Dre Bly a Detroit Lion Once Again

The Detroit Lions have signed cornerback, Dre Bly, to a 2 year contract. A solid move but one to be slightly wary about as well.

Bly should add some solid depth to the defensive backfield and if he ends up starting, his presence still adds depth because one of the cornerbacks who would have been starting will now be depth. As well as depth in talent, he should also add some very needed veteran leadership to the young crew.

The reason I say to be wary is because I go back to the last time he was in Detroit. In a year he was not playing very well himself, and the defensive unit was as bad as the Lions offense, Dre Bly became a cancer in the locker room. Instead of trying to hold the team together and keeping their heads on straight, Bly began pointing fingers at Joey Harrington as the problem.

Now many if not most fans think Joey Harrington was a horrible quarterback. I am a believer that the Lions ruined him rather than helping him grow. If you take any quarterback and expect him to grow with a bad offensive line, a bad and lazy receiving unit, horrible and extremely conservative play calling and absolutely no running game, he is going to fail. Let's face it, Payton Manning would not have excelled in Joey Harrington's predicament. Yet Bly did not point his finger at himself, his bad defensive unit, the offensive line, the lazy play of the receivers, the play calling or anything else. He pointed his finger at Joey Harrington. That is not what a teammate should be doing.

The simple fact is, even if the rest of the team was great and it really was all Harrington's fault, it still would have been wrong to point fingers.

So now what happens if the Lions get off to a slow start? What if, Heaven forbid, the Lions have another 3 win season? Will Dre Bly start pointing his fingers again or will he be a team leader this time? I hope he will be a team leader. If not, I hope Jim Schwartz will be strong enough to put Bly in his place. But whatever happens, the possibility of Dre Bly becoming a cancer in the locker room is something that we must be wary of.