| 26 August 2010
This week, the questions for the Lions congregation revolve around the sudden move of Amari Spievey from cornerback to safety. It's has Lions
1. Tim H.: What is with the move of Spievey to safety? Is he a bust already?
As a cornerback, apparently Spievey is a bust. A pretty big one at that, considering his 3rd round draft status.
But the Lions must have seen something in his skill set they think will transfer to the safety position...or Spievey really is a massive bust and the coaches are scrambling in the hope he can become useful at another position of even greater need.
Let's hope it's the first scenario, not the second.
Either way, it's not very encouraging news in regard to either Spievey's talent or the Lions' secondary as a whole, if a fairly high draft pick is being moved to a new position more than halfway through the preseason.
If Spievey's skills were better suited to be used at safety, then he should have been working out at safety during mini-camp and OTA's. Why move him now, when time is of the essence? You'd think the coaches would have noticed Spievey's skills not translating to corner in the NFL during those numerous OTA's, right? I find it hard to believe the coaching staff just realized this, considering Spievey's lack of playing time against the Steelers and Broncos.
Before we start throwing the "Bust" word around with malice aforethought, let's see if Spievey will step in capably at safety. It's not like the Lions are set at the position, save for Delmas...who's trying to nurse his gimpy groin through camp. There's no guarantee Delmas will be ready for the season opener, which is less than 2 1/2 weeks away.
Even if filling one need by creating another isn't exactly the optimum way to fix the defensive backfield, it's a better option than sending the Turk to collect Spievey's playbook.
2. John G.: Cornerback was already weak. With Spievey at safety, do they make a move - and who is really left out there?
Cornerback was already weak when Spievey was in the mix. It's now scary weak, and there isn't anyone out there for the Lions to pick up...yet.
I just hope to Hell we don't see what happened last season with the secondary. The Lions spent the much of the '09 season picking up a waiver wire wonder off the street on Tuesday, and have him starting at corner on Sunday. More often than not, that same player would end up on IR or cut the next week, only to be replaced by another waiver wire wonder on the next Tuesday...when the ugly circle would begin again.
So I'm guessing the Lions do make a move, but the player (or players) are still on other NFL rosters at the moment.
There's sure to be players of interest (and not just at cornerback) to the Lions after the cutdown to 75 players on August 31st, and when the final 53 man rosters are set on September 4th. As they'll have waiver priority over every other NFL not named the Rams, the odds are damn good Martin Mayhew will get his man...or more likely, men.
The Lions congregation answers your questions every week. So if you have a Lions query you'd like to see answered, you can email the congregation at lionscongregation@yahoo.com.
As always, to read the rest of the Lions blogosphere answering questions submitted to Joshua, aka DetFan79, head over to Roar of the Lions every Friday!
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