| 01 June 2010
Lions fans and for that matter, the Lions blogosphere, have praised the Lions for their offseason moves. I've sung the Lions praises both here on TWFE and The Knee Jerks.
There has been plenty to get excited about.
Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz upgraded a few positions in free agency, had what appears to be another solid draft, the defensive line was totally rebuilt from the inside out, Matthew Stafford was given even more offensive weapons at running back, tight end and wide receiver, and last year's excellent rookie class should be that much better with a season under their belts.
Things must be looking up for the Lions, right?
Not so fast, gang.
If you've been getting a little tipsy drinking the Lions Kool-Aid, the latest NFC Central post at Football Outsiders will sober you up like a stong cup o' joe combined with a slap in the face.
At cornerback, however, a talentless void saw only tinkering at the margins.
Before the draft, the Lions acquired Chris Houston in a trade from Atlanta. Houston immediately became the Lions top cornerback -- which is extremely troubling. According to our game charting project, Houston was among the worst cornerbacks in football. He had the fifth lowest success rate among cornerbacks who were targeted at least 40 times. The one spot of hope is that highly-drafted corners like Houston often blossom in their fourth season, which happens to be the year Houston is entering.
Talentless void, indeed. Though I would have used the term "suck filled black hole of sadness."
We all know the defensive backfield is the one position group still in need a massive amount of upgrading, offseason pickups be damned. When you pin your hopes on a player trending upwards in his 4th season...you're essentially grasping at straws.
But as you read on, you learn Houston is actually the BRIGHT spot at corner.
In the draft, the Lions finally got to cornerback in the third round, selecting Amari Spievey, a physical corner and an interesting prospect. In Detroit, unfortunately, he will likely be a starter from Day One. To show their desperation, the Lions this week added C.C. Brown, who was a horrible safety in New York last year but will "battle" with Rams' washout Jonathan Wade for the nickel back position. The Lions defensive line is decidedly better, but unless they get to the quarterback immediately, opposing quarterbacks will have plenty of room to make big plays.
FO exposes what we already knew. Without question, no ifs, ands or buts about it, the Lions' defensive backfield is going to BLOW. Blow long, and blow hard.
It was with good reason Giants fans claimed the C.C. in Brown's name was short for "Can't Cover." And this is a player the Lions are hoping is high in their depth chart?
But being fans, we pushed that knowlege to the back burner in order to revel in the Lions' recent offseason successes.
Training camp starts in a little more than 7 weeks. Anyone worth signing in free agency has already been snapped up. Trades are few and far between in the NFL, and Mayhew has pulled off a pair of trades, which is 2 more than most NFL GM's. Any corner who still available at this late date has remained unsigned for a reason...they aren't any good.
So I must quote those noted NFL football experts, Def Leppard:
"It's too late, too late, it's too late."
Yes, it's too late for both love and the Lions to do anything about their desperate cornerback situation.
I knew fixing the Lions broken position groups was going to take time,and wasn't going to happen all at once. Apparently, fixing the broken defensive backfield is going to take even longer than I first realized. During the 2009 offseason it was the linebacking corps getting most of the Lions attention. This past offseason was spent upgrading the defensive line, with corner and safety taking a back seat.
Unfortunately, what we currently see in the backfield is pretty much what we're going to get come September. Which means opposing quarterbacks are going to continue to have career days against the Lions, and we fans are going to have that much more gray hair at the end of season.
Cornerback will remian be a priority going into the 2011 season...if there even is a 2011 season.
Are you sober now? Thought so...
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