1) The firing of Mike Martz. While i said before i agreed with now-offensive coordinator Jim Colleto's scheme (very similar to Lloyd Carr's if you ask me), i believe that the firing of Mike Martz was a stupid move. Mike Martz was fired prior to the drafting of Kevin Smith, so no one knew that the Lion's would have a competent running back in 2008. At the time of Martz's firing, Kevin Jones was hurt and the only running backs on the roster were Tatum Bell and Aveion Cason (who?) so it would be intelligent in my opinion to STAY WITH the pass-happy offensive scheme that Martz runs rather than heading into the season with an offensive coordinator hell-bent on establishing the run with an uncertain running game. Now that we can see that Kevin Smith is an above-average to good running back that will only get better, naturally the Jim Colleto's scheme looks genius.
2) Dan Orlovsky? Jon Kitna, the man who has started every single game for the Lions for 2+ years, was essentially benched only a few weeks into the season. His "heir apparent" was Dan Orlovsky, a 4 year veteran who has never seen the field before this year, and was drafted in the 5th round out of Connecticut. While I agree with starting Orlovsky over Drew Stanton (2007, 2nd Rd., Michigan State) right away, at the first sign that Orlovsky was incompetent (oh, say when he stepped out of the back of the end zone, causing a safety) they should have immediately gave the ball to Stanton. By this point they were already 0-6, had nothing to lose, so why not see what the young hometown kid can do?
3) Daunte Culpepper? Culpepper, who was a 3 time pro bowler during the early 2000's with the Minnesota Vikings, was signed to a 2 year contract after Jon Kitna was placed on injured reserve and Dan Orlovsky injured his thumb, leaving Drew Stanton as the only healthy quarterback on the roster. I'm actually OK with the signing, i believe Culpepper could be a quality QB again in the future, and even possibly with the Lion's. But here's my issue....why would the Lions, namely Rod Marinelli, not give Drew Stanton a chance to show what he can do? He's young, mobile, rocket-arm, and came from Michigan State. The Lion's say that Stanton hasn't proven himself in practice yet, but if you remember correctly, John L. Smith (former coach of Michigan State) said on numerous occasions that Drew Stanton did not preform admirably in practice, but come Gameday, Stanton always preformed. This is something that should be taken into consideration by the Lion's staff. In limited time a few weeks ago, Stanton was 6-8 for 96 yds with 1 TD. Those stats are very legitimate when compared to Culpepper's 5-10 for 104 yds with one INT. Yet, sure enough, the following week, Culpepper was the starting QB instead of Stanton. Why would the Lion's use a high 2nd round draft choice on a quarterback whom they obviously thought was worthy of such a high pick.....and not use him? Doesn't make sense to me!
more to come....comment please!
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