WR an unsettled -- and unsettling -- lot for Lions

And you thought you could just chew your nails over the lines and defensive backs.

As Grand Rapids Press Lions writer Brian VanOchten notes, despite Matt Millen's attention there year after year, other than All-World Calvin Johnson, wide receiver remains the position most lacking depth for the Lions.

There's Calvin and newcomers Dennis Northcutt and Bryant Johnson, who still hasn't played after he fought the golf cart and the golf cart won. There's last year's free-agent pick-up Keary Colbert too. After Calvin that's a "less-than-enthralling group, to be sure," VanOchten writes.

The others vying for a job are even less impressive -- Demir Boldin, Adam Jennings, Bobby Sippio, John Standeford, Derrick Williams, Eric Fowler and Kenneth Harris. Williams, a third-round pick, hasn't exactly set the world on fire.

Maybe someone will emerge in the preseason games -- but don't count on it. It wasn't just the jumble of mediocre QBs throwing to Calvin that made his numbers amazing last year. Megatron had no complement at WR pulling attention away from him. The second-leading receiver on the team last year, the departed Shaun McDonald, had 1,000 fewer yards than Calvin.

The best hope for making things better, it seems, is if Brandon Pettigrew emerges as a reliable receiving threat down the middle of the field.

Discuss in The Den!

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