Figured i'd be the one to start one.

i was just about to start one, then i saw this. i think they will do decent, especially with rogers, harrington, and mariucci as the new coach

Their pretty deep every where for a change. As long as they can stay healthy, they should get around 8 wins.

I hope to see some big improvements this year. I still don't see us becoming a playoff contender or anything... our key players are still too young and we've got a new coach (again).

On Offense:

I'm still worried about RB. Without a real running threat our offense become too one dimensional. Stewart is okay, but he's just not a real threat with his relatively slow wheels. I think that defenses don't worry too much about covering him figuring that as long as one guy can hit him others will be able to rush to the pile before he gets anywhere. Add in the fact that he's so injury prone, and well, who've got backing up this year?!? Hopefully Pinner becomes a diamond in the rough.

On defense I'm worried about our lack of deepth all around the field. We've got okay starters at most positions, but if we can't rotate them out for rests they'll just become too tired to play effectively by the 4th qtr.

Hey,

How do you guys (lions fans) feel about Pinner?? I really liked him in college. I am a Browns fan, but I think he will make a nice little impact on your team. I think you make get burnt on the Boss Baily pick though :(

Pinners injured right now, so it's hard to tell.

Why would we get burned on Bailey? He was a first round talent, taken in the second.

Remember 'Weg's first year Tigers#1? Our defense was really great at bumping into the other team...but they never wrapped them up so the runner consistantly got 2-4 more yards after getting hit by our defenders.

That's the story on Bailey. He's a great athlete and pretty fast, but he doesn't wrap up people, just bumps into people trying to knock them to the ground.

Reguarding Pinner: I hope he turns out to be a great selection. I believe he was project to be a second rounder prior to his injury. Let's hope he heals fully.

But you can teach a guy how to wrap up, it's just a mental thing. I know i played linebacker in high school, and it's just something you forget to do because it's such a simple thing, and i'm sure he's working on it. If thats his only knock, than thats pretty good.

I believe that the tackle thing is Baily's biggest negative. And I hope that he can be taught to tackle rather than bump people. I would think that it could be done, but Baily's had lots of years to develop a bad habit...

wahoo finally a football team i like has a official thread so these guys r gonna be good this yr i hope staley is gonna get back to what he was at BYU haha he was da bomb over there i watched so many games hes real good but the one thing neg about him is hes injury prone!

Yeah, I'd love to have a fully healthy Staley in the backfield, but I don't think he's ever going to be a reliable player.

Draft picks status:
Charles Rogers, 1st
Boss Baily, 2nd
Cory Redding, 3rd
Artose Pinner, 4th
Terrence Holt, 5th - SIGNED
James Davis, 5th - SIGNED
David Kircus, 6th - SIGNED
Ben Johnson, 7th
Daniel 'Blue' Adams, 7th
Brandon Drumm, 7th
Travis Anglin, 7th

Undrafted free agent status:
Curt Anes, QB - Signed
Tywoin Breaux, T - Signed
Avon Cobourne, RB - Signed
Gerald Dixion, CB - Signed
Casey Fitzsimmons, TE - Signed
Todd Fry, WR - Released
Toby Golliday, DT - Signed
Reggie Holts, FB - Signed
Mark Jensen, K - Signed
Chris Kern, CB - Signed
Shawn Lazarus - Released
Jermaine Lewis, WR - Signed
David Miller, G - Signed
Jemeel Powell, CB - Signed
John Turntine, DT - Signed
Rob Vian, G - Released
Scottie Vines, WR - Signed
Zack Wilson, G - Signed

RedRamage u should update that again lol Rogers was signed yo yeah
Lions fined 200K by the NFL for not looking for a minority coach

I was gonna update it, but by the time I got around to do it, everyone was signed already, so there wasn't as much a need for the list. :)

http://tsn.ca/nfl/news_story.asp?ID=48905&hubName=nfl
Charles Rogers injured.

From what I understand, it's a pretty minor injury that happens quite often with receivers. However, I am concerned with the fact that he's already sustained two "minor" injuries in one off season. I hope and pray this isn't an indicator of his future in the NFL.

its not that bad he'll play in the next game whoa lions in 1st place o wait thats preseason it don't count unlike the mlb all star game that counted good game against the steel curtain lions leadin rusher was not james stewart it was luke staley 7 carries 30 yds

I was relatively impressed with Staley. I'd love to see him get some time against the first string defense with the first string OL blocking for him.

yeah i hope but ya never kno wow it was my birthday last yr 2002 that he was placed on IR haha hopefully he can last longer then my bday which is now in 7 days next tuesday well at least they got cinci to deal wit. and not a powerhouse team like the bucs or eagles


http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-lionsmoves&prov=ap&type=lgns

ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) -- The Detroit Lions activated linebacker Brian Williams and safety Corey Harris from the injured list Monday.

Guard Ray Brown, who had been excused from the first two weeks of camp, also joined the team for Monday's workouts.

``It's always good to get guys back on the field,'' coach Steve Mariucci said. ``They are going to be limited in what we have them doing for a few more days, but they are able to get the pads on and do some things.''

Williams, expected to compete with rookie Boss Bailey for a starting job at outside linebacker, missed the final 13 games of last season with a broken leg.

http://www.detroitlions.com/notebook.cfm?section_id=22&top=1d%22vel=3&document_id=30816



``It feels great to be out there -- even if I can't do much right now, it is better than running conditioning sprints all day,'' he said. ``The leg feels good, but I haven't done a lot yet. We're going to take things pretty slow, so I don't know if I'll play this weekend or not.''

Brown is an 18-year veteran who played for Mariucci in San Francisco.

``I'm always in pretty good condition -- I just need a week or two of reps in pads to get in football shape,'' he said. ``I knew I was going to get to come in a week late, but they decided at the last minute to make it two, so I got some extra time with my family.''

Harris, the team's starting strong safety, is recovering from a groin injury.

http://www.detroitlions.com/notebook.cfm?section_id=22&top=1d%22vel=3&document_id=30816

Lions back in camp mode
By James Royer
Detroitlions.com
August 11, 2003


Steve Mariucci was successful in his Detroit debut, but he doesn't want the Lions to rest on their laurels

ALLEN PARK, Mich. - Focused on the season ahead, Steve Mariucci didn't take very long to savor a victory in his debut as the head coach of the Detroit Lions.

The Lions posted a 26-13 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers Saturday—the first time the Lions have won their preseason opener since 1998. That doesn't matter to Mariucci. For him, it is kind of like running a race in the moonlight—no reason to look back and he can only focus on his next step.

That next step is taking what they learned from the Pittsburgh game and getting back into two-a-day practices.

“We have absolutely forgotten about the Pittsburgh Steelers," Mariucci said Monday. "After last night when we said good-bye to these players and tucked them into bed, that game was long gone. Now we’re back to training camp mode. We haven’t started talking about our next game yet. Who do we play anyway?"

Mariucci is not looking past the Lions' next preseason opponent, which happens to be the Bengals. Rather, he wants the Lions to focus on what they need to do in practice to get better long before they travel to Cincinnati for a meeting on Saturday.

"We’re back at it," Mariucci said. "We’ve got some things to clean up and do better. We’re in what we call training camp mode—two-a-day practices."

The Lions resumed their two-a-day practice schedule Monday at the team's Allen Park Headquarters and Training Facility. As much as the Lions enjoyed the victory over Pittsburgh, they knew much work needs to be done.

"It’s exciting, but just like coach says, it’s only a preseason game," running back James Stewart said. "We have a lot of improvements to make. We have a lot of work that needs to be done and will continue to be done throughout the season so we need to keep striving and keep getting better and better. It was a good win, but we shouldn’t be looking at ourselves like we did anything. We haven’t done anything yet – we need to go out and prove ourselves in the regular season and that’s what we are working for."

While Mariucci said it was good to start things out in the win column, the game was a success because the coaches had a lot material to evaluate.

"It’s nice to have a win, but more importantly we got some good evaluation," Mariucci said. "We came through healthy and that was very important. We got a chance to see a lot of the players play a lot of snaps. We had 75 snaps on offense, which is good. Some guys showed up, and some guys need to get a lot better. But it was good start.”

The first order of business for Mariucci and the Lions is to improve the offense, which gained only 298 yards. That work will start with the quarterbacks, who between Joey Harrington and Mike McMahon completed only a combined 20-of-42 pass attempts for 200 yards and a 69.5 rating.

"From a production standpoint, we needed to be better with our routes, with our timing, with our accuracy, with catching football and choosing the right guy in the progression," Mariucci said. "There were a handful of times where our quarterbacks would prefer to have gone to the next receiver rather than running with the ball or doing some of that. That’s what I’m talking about: the precision in our passing game. From decision-making to timing to catching the ball, route running at proper depths, exact depths, those are the things that we needed to clean up after that game."

Harrington, who started the contest and played the entire first half, fared better on the stat sheet than McMahon. Harrington completed 13-of-25 attempts for 136 yards and a 81.4 rating. He also fired a 13-yard touchdown pass to Scotty Anderson with five seconds left in the half to give the Lions a 9-6 lead heading into intermission.

Mariucci, however, was concerned that the offense didn't take advantage of field position in the first half. Punter John Jett dropped his first three attempts inside the Pittsburgh 10-yardline and the defense held. But the Lions didn't come away with any points.

"When you have them backed up like that, we did get the safety, which is good," Mariucci said. "But then we needed more points out of that. You don’t have teams backed up three times in a row very often."

The kind of experience Harrington had is precisely what the second-year signal caller needs.

"(Joey) will get better when he gets more familiar with what we’re doing, when he gets more familiar with defenses, when he gets more familiar with his receivers and knowing when they’re going to break routes off and when they’re not," Mariucci said. "When his supporting cast develops, that’s going to help. Your quarterback can’t do it by himself. He has to have a supporting cast that will go up and make a play like Scotty Anderson did or make the big catch in a crowd or be exactly right with how we’re running routes."

Redding moving into rotation
Mariucci was pleased with the execution on the defensive side of the ball, especially with some of the team's younger players. At the top of that list is third-round pick Cory Redding, who recovered a fumble and returned it eight yards for a touchdown in the win.

Redding's attention-grabbing play throughout the game is accentuated by the fact that he is playing in a new position—defensive tackle. He was moved inside exclusively when starting defensive tackle Luther Elliss was lost for most of training camp with a pectoral muscle tear.

"When Luther got hurt, we wanted to take a good look at him (inside)," Mariucci said. "It was in the plans anyway to take a peak at him inside, but now he’s gotten a lot of snaps and he’s showing that he can do that. He’s 290 pounds and he’s big enough to do it and active enough to do it. He gives us a little pass rush inside with the tackle and can probably stay on the field in nickel situations inside. Right now, we’re going to keep him inside. We know we can always move him back outside if need be."

The former Texas Longhorn was credited with four tackles, a pass defensed and a fumble recovery in the victory. He also helped limit the Steelers to just 224 total yards of offense.

The play of Redding has created an insurance policy for the Lions in case Elliss needs some more time to recuperate. Moreover, Redding is also pushing for some more playing time.

“We are just working through the camp right now and we got Shaun Rogers, we got (Kelvin) Pritchett in there," Mariucci said. We have some guys who have been starters, and (Redding's) pushing for a job in our depth. He’s working his way into the playing rotation right now.”

Bly returns to practice
After an ankle sprain sidelined him all of last week, Lions cornerback Dre' Bly returned to the practice field Monday.

“He was there today. (He was limited,) but he out there, moving around, individual (drills), did a little 7-on-7, that sort of thing—working his way back.”

Preseason depth chart goes like this!


Wide Receiver
84 Bill Schroeder
80 Charles Rogers
88 Scotty Anderson
18 Eddie Drummond
16 T.C. Taylor
Left Tackle
76 Jeff Backus
71 Victor Rogers 74 Ben Johnson
Left Guard
62 Tony Semple
79 Eric Beverly 63 Frank Romero 60 David Miller
Center
51 Dominic Raiola
64 Tyrone Hopson

Right Guard
61 Ray Brown
65 Kerlin Blaise
70 Josh Lovelady
72 Zach Wilson
Right Tackle
73 Stockar McDougle 75 Matt Joyce
Tight End
86 Mikhael Ricks
83 John Owens
82 Matt Murphy 89 Bradford Banta
Wide Receiver
81 Az-Zahir Hakim
13 Shawn Jefferson 87 David Kircus
15 Travis Anglin
Quarterback
3 Joey Harrington
8 Mike McMahon
14 Ty Detmer
17 Curt Anes
Fullback
30 Cory Schlesinger
36 Stephen Trejo
44 Brandon Drumm
47 Reggie Holts
Halfback
34 James Stewart
24 Shawn Bryson
33 Luke Staley
23 Rafael Cooper
31 Avon Cobourne
(21 Artose Pinner)

Left End
91 Robert Porcher
95 Jared DeVries


Left Tackle
(94 Luther Elliss)
93 Kelvin Pritchett
78 Corey Redding 69 Shawn Price

Right Tackle:
92 Shaun Rogers
68 Antwan Lake
67 Toby Golliday

Right End
96 James Hall
(98 Kalimba Edwards)
77 Anthony Herron 90 Jonathon Taylor
Weakside Linebacker
54 Barrett Green
55 Donte' Curry
59 Jeff Gooch 46 Jody Littleton
Middle Linebacker
50 Earl Holmes
58 Wali Rainer
52 James Davis
Strongside Linebacker
97 Boss Bailey
99 Brian Williams
53 Ken Philpot

Left Cornerback
29 Chris Cash
35 Andre' Goodman 26 Blue Adams
38 Jemeel Powell
Right Cornerback
32 Dre' Bly
27 Jimmy Wyrick 41 Chris Watson 43 Gerald Dixon
Free Safety
45 Brian Walker
39 Lamar Campbell
42 Terrence Holt

Strong Safety
25 Corey Harris
28 Bracy Walker


Place Kicker
4 Jason Hanson
2 Mark Jensen
Punter
19 John Jett

Holder
19 John Jett
14 Ty Detmer

Punt Coverage
89 Bradford Banta
51 Dominic Raiola
46 Jody Littleton

Kick Coverage
89 Bradford Banta
51 Dominic Raiola
46 Jody Littleton

Punt Returner
18 Eddie Drummond
81 Az-Zahir Hakim
32 Dre' Bly

Kick Returner
18 Eddie Drummond
23 Rafael Cooper

87 David Kircus
31 Avon Cobourne
Non Football Injury (NFI)
94 Luther Elliss 21 Artose Pinner
Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform (PUP)
98 Kalimba Edwards

lions need to get some more veteraans becuz their too young to get to the playoffs without leadership

the way the lions played today yo billsfan watch out man the bills r next victims of the newly powered lions o!!!! its great to see less penalties and well i was kinda unhappy since staley didn't rush and cobourne is gonna probably be #2 or #3 back!

August 25th 2003 the lions cut 4 players and Luke Staley was 1 of them me not happy

James Stewart on IR Gary traded from Bills hes now starting rb #33

Yeah it was almost great despite the fact they were playing who?

boy, the Lions looked impressive, esp. Harrington to Rogers connecting on 2 TDs

but of course, they played the Cardinals, so who knows how good the Lions are?

well we will find out since week 2 they play the 4 intercepter master Brett Favre

i wouldnt get too cocky, they have a bright future

3 words we will be hearing alot this year and years to come

harrington to rogers

You may hear this next week

Harrington to Az Hakim!
He is coming off his hip injury and may play next week!

The guy is quick and gives Harrington another great target to throw at!

Rams sure do miss Hakim....they've been trying to find that 3rd WR ever since he left a few years ago

The problem with Hakim and Dre Ble' is that they are excellent weapons, but thats really all they are, not franchise players who make 5 million a year. Hakim is a dominant third receiver, but not a go too guy. And Ble', who even though has had a great year, is not a #1 corner. The salary cap is what, only a little over 60 million? If the Lions are paying two "weapons" 1/6th of their salary cap, which does hurt IMO.

yo podstock i wouldn't be so sure about the Cards now that they beat the Vikings. What a great way to end another losing year of Detroit Lions Football! big time win over DA RAMS! My dawg jeremyrbaseball told me the Lions r gonna sign his dawg Curt Anes in January or somethin like that.