Hello from Pride of Detroit

He showed potential in the pre-season. And has a following on POD (Pride of Detroit). We’ve been pulling for him to make the roster, not only to see what he can do but he also rounds out the Whole Draft Class of 2009 making a 53 man roster. Which is something we are also happy about, Mayhew and Schwartz look like they know how to Draft.

To this point Will Heller has taken the majority of the snaps at TE in Pettigrews absence, and he has looked pretty good. But I think we all wanna see what we have in Gronkowski, as a TE and possibly on Special Teams.

Culpepper seems to have a poor clock. He doesn’t let plays downfield develop and likes to go to the check down receiver way too quickly.

Our o-line is sort of banged up. We lost our starting RG for the year, and Daniel Loper, who was filling in, has been banged up as well. Most of the time the o-line doesn’t do very well in protection, which is why everybody is so worried about Stafford.

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Calvin did better with Culpepper stats-wise just because I could see Culpepper throwing prayers downfield (like the end of the Bengals game). On the other hand, though, like I said, he doesn’t let the downfield routes develop it seems like.

Our O-Line is below-average, and that’s being nice.

You’ll get a wide range of opinions on Jeff Backus, him being the first pick of the Millen era and our starter every single game since. I think he’s okay, he can hold his own most of the time, but will struggle against athletic pass rushers. Our LG spot has been a revolving door. Dominic Raiola has either been under appreciated by fans or overrated by everyone else, depending on whom you ask. He’s a little undersized, but the players and coaches appreciate his leadership on the field, and he’s one of those guys who has a high floor—you know what you’re getting and what he can and can’t do. Our RG, Stephen Peterman, is on the IR, replaced by Manny Ramirez, who’s been a backup for a while. Our Right Tackle, Gosder Cherilus, has been a disappointment this season, considering he was the 17th overall pick in 2008. He just doesn’t seem to employ good technique and makes too many errors. I still have hope for him, he’s a beast at about 320 with long arms and huge hands and I think he’s mean enough, but he just needs to fix a lot of problems with his game.

Overall, I don’t have a lot of confidence in our pass protection, or our run-blocking. Kevin Smith is a running back who does everything pretty well, but nothing excellent. He has good vision for finding holes and is a good weapon as a pass-catcher, but he needs an O-Line that can open holes for him, and we really don’t have that right now. Our O-Line needs to be improved in the coming offseason.

Just look at the 0-16 Lions of last year to see what Calvin Johnson can do irrespective of who he has to work with at QB. He caught passes from five different quarterbacks last year, and still managed to lead the league in touchdown receptions (12, tied with Larry Fitzgerald) and rack up over 1300 yards.

I think with Culpepper you can expect to get more sacks and fewer interceptions than if Stafford was playing. This year, especially in the preseason when he got the most playing time, it seems Culpepper has been playing pretty conservatively. Stafford has a great quick release and has shown a knack for getting rid of the football on time, even if it results more interceptions, it also brings out more big plays. Stafford takes risks. I think Culpepper’s decision-making is slower than Stafford’s, his upside is lower, and that will hurt us given our O-Line.

Waffle House sellin’ steaks. I don’t know what would be more fun- managing a Waffle House or playing Russian Roulette. Both are just a matter of time…

In the two games he started this year, the Lions scored 20 points (against Pittsburgh) and 0 points (against GB). He didn’t do anything in the GB game, and against Pittsburgh he went 23-37 for 282 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT. I guess anything is possible, but I would expect something more like the GB game.

Considering how bad the franchise has been since the Fords bought the team, that’s fair to do. And Rob Parker still is on TV and last I heard was writing for our NBC affiliate’s website. Somehow the douche still goes on ESPN regularly, but he is out of the big papers in Detroit thankfully.

was definitely Stafford’s game-winning td against the Browns.

Our run defense is way improved compared to last year. Getting rid of our undersized, soft defense and upgrading at the linebacker position (Foote, Peterson, and Levy) are a big part of that. We’re about average now against the run :-) Our pass defense is still a train wreck, but you can’t fix 0-16 in just one offseason.

It looks like we finally have a competent front office who can evaluate talent and draft. Stafford is the real deal. He’s a leader. Pettigrew was really showing how good he can be as a pass-catcher and an elite blocker until he got injured, so we’ll have to wait to see him further develop until next year. Our top two defensive picks look like they will be really good in this league—Delmas and Levy appear to both be home-runs. I’m excited to see those two for the next 8-10 years. Sammie Hill, our 4th round DT looks pretty solid too, but he’s been slowed by an ankle injury.

But, we’ve been hit hard by injury and really lack talent at a lot of positions. We can almost field an 11-man defense with the names from our IR. Our pass rush is nonexistent, and our corners can’t cover anybody. Every QB seems to have a big day against us. That, and our O-Line, should be the two biggest priorities for the offseason. We’re deep at RB, but pretty thin at WR after Calvin.