Lions lose their security blanket

Lions fans everywhere will be stunned to read Graham Couch of the Kalamazoo Gazette’s latest headline: kicker Jason Hanson has elected to undergo ‘minor surgery’ on his knee.  According to coach Jim Schwartz, the decision was made in order to prevent the pain from lingering all season, and he should be back on the field “pretty quickly”.  Camp kicker Swayze Waters was re-signed to carry the Lions through the preseason—but not, it’s hoped, once the bullets go live.

For 17 years, the Washington State product has been the rock of the Lions’ roster: elite production year in, year out.  Other kickers have scored more points; partially because they played with a more productive offense. Other kickers have had higher career accuracy numbers, but over shorter careers, and with far fewer extremely long field goal attempts.  Jason Hanson has rarely been thought of as being the best kicker in the NFL in any given season--yet over the duration of his career, it’s extremely hard to find one who’s consistently been among the best for nearly as long.

If the Lions are without Hanson for even one game, they’ll be without one of their best weapons, and without their only “security blanket”.  No one else on the roster has the kind of unimpeachable reputation for clutch performance that Hanson has; when he comes out, everyone knows it means points on the board.  On a team that’s trying to overcome a well-deserved reputation for being unable to get it done late, conspicuously missing one of the NFL’s most cold-blooded closers certainly won’t help the confidence of the players, coaches, or fans.

Discuss it here, in The Den!

Killer: Hanson's stellar career "wasted" on Lions

Add kicker Jason Hanson to the list of great talent the Lions wasted over many years of losing, playoff-free seasons, writes Tom Kowalski at MLive.com.

Kickers are frequently an afterthought, but most Lions fans have a healthy appreciation for just how good Hanson has been. But Killer points out it's not just his steady, long career that deserves accolades, but what he's done for us lately:

Hanson became the only player in league history to hit eight-of-eight field goal attempts of 50 yards or more in a single season. His 41 career field goals of 50 yards or more is also the most in NFL history.

Not only is Hanson a threat to bomb one from 56 yards, but he's amazingly accurate from 40 yards and in, hitting .952 percent during his long career.

While many teams keep a veteran kicker for short-term accuracy, they'll sign a youngster for booming kickoffs and long-range field-goal attempts, Kowalski points out. With the 39-year-old Hanson, that's not necessary.

...in four of his final five games last year, the average distance of his 15 kickoffs was 70 yards or more (which means they landed in the end zone). Hanson only had one touchback during that stretch because opponents didn't fear Detroit's coverage units and almost always brought the ball out of the end zone. In fact, Hanson's seven touchbacks were the third-fewest of his career, but his average kickoff of 65.9 yards was one full yard better than his career average.

But Hanson is only seventh on the all-time list for a simple reason -- the Lions have been one of the worst teams in the NFL, with one of the worst offenses, for most of his career.

Only one kicker has made the NFL Hall of Fame as a pure kicker, playing no other positions -- Jan Stenerud. I think Hanson, when all is said and done, will deserve to be there on his talent and incredible consistency over many years. But whether the drag on his numbers of being a Lion ultimately holds him out remains to be seen.

Talk about it in The Den!

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Calvin Johnson Getting Love

There's only a few things the Detroit Lions should carry over from last year's 0-16 team.

But consider Calvin Johnson and his 1,331 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns among them.

Johnson's fantasy value was discussed in a recent article in the Detroit Free Press, and not so surprising, the third-year receiver is considered one of the top fantasy players for 2009 -- regardless of who is tossing him the pigskin.

"If his hands become a little more consistent, which they should, there's a good chance Johnson will be the top-ranked WR when it's all said and done this year," writes Matthew Lutovsky of the Sporting News, who rates Johnson as the team's only five-star player. "Don't be scared away by either Daunte Culpepper or Matthew Stafford throwing the ball to him."

The article, which more or less relied on the Sporting News for all of its fantasy prognostications, also listed running backs Kevin Smith and Maurice Morris, receiver Bryant Johnson, tight end Brandon Pettigrew and kicker Jason Hanson as fantasy draft worthy talent.

DISCUSS FANTASY FOOTBALL, AND MORE DETROIT LIONS TOPICS, IN THE DEN MESSAGE BOARD

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ESPN blogger: Calvin, Delmas among "Ultimate Building Blocks"

The Lions continue to get more offseason love than you'd expect for a team coming off 0-16. Kevin Seifert, the NFC North blogger at ESPN.com, lists the top 10 "Ultimate Building Blocks" in the division. At No. 3 Seifert places Calvin Johnson:

He put up huge numbers last season on a team without a quarterback. Imagine what he could do with a permanent fixture at that position. He'll be a living mismatch for the next decade.

(Loved that "living mismatch for the next decade" line!) At No. 8 is Louis Delmas:

We're doing some projecting here, of course. But Delmas has the hitting ability and Bob Sanders-like toughness to be a star in this division.

Seifert explains in his criteria that as building blocks, he was looking for players with three or more highly productive seasons left in them -- and specifically lists Jason Hanson as one of three people that left off his list. (Hey, don't sell Hanson short of giving us more than three more years!) Discuss it in The Den!

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