Detroit Lions Fan Blog

Never one to allow good news to stand in the way of bad, the Detroit Lions announced the signing of their first round pick (Calvin Johnson) on Friday, as well as the placing of their other rookie project (Drew Stanton) on Injured Reserve. Stanton had surgery on his knee almost immediately after joining the team, and now he is already on IR. That means that Stanton is officially done for the year. At least we have another first round WR in camp! Woo hoo!

Let’s talk about Johnson (stop with the joking, you morons). Johnson’s contract is for six years and it reportedly totals 55.5 million (27 of that guaranteed). The Lion’s latest first round WR choice (he went #2 overrall) is considered a “can’t miss” star in the NFL. Of course, we’ve seen all this before (how did that Charles Rogers thing work out?) and the hype around CJ is huge. He’ll certainly start right out of the gate and he should complement stud WR Roy Williams and slot receiver Mike Furrey nice. He is definitely another piece to the Mike Martz puzzle and we expect him to do well, stat wise. The Lions offense could be improved over last years and with all the boasting that Kitna and Furrey have been doing - they better.

Not to run this into the ground, but what about the defense? The organization seems to be un-wisely focused on the offensive side of the ball, to the detriment of the defense. Some serious defensive stars where on the market this year (Lance Briggs, Simeon Rice, etc) and the Lions didn’t even take a look at those guys. I mean, why not at least give the APPEARANCE of trying to improve their defense. I guess there just isn’t enough time, especially when there are so many young college receivers out there. Obviously they need to spend every waking hour watching scouting tape on potential new wide receivers.

We know that the offense can score points but if they can’t stop anyone, they’re going to have problems. We’ll see how this plays out, but if nothing improves, look for the Lions to go 3-13 again and draft another high profile receiver in the first round next year.