The Sports Guru

Projected Record
4-12

Projected Schedule W/L
Seattle           (L)
@Chicago     (L)
Green Bay     (L)
@St. Louis    (L)
@Minnesota(L)
Buffalo           (L)
@NY Jets       (L)
Atlanta           (L)
San Francisco(W)
@Arizona       (L)
Miami            (W)
@New England(L)
 Minnesota     (W)
@Green Bay   (L)
Chicago           (W)
@Dallas          (L)

Another year, another new coach in Detroit.  This time I think they got it right in hiring Rob Marinelli, a defensive task master, to get the ship righted in Motown.  After years of having coaches that let the inmates run the asylum, Marinelli will come in a regain control, though it will take time and there will be some bumps along the way.  Anytime you are trying to change a culture of lose it is going to take time.  As my game-by-game illustrates I think it is going to be a tough early road for the Lions.  By the end of the campaign, however, I think you will start to see some flashes of the disciplined team Marinelli is going to expect.

 Team Strengths – The last three years the Lions used 1^st Round picks on Receivers and so far none of them have panned out.  This should be a strength for this team, and it still may be when all is said and done.  Mike Williams, Charles Rogers and Roy Williams don’t have the Joey Harrington excuse anymore as the Lions sent him packing to Miami.  On the other side of the ball, defense is beginning to become a strength for the Lions and they further focused on the D by drafting LB Ernie Sims in the 1^st round and S Daniel Bullocks in the 2^nd.  The team is high on both and bring speed and toughness to a defense that under Tampa Bay disciple Marinelli will need.

 Team Weaknesses – Quarterback.  The Joey Harrington experiment finally ended, and to replace him the Lions brought in Jon Kitna and Josh McCown.  Kitna has been serviceable throughout his career, but is still prone to make the big mistake at the worst time.  He had a real chance to shine after Carson Palmer was hurt in the playoffs and fell flat.  McCown has a lot of the tools, but makes too made too many mistakes in Arizona and couldn’t survive in a QB-friendly system with Denny Green.  The O-Line is suspect as well, and they need to get something from the running game, where Kevin Jones took a step backward last season.  3^rd Round Pick Brian Calhoun is a solid backup and should see plenty of action to keep Jones fresh.

 Best Case Scenario – Whoever wins the QB battle(my guess Kitna) has a great season and the wideout trifecta finally sees the light and plays to their potential.  The defense plays solid, and the Lions avoid the injuries that always seem to plague them.  There are games on their schedule that are winnable and if the Lions can get to 7 wins this year would be a huge success.

 Worst Case Scenario – The Lions find out the problem wasn’t Joey Harrington and due to O-Line concerns have trouble keeping a QB healthy.  Williams, Williams and Rogers continue to underachieve and the defense can stop people.  The Lions aren’t that much better than anyone to just show up and win and will need to play hard.  As close as a 7-win season is, a 2 win season is not far behind.

My Opinion – Only Russ Grimm would have been a better choice for the job and the Steelers’ Super Bowl run probably kept that from happening.  Matt Millen did well to get Marinelli, however, who comes in with the same intensity and no-nonsense attitude that Grimm has.  There are a lot of toss-up games on the schedule, and I think the NFC North is the worst division in football.  The Lions will struggle with a new coaching staff and OC Mike Martz’s intricate schemes, but by the end of the season things will be looking up in Detroit.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 28th, 2006 at 11:10 am and is filed under Broncos/NFL, 2006 NFL Preview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.