watch them every year.  If football was a woman, football and I would have a Princess Bride-caliber romance.

That being said, I hatethe thought of an 18 game regular season.  One of my biggest gripes with the NFL is it is drifting further from being a game and closer to being a business each year.  It started with small stuff that didn’t affect the game like adding luxury boxes to stadiums to boost revenue.  It continued with things that did minorly affect the game, but in a good way like the Thursday night kickoff game. 

Then it morphed into things that majorly affect the game in bad ways to appease the casual fans like the “point-of-emphasis” on downfield contact to open up the passing game.  This was done because casual fans like higher scoring.  Next, breaking up the NFL Draft like a Kit Kat and spreading over three days to draw more casual fans.  The most recent step in the wrong direction is the “enhancement” of the regular season.

Let’s just call a spade a spade here, it is a major renovation to the season.  An enhancement was adding a third Thanksgiving Day game, the equivalent of buying a new recliner for the living room.  This “enhancement” is knocking walls down to put in a luxury bathroom.

It’s unnecessary and it is bad for the game.  Football has become America’s National Pastime because of the intensity and live or die feel to the season.  A win here or loss there can change the course of the season.  All the other sports struggle to match that intensity because they have too many games.  Adding more games won’t “enhance” the season, it will enhance the almighty revenue stream and the byproduct will be watered down football.

I feel like all the publicity for this “enhancing” push should have disclaimers with the side effects like medications.

“The NFL Enhanced Season will give you two more regular season games with two extra weeks of fantasy football and millions of dollars for the billionaire owners.  Side effects may include massive amounts of injuries, shortened careers, watered down play in the postseason, and tons of long standing records falling.  Please seek immediate help if you have a team that clinches a playoff berth in Week 15 as you may experience preseason quality football for over a month.”  

The league has been stepping up the focus on player safety for the last several years and now with all the information coming out about concussions and head trauma they want to add more collisions?  A defensive lineman gets hit with a 15 yard penalty if his hand grazes a quarterback’s helmet due to unnecessary roughness, but eight more regular season quarters of play won’t harm anybody?

The players will get more money if the season is “enhanced” but at what cost?  How many disabled veteran players are there from the days of 12 and 14 game seasons?  How will having more injured players “enhance” the postseason when most teams are already banged up after 16 games?

This will cause more teams to rest starters late in the year which will lead to more preseason quality regular season games.  Last year the Lions knew their season was a wash and decided to shut Stafford down for the last several games to preserve his health.  More teams will do that with their stars rather than subject them to critical injuries.

Teams that clinch early in a 16 game schedule aren’t going to stop clinching early if they add two more games.  Bad teams aren’t going to suck less because there are two more games.  So all it’s doing is adding more opportunity for injuries and resting players.

There are also other peripheral issues that spring up with two more regular season games and two fewer preseason games such as:

• Fewer diamond in the rough players like Tony Romo.  When will young players get a chance to develop? 
• Coaches have four games to get their starters ready which entails minimal playing time over four games.  To get the equivalent work it will mean more playing time for starters in two games and two more full regular season games.
• More cold weather games since they will still start the regular season at the same time and most likely have to add in an additional bye week.
• Less prep time for the Draft or possibly bumping back the Draft.
• Scheduling conflicts with the television networks.

What are the “benefits” of “enhancing” the season?  Two more regular season games that are unneeded and two fewer preseason games that are more useful than most understand. 

Commissioner Goodell said he has gotten feedback from the fans saying they don’t like to watch preseason games.  A far simpler solution would be for them to not watch.

I can’t think of a single good reason for an 18 game schedule.  If I were an owner I’d have cartoon dollar signs in my eyes, and millions of good reasons to expand the season.  As a fan, I just see watering down of a game I love and two more games that will make my Sunday Ticket bill go up.

As expected, there is a lot of buzz surrounding the Lions revamped defensive line after two strong performances in the preseason.  The line has generated pressure against the pass and gotten penetration against the run.  On the flip side, it was against two of the worst offensive lines in the league, but they were still very impressive performances.  Despite the positive reviews, there are doubters that don’t believe the defensive line improvement will translate into a better defensive unit as a whole.  I ask why can’t an improved defensive line improve the whole defense?

The Vikings are almost universally agreed upon to have the best defensive line in the league.  They also had a very highly rated defensive unit last year as well.  Their linebacking corps consisted of Chad Greenway (who got two of his three INTs against Stafford,) Ben Leber and EJ Henderson all of whom are Pro Bowlers…wait they’re not?  They’re merely average to slightly above average?

Ok, well the Vikings trotted out a Hall of Fame caliber secondary featuring CB Cedric Griffin, CB Antoine Winfield (for 9 starts,) CB Benny Sapp (for 7 starts,) SS Tyrell Johnson and FS Madieu Williams.  What’s that?  Also a group of average to above average players?  Winfield is a Pro Bowler, but he was hampered by injuries last year and wasn’t nearly as effective as he was when healthy.

So how could the Vikings have the 6th ranked defense with a collection of average players in the back seven?  They had a dominant defensive line.

The 2007 New York Giants defeated the most dominant offense in recent memory in the Super Bowl with LB Kawika Mitchell, LB Antonio Pierce, LB Reggie Torbor, CB Sam Madison, CB Aaron Ross, SS Gibril Wilson and FS James Butler in the back seven.  Their line featured DE Michael Strahan, DE/DT Justin Tuck, DE/LB Mathias Kiwanuka, DE Osi Umenyiora, DT Fred Robbins and DT Barry Cofield.  The best offense in the league crumbled under an unrelenting pass rush from the best defensive line in the league, even with an average secondary.

For my last example I present the 2009 New Orleans Saints.  The Saints were starting street free agents at defensive back for part of the season due to injuries last season.  Their linebacking corps is Johnathan Vilma and a group of non-household name players.  The defense played well because they generated pressure through the pass rush and forced turnovers, masking their weaknesses in the secondary.

I want to be clear on one point, I’m not saying the Lions will have the 6thranked defense or win a Super Bowl with the defensive unit they will put on the field in 2010.  I am saying that there is a proven track record of strong defensive performances without premier talent in the linebacking corps and secondary.  The Lions obviously don’t have premier talent in the secondary, they may not even have average talent in the secondary, but they are improved over last year.  The Lions had one of the better linebacking corps in the league last year, how much did that help?

The key for the Lions’ defense lies in their performance against the run because believe it or not, the Lions’ defense was pretty solid on third and long situations last season.  They just couldn’t stop the run consistently enough to force teams into obvious passing downs. 

Flip the scenario to the 2009 Lions’ offense.  Jim Schwartz attributed the offensive struggles and Matthew Stafford’s high interception totals to facing so many third and long situations.  The offense is at a clear disadvantage when the defense knows they have to pass.

The NFL may be a passing league, but the key to a successful offense is still having the ability to limit obvious passing downs and third and long situations by running the ball.  The Saints have been near the top of the league in passing for years, but they kept missing the playoffs.  The Saints had a stronger running game last season and they beat the Colts in the Super Bowl.  Coincidentally, the Colts struggled to run the ball which allowed the Saints to keep Peyton Manning in obvious passing situations.

The Lions haven’t proven anything yet, but there are signs that they could field one of the better defensive lines in the league.  There could be vast improvement in the defense if they excel at stuffing the run and keeping opposing offenses in obvious passing situations.  It’s not unrealistic to think they could field a middle of the pack defense if they stay healthy.  It’s also a distinct possibility that they could struggle mightily against the run and finish last in defense for a third straight year.  To say the Lions will struggle on defense because they don’t have a strong back seven is inaccurate.    The key to a strong defense is controlling the run and generating pressure on the quarterback.  The 2010 Lions defensive line is built for both of those purposes.