I know a lot of people hate the Lions offensive line. They saw the horrible running game and blamed the line. They saw Stafford get hurt and blamed the offensive line. It has almost become a sort of fad here in Detroit to hate the offensive line. But I also believe that people have begun to hate the line for no other reason than to simply hate the unit. I used to hate the line myself. Very likely, I was complaining about the line well before most of you have.
When Barry Sanders ran for 2000 yards, many fans thought the Lions line was good. I hated it. They argued that the line must be pretty good for Barry to get 2000 yards. I argued that Barry was the reason he got 2000 yards. The line was the reason he had so many one yard losses and did not get 3000 yards.
When Scott Mitchell was ran out of town, I argued on his behalf. I tried to explain to people that Mitchell was not the problem, but it was the ridiculously bad offensive line that was the problem. In a play-off game against the Eagles (yes that was a long time ago), Mitchell got up out of his stance, took two steps over to his right, pointed at a linebacker who was showing blitz and yelled a message to his linemen. He seriously could not have helped them more in that situation. When the ball was snapped, that linebacker came blitzing through. The only player to even make any contact with that linebacker was Scott Mitchell while he was driven into the turf. But fans expected him to look great with that kind of protection.
When Harrington was hated so much and pointed out by Dre Bly in the locker-room, I stood up for him. I was sick of watching Joey pick himself up off the turf because he had less than two seconds to get rid of the ball. His wide receivers were lazy, did not practice, ran bad routes and never hustled. His offensive line made defenses look like they were made of water the way they poured through them. He did not even have a talented running back to help him. While everyone hated Harrington, I hated the offensive line.
Finally with Stafford getting hurt two years ago, more people started to see how bad the line was. They began to blame Backus. I was one of those. I hated Backus and Raiola as much as anyone. One day I read something in a post on a forum, about how the left guard position was like a revolving door and was the reason Backus looked so bad. A light bulb clicked on and suddenly something made sense. It would explain why both Backus and Raiola looked so bad and yet seemed to impress coach after coach enough to keep their starting jobs. Last off-season I began to argue that maybe that really was the case. The Lions had signed Rob Sims, the Left Guard and I argued that with Sims there, Backus could look a lot better.... and he did!
Still I hear people saying the Lions offensive line is horrible. I have had a couple comments left stating that very thing. I have heard guys at work say it. I have heard callers on the radio saying it. I just don't believe that people who say this are looking at the whole picture.
Backus missed a block against Peppers, one of the best sack artists in the NFL. So many fans want to say that Backus sucks because of that play and Stafford getting hurt was his fault. They don't want to admit that there is not a lineman in the history of the NFL who will never get beat by the best defensive ends. Let me make this statement very clear. "THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A SHUTDOWN LEFT TACKLE!"
Every quarterback in the NFL is expected to take some hits. The linemen are not going to ever keep him unscathed. They are not expected to keep him from ever getting hit. Their job is to limit those hits to as few as possible. So when Stafford got hurt on the first time he was hit in 2010, I am not going to say the offensive line sucks. When he comes back and gets hurt in only one more game, but he was not hit a lot, I don't blame the line! Most of the QBs in the NFL take a lot of hits in the season and don't get hurt.
In 633 pass attempts, the Lions quarterbacks were sacked a total of 27 times. That is a rate of one sack every 23.44 passes. Only the Colts, Giants, Saints, and Falcons had a better rating. All four of them had much better running games to help keep the QB safe. With virtually no running game in 2010, defenses were able to pin back their ears and come after the Lions quarterbacks with a vengeance. Yet they still had the 5th best protection in the NFL. The Lions offensive line did their job of limiting the amount of times the quarterback is hit, better than 27 other teams in the NFL. When you get hit that few times, if you get hurt, that is either dumb bad luck, or you are injury prone. It is not the fault of the offensive line.
Now consider this. On the right side of the line, both Gosder Cherilus and Stephen Peterman were playing hurt much of the year. Peterman had his worst season in 2010 because he was playing on am injured foot. Because of that injury, he was not moving as well and ended up holding too much.
When the Lions fans see Stafford get hurt, many automatically blame the line. They want to believe in a world where your quarterback never gets touched. Its unrealistic. When they saw how bad the running games was they tend to believe it is either the RBs fault or the offensive line's fault. They do not however, want to believe that there could be more to it. The average fan does not see the fact that for a running game to be good, it depends on so much more. It needs the QB to pass down field to keep the safeties honest. It needs the play calling to be imaginative. It needs the Offensive line to be healthy and good. It needs the running backs to be decent. The Lions Offensive line was NOT healthy. Their quarterback would NOT throw more than seven yards in the air. The running backs were NOT healthy. Quite frankly, the play calling was NOT very good for most of the season. It was not that the offensive line was terrible that the running game was so bad. It was bad because it had NONE of those factions going well for it.
If you know football, you have to know that a QB just has to be able to take some hits. If he gets hurt two or three times and is only hit a few times, then it is not the fault of the protection. If he gets hurt every third time he is hit, it is simply ridiculous to blame the line. If the running backs are hurt, their is no down field passing game, and the play calling is horrendous, then you cannot blame the line for the running game being bad. Not with any common sense at least!
As to whoever left the comment that 3 QBs getting destroyed is the line's fault..... When Hill was hurt, it was because of an illegal play when a defensive player hit him low at the knees. If your feet are grounded and someone hits you below the knees, your leg very well might go "snap!" He was not hit a lot that game. He was hit wrong! Stanton got hurt but it was minor. He took a pain killing injection and finished the game. As I have already pointed out, Stafford got hurt twice on only a small handful of hits. One of those he was chased and he fell forward. Not even hit!
With all that being said, I am not in any way saying the line does not need some improvement. There is a question as to whether Cherilus will be healthy after micro-fracture knee surgery. Raiola is definitely undersized and more importantly, under-powered. Backus is getting older and a replacement needs to be considered. But even with these problems, the Detroit Lions offensive line is far, far from being a bad line.
4/29/11
Detroit Lions 2011 Draft: Rounds 1 - 3
The Detroit Lions have their first three picks in and one can only wonder. Did Mayhew and Schwartz actually do the draft this year or did they bring back Millen for one last hurah?
Round 1:
Before the draft, if you asked any Lions fan what positions the Lions needed to draft the least, they would have said Quarterback, Defensive Tackle, and Tight end. Obvious choices. Myself? I would have put them in the order of Defensive Tackle, Tight End and then Quarterback. So what do the Lions draft with their first round, 13th overall pick? Nick Fairley, a Defensive Tackle!
I understand that most fans like this pick. I know of one poll that the last I heard, had 88% of the fans liking the pick. I just do not understand why.
The Lions have Ndamukong Suh, Corey Williams, and Sammie Lee Hill at Defensive Tackle. The Lions as a team in 2010, had 44 sacks. Only 4 less than the NFL leaders, the Pittsburgh Steelers. 39 of those sacks came from the defensive line. Only 5 sacks came from linebackers and defensive backs. When it comes to getting after the quarterback, the Lions defensive line is arguably the best in the NFL. It was the last place they needed to add a player. So drafting a DT in the first round essentially means the Lions spent their 13th overall pick, in a draft when they needed to address so many holes, with depth!
How good is Fairley? Many believe he is going to be awesome. Some comments try to put him on the level with Suh. Let us get one thing straight. There is absolutely no way he is on the level with Suh. When Suh came out, he was not touted as the best DT in the draft. He was touted as the best DT to come out of college in over a decade and possibly ever! Before the Lions drafted Fairley, I rarely heard his name mentioned. To take it farther, Suh played great football for three continuous seasons in college. Fairley has had one big season.
Let us pretend for a moment he will be great though. How much better will he be than Corey Williams? Whether you like Williams or not, the truth is, he played at a pretty high level. Though he only had a couple sacks, Williams had a hand in breaking up a lot of plays. He was the hammer that often sprung Suh free. IF Williams was not good enough, the Lions would not have been able to pull Suh off the line and use him as a blitzing linebacker. Even if Fairly is great.... Even if he is better than Corey Williams, he still only improves the starting unit so much. It is not like he replaces a DT who was not very good. He does not improve the Lions D-line by leaps and bounds. He adds a lot of talent in the depth department. Essentially, he will be their so that the Lions will have four DTs to rotate in and out to keep them fresh.
Again, the Lions D-line had 39 sacks last year. How many more will they get?
On the board at the time they drafted Fairley, was still Prince Amukamara and Jimmy Smith. Two cornerbacks that many experts believed had the talent to press the receivers (something the Lions need desperately), and possibly be shutdown corners. Anyone who would rather have a DT who adds great depth over a top corner who would immediately make the Lions defensive backs a lot better, simply does not know football. Yes I am meaning this fir the Lions brass too!
I will say it again. Last year the Lions defensive line was one of the best (if not THE best) at going after the quarterback. Of the other 7 starters on the field in defense, the Lions only had 2 players who belong starting. Louis Delmas and DeAndre Levy. That leaves 3 defensive backs and two outside linebackers who the Lions need to improve if they ever want to be a play-off contender. Five players of the eleven starters who would be nothing more than back-ups on other teams. The Lions could have addressed one of them and instead chose to add a DT that would add great depth.
Yet I keep hearing the statement that a team needs depth if they want to win games. I will tell you something much more important to have than depth if you want to be a winning team. Good starters! And only 6 good starters on the field at any time for a defense just doesn't cut it. Especially when 4 of them are in one unit.
Round 2:
The second round started with a vengeance to insult the Lions brass. The first two picks off the board? Cornerbacks! The one position the Lions need to address the most. The Lions finally got to pick with the 44th pick of the NFL draft. Did they get a cornerback? No. How about a linebacker? Nope. Ah, then they must have taken an offensive lineman right? Not quite!
The Lions select, Boise State Receiver, Titus Young.
Now as bad as this sounds, I actually like this pick more than the first round pick. Not that I love it by any means, but at least I feel like they did address a need. The Lions need a receiver who can stretch the defense opposite Calvin Johnson. He does not have to be a great receiver. He just has to be good enough that if they ignore him, he will get past the secondary and pull in some long passes. This will force defenses to keep their safeties back and in turn, it will open a little more running room and give Calvin more one on ones.
Titus Young is not a great pick, but at least I can see where his presence can create problems for defenses and make the rest of the offense better. So for this pick I can live with it.
Round 2b:
The Lions made their usual trade to move up again. This is one thing I absolutely love about Mayhew. He is not looking to trade down and acquire more picks like many think. He looks to move up and get higher quality players who can become starters. So Mayhew made a trade with the Seattle Seahawks and gave them their 3rd and 4th round picks as well as swapped places in the 5th and 7th round. In other words, they essentially gave up the rest of their draft to move back into the second round.
With the 57th pick in the 2011 draft, the Lions take.... a cornerback? A linebacker? An offensive lineman? No! They draft Illinois RB, Mikel LeShoure.
Some fans believe the Lions needed a big hard running RB to run between tackles. To get the extra yard on short yardage downs. It seems the Lions brass has agreed. The fact that the Lions center, Dominic Raiola is under sized had nothing to do with it. That the line of scrimmage was often pushed back a couple yards wasn't at fault. We used Suh as a fullback on short yardage and he ran into a wall two yards short of the line of scrimmage, but a big RB will make the difference? I don't see it. The fact that the play calling was horrendous most of the time and that the QB, Shaun Hill rarely threw the ball more than 7 yards in the air, had nothing to do with the bad running game. We can play in a way that bring the defense in tight, taking away running room and filling run lanes quicker, but we will place the blame on the running backs.
It was not a RB we needed to get so bad. We needed a center who can push the line of scrimmage rather than be pushed backwards! The Lions need a fullback who can lead block to clear open some running lanes! What the Lions did not need was a hard running RB, because they already had one in Felton! He is listed as a fullback, but he was never used as one. He is only used as a hard hitting RB.
The Final Verdict:
So the Lions went into the draft needing Cornerbacks, outside Linebackers and possibly a safety the most on defense. They needed a Center, a right tackle, a receiver, and maybe a fullback on offense. After three picks (spending their first 4 picks for them), the Lions filled a total of 1 hole. Wide receiver!
As it stands, the Lions will enter the 2011 season (if there is one), with the same cornerbacks who could not cover a receiver, and the same linebackers, who could not cover or tackle. The Lions will enter the new season with virtually an unimproved starting line-up.
And I just cannot help but wonder. What hand did Millen play in this?
Round 1:
Before the draft, if you asked any Lions fan what positions the Lions needed to draft the least, they would have said Quarterback, Defensive Tackle, and Tight end. Obvious choices. Myself? I would have put them in the order of Defensive Tackle, Tight End and then Quarterback. So what do the Lions draft with their first round, 13th overall pick? Nick Fairley, a Defensive Tackle!
I understand that most fans like this pick. I know of one poll that the last I heard, had 88% of the fans liking the pick. I just do not understand why.
The Lions have Ndamukong Suh, Corey Williams, and Sammie Lee Hill at Defensive Tackle. The Lions as a team in 2010, had 44 sacks. Only 4 less than the NFL leaders, the Pittsburgh Steelers. 39 of those sacks came from the defensive line. Only 5 sacks came from linebackers and defensive backs. When it comes to getting after the quarterback, the Lions defensive line is arguably the best in the NFL. It was the last place they needed to add a player. So drafting a DT in the first round essentially means the Lions spent their 13th overall pick, in a draft when they needed to address so many holes, with depth!
How good is Fairley? Many believe he is going to be awesome. Some comments try to put him on the level with Suh. Let us get one thing straight. There is absolutely no way he is on the level with Suh. When Suh came out, he was not touted as the best DT in the draft. He was touted as the best DT to come out of college in over a decade and possibly ever! Before the Lions drafted Fairley, I rarely heard his name mentioned. To take it farther, Suh played great football for three continuous seasons in college. Fairley has had one big season.
Let us pretend for a moment he will be great though. How much better will he be than Corey Williams? Whether you like Williams or not, the truth is, he played at a pretty high level. Though he only had a couple sacks, Williams had a hand in breaking up a lot of plays. He was the hammer that often sprung Suh free. IF Williams was not good enough, the Lions would not have been able to pull Suh off the line and use him as a blitzing linebacker. Even if Fairly is great.... Even if he is better than Corey Williams, he still only improves the starting unit so much. It is not like he replaces a DT who was not very good. He does not improve the Lions D-line by leaps and bounds. He adds a lot of talent in the depth department. Essentially, he will be their so that the Lions will have four DTs to rotate in and out to keep them fresh.
Again, the Lions D-line had 39 sacks last year. How many more will they get?
On the board at the time they drafted Fairley, was still Prince Amukamara and Jimmy Smith. Two cornerbacks that many experts believed had the talent to press the receivers (something the Lions need desperately), and possibly be shutdown corners. Anyone who would rather have a DT who adds great depth over a top corner who would immediately make the Lions defensive backs a lot better, simply does not know football. Yes I am meaning this fir the Lions brass too!
I will say it again. Last year the Lions defensive line was one of the best (if not THE best) at going after the quarterback. Of the other 7 starters on the field in defense, the Lions only had 2 players who belong starting. Louis Delmas and DeAndre Levy. That leaves 3 defensive backs and two outside linebackers who the Lions need to improve if they ever want to be a play-off contender. Five players of the eleven starters who would be nothing more than back-ups on other teams. The Lions could have addressed one of them and instead chose to add a DT that would add great depth.
Yet I keep hearing the statement that a team needs depth if they want to win games. I will tell you something much more important to have than depth if you want to be a winning team. Good starters! And only 6 good starters on the field at any time for a defense just doesn't cut it. Especially when 4 of them are in one unit.
Round 2:
The second round started with a vengeance to insult the Lions brass. The first two picks off the board? Cornerbacks! The one position the Lions need to address the most. The Lions finally got to pick with the 44th pick of the NFL draft. Did they get a cornerback? No. How about a linebacker? Nope. Ah, then they must have taken an offensive lineman right? Not quite!
The Lions select, Boise State Receiver, Titus Young.
Now as bad as this sounds, I actually like this pick more than the first round pick. Not that I love it by any means, but at least I feel like they did address a need. The Lions need a receiver who can stretch the defense opposite Calvin Johnson. He does not have to be a great receiver. He just has to be good enough that if they ignore him, he will get past the secondary and pull in some long passes. This will force defenses to keep their safeties back and in turn, it will open a little more running room and give Calvin more one on ones.
Titus Young is not a great pick, but at least I can see where his presence can create problems for defenses and make the rest of the offense better. So for this pick I can live with it.
Round 2b:
The Lions made their usual trade to move up again. This is one thing I absolutely love about Mayhew. He is not looking to trade down and acquire more picks like many think. He looks to move up and get higher quality players who can become starters. So Mayhew made a trade with the Seattle Seahawks and gave them their 3rd and 4th round picks as well as swapped places in the 5th and 7th round. In other words, they essentially gave up the rest of their draft to move back into the second round.
With the 57th pick in the 2011 draft, the Lions take.... a cornerback? A linebacker? An offensive lineman? No! They draft Illinois RB, Mikel LeShoure.
Some fans believe the Lions needed a big hard running RB to run between tackles. To get the extra yard on short yardage downs. It seems the Lions brass has agreed. The fact that the Lions center, Dominic Raiola is under sized had nothing to do with it. That the line of scrimmage was often pushed back a couple yards wasn't at fault. We used Suh as a fullback on short yardage and he ran into a wall two yards short of the line of scrimmage, but a big RB will make the difference? I don't see it. The fact that the play calling was horrendous most of the time and that the QB, Shaun Hill rarely threw the ball more than 7 yards in the air, had nothing to do with the bad running game. We can play in a way that bring the defense in tight, taking away running room and filling run lanes quicker, but we will place the blame on the running backs.
It was not a RB we needed to get so bad. We needed a center who can push the line of scrimmage rather than be pushed backwards! The Lions need a fullback who can lead block to clear open some running lanes! What the Lions did not need was a hard running RB, because they already had one in Felton! He is listed as a fullback, but he was never used as one. He is only used as a hard hitting RB.
The Final Verdict:
So the Lions went into the draft needing Cornerbacks, outside Linebackers and possibly a safety the most on defense. They needed a Center, a right tackle, a receiver, and maybe a fullback on offense. After three picks (spending their first 4 picks for them), the Lions filled a total of 1 hole. Wide receiver!
As it stands, the Lions will enter the 2011 season (if there is one), with the same cornerbacks who could not cover a receiver, and the same linebackers, who could not cover or tackle. The Lions will enter the new season with virtually an unimproved starting line-up.
And I just cannot help but wonder. What hand did Millen play in this?
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