The jumble at CB -- and who's that with the Fords?

Detroit News football writer John Niyo reports its become a sad rite of spring for the Lions in recent years -- the annual roster purge of the team's secondary.

After an historically bad performance last year, the Lions are at it again. The top four cornerbacks on last year's roster are gone, and only two of the eight in camp -- Keith Smith and Ramzee Robinson -- have been with the team longer than 10 months, Niyo writes.

Coach Jim Schwartz admits he has "a stew" at CB -- a mix of young and veteran with backgrounds in a lot of different schemes. (Feeling confident about the secondary's improvement this year yet?)

Still, things are beginning to take shape. The starting CBs look like they will be Phillip Buchanon and Anthony Henry, and Eric King, who was with Schwartz in Tennessee the past three years, has been making plays in practice and may be tightening his hold on a nickel back spot.

-----
As an odds-and-ends aside at the end of his article, Niyo notes that Wednesday's practice was attended by owner William Clay Ford, vice chairman Bill Ford Jr., and former Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi.

What's that all about? No explanation. Is Accorsi a buddy of the Fords? If that's the case, where was he during the Matt Millen era, when we needed him?

Talk about it in The Den!

---

William Clay Ford Sr. speaks out

John Niyo at detnews.com has a fairly lengthy interview with Lions owner William Clay Ford Sr., Ford's first since the firing of team president Matt Millen early last season.

Among the interesting tidbits:
* Ford did get input from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell after Millen's firing regarding a new front office leader. But he went with Millen holdovers Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand because he knew them, liked them and found them qualified.
* An admission that both Millen and former Coach Rod Marinelli didn't have the necessary experience going into the job.
* That Ford relied on Millen to make the decision to hire both Marinelli and Steve Mariucci, but new Coach Jim Schwartz was his call and his alone.
* That Ford's son, Bill Ford's, public declaration that Millen would be fired were he in charge, days before Ford Sr. actually fired Millen, did not influence the decision. In fact, the elder Ford told Niyo, he had heard his son's dissatisfaction with Millen multiple times -- days before he went public with it; weeks; months; and years earlier.
* That Ford has never directed a coach or team executive to play or not play a player.
* That the supposed dispute over remaining money to be paid to Millen is resolved.
* That Ford feels for the fans, praises those who remain loyal to the team; understands those who have finally bailed out; and that he actually listens to the fan complaints.

A lot of meaty stuff here, obviously.

Ford's been psychoanalyzed in the past by armchair pundits. He certainly has a different way about him, and it shows through in the interview. He pays lip service to wanting to win and doing what it takes. But then he casually explains away sticking for years with Millen despite his abysmal failure at all levels, with the entire world including his son howling at him to make the necessary change.

We hear Ford casually talk about blowing off the NFL Commissioner's attempted help on not making another Millen mistake, and why his grand search for a way to turn around 0-16 ended at the end of his nose, with the front office guys right in front of him. (Don't get me wrong; that might actually work out. That still doesn't make the lack of a real examination of the situation or a search outside of a 31-97 franchise any less maddening.)

I continue to think Ford doesn't have a clue how to win, and the bottom line of why it hasn't happened for decades is it's simply never been high on his priority list. We can only hope he's stumbled into the right people who can make this successful in Mayhew, Lewand and Schwartz.

They're talking about it in The Den!

---

---

A View Of The Top

Lions Den regular AtticusSpeaks breaks down the Lion administration from the ownership to the assistants in an excellent essay.

Ford Sr. -- nice man by all accounts. Would like to win. At times has taken steps -- even bold ones -- to try to win. But -- while some guys obtain teams to satisfy a competitive zeal (like Snyder) and NEED to win -- in their guts -- that's not Ford. So ... he'll give it a try -- but he won't give it 100%. AND more importantly, he's just not a talented executive and doesn't truly know football all that well. So even a 100% effort isn't likely to change things -- other than getting lucky on a decision regarding underlings

I don't have much to add as we share very similar views of the Lion hierarchy, although I think I have a brighter opinion of Sam Gash than Atticus. Much more and ongoing discussion Here in The Den

---

The Generation Gap, Ford-style

Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press has written a really nice article about the decades of struggle the Chicago Blackhawks went through under late owner Bill Wirtz, and their resurgence fostered by his son Rocky.  Guess which Detroit-area franchise he drew a parallel to?  Of course, he compared them to the Lions, where, in the eyes of the fans, aging owner William Clay Ford is already the Bad Cop to his son Bill Ford, Jr.

Of course, we have very little real understanding of where the lines of power are drawn in the Lions' boardroom, how tight of a hold Ford Sr. still has on his franchise, how much of a say Junior has in the operations, or what level of interest he has in taking over the franchise and throwing himself into its revitalization.  From an outsider's view, William Clay Ford meets all the critera for a good owner: he runs his organization with class, he fearlessly reinvests in his own franchise, built a new stadium with his own money, hires football men to run his football, and gives them all the time and resources they need to succeed.  The only problem is, he's hired lousy football men.

Discuss it here, in The Den!

---