Secondary worse than last year? Is that even possible?

Free Press writer Nick Cotsonika has an article pointing it out.

Except for interceptions -- the Lions have three by defensive backs, after one last year -- the stats are dreadful.

Last year, the Lions allowed opponents to complete 68.4% of their passes and post a 110.9 combined passer rating. Those were horrible numbers, worst in the NFL in both categories.

This year, they're worse. The Lions are allowing opponents to complete 73.3% of their passes and post a 119.7 combined passer rating. Again, they're worst in both categories.

Consider the NFL records for individual quarterbacks. The highest completion percentage ever in a season was 70.55 (Cincinnati's Ken Anderson in 1982). The highest passer rating ever in a season was 121.1 (Indianapolis' Peyton Manning in 2004).

In other words, it's like the Lions are facing the best quarterback of all time -- all the time.

The pass rush certainly plays a role. But the Lions have been beaten physically and blown assignments too often on the back end. Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said he hesitated on a touchdown throw Sunday because he was expecting to see a safety and couldn't believe his receiver was so open.

Schwartz also notes in the article that the long runs the Lions are giving up far too often are also on the secondary.

There's only so much that can be done in one off-season. The Lions certainly turned over the secondary and brought in a lot of new names. But it never seems to matter, even when the coaches and coordinators change. It's the same awful results.

CB and S opposite Delmas seem to need help desperately, and the Lions really need to get a 10-to-15-sack DE in the draft as well.

They're talking about it in The Den.

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Mayhew discusses what he's looking for in Preaseason Game 1

Good little Q-and-A with Freep.com's Nick Cotsonika and Lions GM Martin Mayhew, heading into Saturday's first preseason game.

Key points from Mayhew:
* He wants to see if players who've looked good in practice -- including rookie QB Matthew Stafford -- can translate it into a game situation.

* Injuries and the Lions' lack of depth have left some positions in sigificant flux, but it's a great opportunity for some young, unproven guys trying to make the team.

*Mayhew is happy with the addition of DT Shaun Smith, but the loss of DE Jared DeVries for the season is going to really hurt. "We're still sorting those guys out," Mayhew said of the D-line.

*Mayhew expects third-round draft choice WR Derrick Williams to contribute in the return game.

Read the full interview above, and talk about it in The Den!

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Peterson: Avril can be elite pass-rusher

New Lions LB Julian Peterson said he looks forward to teaching DE Cliff Avril his pass-rushing tips, Nicholas Cotsonika reports at Freep.com.

"I'm just letting him know he has the talent to be one of the better pass rushers in the league," Peterson said at Lions training camp. "He has a good frame -- not the biggest guy, but strong enough to hold his weight and fast enough to be like a linebacker, too.

"It's good to have him out there turning the corners, bending the corners, because most tackles are scared of speed, and he possesses a lot of it."

Avril is one of those Lions who's shown flashes that he can be more than good. It's possible he's got a major breakthrough in him. Peterson -- who's been around a little -- seems to recognize it, too.

Discuss in The Den!

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No-nonsense Schwartz opens camp with a test

As the Lions start training camp, step one for Coach Jim Schwartz is to test every player's upper-body strength in the bench-press and lower-body strength in the vertical jump, Nicholas Cotsonika reports at Freep.com.

"There's accountability for your conditioning level," coach Jim Schwartz said Friday. "Guys worked extremely hard. We had great participation in our off-season program. But they've been away for about a month, and you want to see where everybody is. You want to see who's been working, who hasn't."

Schwartz is sounding no-nonsense, and plans to go full-bore from the onset. The plays were put in place in June. As Cotsonika puts it, "The players should know what to do, and they need to be ready to do it. Schwartz said they will practice third-down, red-zone and two-minute situations in the first two days."

"There's no longer an easing-in process to training camp," Schwartz said. "You've got to be full-speed the first day. You go back 30 years in the NFL, maybe even more, guys were working at the bank or laying concrete or working in the shoe store in the off-season. These guys are professionals 12 months a year. They're paid well enough that they're paid to keep themselves in shape."

Schwartz earlier in the year talked about the quantifiable strength improvements for players from instituting an old-school Olympic-style weightlifting program. I'm sure part of the reason for his Day 1 strength tests is to be able to look back later and see who was working the hardest and who wasn't. The numbers don't lie for Schwartz.

Talk about it in The Den!

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Pettigrew gets high praise from one of the best

Brandon Pettigrew has some high praise to live up to, now that he's been raved on by one of the best to ever play that position.

Nicholas Cotsonika at Freep.com reports that Lions Hall of Fame TE Charlie Sanders had many good things to say about the just-signed rookie Pettigrew as Brandon enters his first training camp.

“He’s a complete tight end,” Sanders said at the end of the off-season program. “He really is. The thing I like about him – his size, his speed, his strength. He doesn’t back down when it comes to blocking. He’s not intimidated. He has great hands – better hands than I thought – and great hand-eye.

“If there’s a negative right now, it would be, in my opinion, to learn to lower his body weight in terms of separating, coming out of breaks. It’s not so much speed as the ability to separate. He’s got all the tools.”

Pettigrew should have a key role as an every-down TE in Scott Linehan's offense, Cotsonika writes -- opening holes in the running game, making big catches and taking pressure off All-World WR Calvin Johnson.

“Now it’s just a matter of developing the packages for him, because he’s going to have to be accounted for,” Sanders said. “No linebacker is going to be able to check him one-on-one, and I don’t think there are too many safeties can do it."

From your lips to the Lions' scoreboard, Charlie.

Talk about it in The Den!

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Lions work out 3 QBs -- should any current QB worry?

Nick Cotsonika at Freep.com reports that the Lions worked out three veteran QBs on Tuesday - Cleo Lemon, Craig Nall and Brooks Bollinger.

Lemon rode the bench in Jacksonville last year (that's where the Lions' recent signee, CB Will James, was too. Is former Jax front office guru Shack Harris on a Jag jag?).

Nall was briefly with the Texans last year; Brooks Bollinger -- who we all remember from his days with the Wisconsin Badgers -- got in a game for the Cowboys last year when Tony Romo was hurt.

The Lions' flirtation with adding a veteran QB is something a few of us have speculated could happen before camp, given Drew Stanton's wobbly performances in earlier workouts.

But MLive.com's Tom Kowalski throws another wrinkle out there -- Daunte Culpepper's contract is structured so that he makes the vast majority of his money this year if he's on the roster for the first game of the regular season.

The Lions restructured the deal that one way for one reason - to give them an "out'' if they didn't want Culpepper on the roster for the start of the regular season - and also to protect against a training camp injury.

From all accounts though, Culpepper's come in his best shape in years, and with a hungry-to-succeed attitude. It seems far-fetched to believe he could be dumped from being the starter or backup to Matthew Stafford. But C-Pep does have an injury history, and should he suffer another bad one in the preseason, it looks like the Lions are trying to cover their bases.

They're talking about it in The Den!

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Marquand Manuel says don't hold his frequent travels against him

Good little article from Nick Cotsonika at Freep.com on new Lions S Marquand Manuel.

The Lions are Manuel's sixth team in eight seasons.

But as well-traveled as he has been, he has also played well enough to appear in 111 games -- regular season and playoffs combined -- and to start 55 of them, including Super Bowl XL at Ford Field.

"Some people look at it like, 'Oh, you've been on a lot of teams,' " Manuel said. "I've started on every team I've been on -- not one game, not two games, but 14, 15, 16 starts."

Manuel said it was coaching changes and free agency that led to all of the movement.

Manuel said his experience has helped him pick up the Lions' defense, which is similar to what he ran with the Seahawks.

It should help him compete for playing time against rookie Louis Delmas and veterans Daniel Bullocks, Kalvin Pearson and Stuart Schweigert.

My take? Safety is shaping up to be one of the bigger question marks on the team. The Lions most definitely need somebody to emerge as solid on the other side of Delmas. I suppose Manuel has as much of a shot as the others.

Discuss in The Den!

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Will stronger = better?

When Coach Jim Schwartz was hired in January, one of the first things he did was change the team's conditioning regimen to develop a bigger, stronger team, emphasizing free weights and old-school Olympic power-lifting, Nicholas Cotsonika reports at Freep.com.

Before the last day of minicamp, Schwartz drew the players together to discuss their progress in that program -- a 21 percent increase in upper-body strength in 14 weeks of training, excluding rookies and players who didn't go through the full program.

"That's significant," Schwartz told reporters. "Twenty percent for us in 14 weeks wouldn't be significant because we all have a lot of potential."

Schwartz paused for snickering, then continued.

"Consider the starting point," Schwartz said. "These are professional athletes. These are world-class athletes. For them to increase 20% said something, No. 1 about the program, No. 2 about their work ethic and how they embrace the program."

The program also led to a 14-percent increase in lower body explosiveness. And in perhaps the most impressive number, the strength and conditioning program had about a 95 percent participation rate.

"That's unparalleled in the NFL," Schwartz said. "I thanked them for their effort in the off-season program, but effort's not enough. You need to see results, and we did see results."

I'm personally impressed by this, and think it is yet another sign that things could be about to begin turning around.

The Lions should paint on the wall of their weight room, "You're winning the fourth quarter of a December game at Lambeau or Soldier Field right now." Because they are.

It's also the first example of quantifiable positive results from Schwartz implementing his philosophy.

Talk about it in The Den!

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Schwartz: Delmas has "mastered" defense already

Lions Coach Jim Schwartz just laid some MAJOR praise on rookie S Louis Delmas, according to Nicholas Cotsonika at Freep.com.

Delmas apparently already has the mental aspects of the game down, before the Lions even get into pads:

“There’s nothing that’s done in the NFL that we don’t do,” Schwartz said. “We have about every coverage invented. We run about every blitz package invented.

“A lot of times in college, they’ll play a couple fronts and a couple coverages. It’ll be a lot more limited.

“He’s not only learned it but mastered it maybe as quick as I’ve ever seen a young player in the secondary do it.”

Talk is cheap. But I obviously respect Schwartz's opinion. It's hard not to get excited about this. Did we just snag the next Bob Sanders?

Talk about it in The Den!

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It's on now

A mandatory 3-day minicamp for the Lions begins today in Allen Park. And as Nicholas Cotsonika at Freep.com reports, the competitions for jobs begin in earnest now.

Previous weeks have been preoccupied with veterans learning the new coaching staff and its wants; rookies getting caught up; and the Lions' front office turning over to a great extent the largely atrocious roster from last year's 0-16 season.

Coach Jim Schwartz has pointed to this minicamp -- the end of the off-season program -- as the time to start making it count, Cotsonika says.

The battles won't begin in full force until camp opens in late July with the players in pads. The players will be in helmets and shorts this week. No hitting.

Things I'm looking to see:

1. How much do OLs Ephraim Salaam and Jon Jansen have left in them? Enough to push Gosder or even Backus? Or at least to be very strong backups? The problems last year weren't just Backus' and Gosder's inconsistency. It was a lack of quality depth, the inability to rotate in effective players as the starters got tired. If Salaam and Jansen show something -- even if they don't unseat the starters -- the Lions might have a much better rotation available to them in the second halves of games this season.

2. How much better will the Lions' secondary be this year? (It can't be much worse.) With two new CBs -- Phillip Buchanon and Anthony Henry -- and highly touted rookie S Louis Delmas.

3. Will one of the veteran WRs -- Bryant Johnson or Ronald Curry -- emerge as a legitimate threat on the other side of Calvin? It's incredible what Megatron accomplished last season with no other Lion receiver seriously taking any pressure or attention off of him.

Discuss in The Den!

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Stafford aims to start Week 1 - with fabulous hair

Earlier this spring there was speculation in some circles that Lions rookie QB Matthew Stafford might have a harder time getting national endorsement deals, because of the economy and the fact that he's in Detroit.

Well before training camp has even started, Stafford's already defied that prediction. Nicholas Cotsonika at Freep.com reports that Stafford is making the radio rounds touting his new deal with Axe Hair.

Stafford said the company had done a great job of giving him “girl-approved hair” and promoted the Web site axehair.com. Guys can upload their picture.

“You can see if your hair is girl-approved,” Stafford said.

There is also a link to facebook.com, where fans can enter to win a trip for two to Los Angeles to hang out with Stafford at the ESPYs on July 19. There are some glamour shots of Stafford and his, uh, girl-approved hair.

What help does a guy need with his hair when he was a star quarterback in high school and college?

“I had to step up my game, and they were there to help me,” Stafford told Galloway and Co. “In college, I used to wash my hair with a bar of soap. It’s a little different now.”

Stafford also talked some football, saying he would "love to start Game 1" and that he's competing for it, but will work on readying himself should it not happen.

He also said learning the offense hasn't been as tough as he thought it might be.

Talk about it in The Den!

Millen still talking, should have quit while he was behind

If 0-16 architect Matt Millen would have left things where they were after his recent news conference, the process of turning the page on his disastrous time in Detroit could have moved further along.

But come now, did you really expect Millen to do something right?

He's continuing to talk about his time with the Lions, and having the audacity to play the victim, Nicholas Cotsonika notes at Freep.com.

Millen told SI.com's Don Banks, "“I don't go backward. I just don’t think like that. There’s nothing I can do about (Detroit). All I can do is from here on out."

OK. Nothing wrong with that. Let's just call it a day then, Matt, and begin to move o--

Oh, wait. He's not done:

“I understand. In Detroit, they need a bad guy. I was a bad guy. I was to blame for the fall of the auto industry and the housing market. Somehow, I had something to do with Kwame Kilpatrick, although I’m not sure what.
“But that’s what happens when you lose in this game. You give everyone a cheap and easy story to jump on.”

EXCUSE ME?!

Exactly who is to blame, then, for almost completely whiffing on the draft for 8 years? For very high draft picks not only failing but being out of the league in a matter of a few seasons?

Who is to blame for failed free agent signings like Bill "Butterfingers" Schroeder, or for re-signing mediocre Lions to mega-bucks deals? (Cory Redding)

Millen keeps saying "Put it on me. I take responsibility." Then, in his next breath, he makes sure you know he doesn't really feel it's his fault.

It was an embarrassment that the guy didn't have enough dignity to quit when he had demonstrably failed -- oh, say, three years ago.
That he doesn't get that he owns 0-16, that he owns 31-97, is stunning. And that he in any way is putting it back on Detroit and Lions fans ... well those are fighting words.

Cotsonika sums it up well:

But for Millen to portray himself as a victim is downright offensive to the people of Detroit, Lions fans everywhere and those who cover the team. As a media member, he should know how criticism works. As a former player and executive, he should know how accountability works. He has criticized, hired and fired people himself.
Millen was not a convenient scapegoat. He was not a “cheap and easy story to jump on.” He was not blamed for the fall of the auto industry, the housing market and the Kilpatrick mayoral scandal. For Millen to rub salt in those wounds is inappropriate at best. Maybe Millen was trying to be funny. Doesn’t matter.

Discuss in The Den!

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