NFL Draft Info - Detroit Lions

2009 Detriot Lions Report Card

by: Latif Masud

Coming off a historic 0-16 season, a new head coach, a new front office (well , sort of), and a combined fifteen new starters, Lions fans knew that 2009 was going to be another tough year. However, this season was not like the ones in the past. Yes, the Lions still lost many games, and yes they got blown out in many of those losses, but for the first time in a long time, Detroiters have something to look forward to. The 2009 draft brought in probably the most talented class of players that this team has ever drafted from the top overall pick Matthew Stafford to the 20^th pick Brandon Pettigrew and the 33^rd overall pick Louis Delmas. These three guys combined with third round pick DeAndre Levy, who started 11 games, and fourth round Sammie Hill, who started 13 games, gives Detroit a young core of talent to build around. Heck, even 6^th and 7^th round picks Aaron Brown, and Zach Follet played well. The season might have been tough, but the future is bright in Detroit.

Quarterbacks: C-

Its really tough to grade against the Lions QBs this season because of how terrible the offensive line is, and it didn’t help that the Lions played from behind in so many games, meaning that they had to pass the ball and expose their quarterbacks. Lions quarterbacks overall threw 16 touchdowns to 32 interceptions lead by rookie Matthew Stafford, who completed 53% of his passes for about 2300 yards, 13 touchdowns, and 20 interceptions in 10 starts. Although the interception number was high for Stafford, he had some great games. The November 22^nd game against Cleveland was probably the greatest game played by a Lions quarterback in the last decade. In that game, Stafford threw for 433 yards, 5TDs and 2 picks. The yardage total and touchdowns set the league records for a rookie quarterback.

Runningbacks: C

Kevin Smith was the starter at the start of the season, and amassed 747 yards in 13 starts. He averaged 3.4 yards per carry (note: Smith also caught 35 passes for 415 yards and a TD, which almost ranked him second on the team). Maurice Morris was brought in from Seattle in the offseason to backup Smith, and he did a nice job of that. In the3 games he filled in for Smith in the lineup, he rushed for 228 yards. Aaron Brown, who was a rookie 6^th round pick, was the third back on the roster, and was primarily brought in as either a change of pace back or trick plays. I don’t blame Smith too much for the low YPC because the offensive line, especially inside was just terrible.  Given the poor blocking, I think the runningbacks on the roster made the most of what they could, so B- is deservable.

Wide Receivers: C-

Other than Calvin Johnson (aka Megatron for those of you who don’t know), no other receiver stepped up on this team. In the offseason, the Lions added veterans Bryant Johnson and Dennis Norhtcutt to take pressure off of Calvin, but they really didn’t perform ,especially Bryant Johnson. In 14 games, Calvin Johnson caught 67 passes for 984 yards, and 5 TDs, those stats are pretty impressive when you consider the fact that he was injured in many of those games, and was either catching balls from QBs that don’t deserve to be in the NFL or a rookie. On the other hand, Bryant Johnson, a former first round pick playing opposite of one of biggest weapons in the NFL today, only caught 35 passes for 417 yards, and 3 TDs. Dennis Northcutt caught 35 passes for 357 yards and a TD in 2 starts, and as a reserve in the rest of the games. Personally, I don’t get how you can’t put up better stats when you play opposite of Megatron. The guy got double and triple teamed by every opponent the Lions faced this year. This is one of the biggest areas of work for the Lions this offseason.

Tight Ends: B+

The tight ends played very well for the Lions this season in both the passing game and the running game. Brandon Pettigrew caught 30 passes for 346 yards in 11 games before he got injured, and was really coming into his own. The 6’ 5” product of Oklahoma State was also an asset in the run game. Will Heller caught 30 passes for 296 yards and 3 TDs in 16 games played. Considering that he is looked upon as a blocking tight end, those stats are really great. Casey FitSimmons is the third tight end on the Lions roster, he caught 18 balls for 128 yards.

Offensive Line: D-

Where to start with this unit: gave up 39 sacks (which doesn’t even begin to describe the amount of punishment Lions quarterbacks had to take), was excessively penalized, not to mention they couldn’t block a dead gopher even if they tried. Okay, that’s a bit too much, but really the offensive line was downright terrible. In past years, the Lions o-line’s poor play was blamed on guys like Jeff Backus and Dominic Raiola. Ironically, this year those two guys were the strong points of the line. Both of those guys played well, although they struggled at times, and managed to stay healthy. The same things can’t be said for the guards of this team. Stephen Peterman was a solid run blocker when healthy, but was atrocious in the pass game, and the starter at left guard changed continually between Daniel Loper and Manny Ramirez. Neither of them produced much. The worst part was that the last year’s first round pick: right tackle Gosder Cherilus was the worst player in the line. The right tackle position has been a revolving door for the Lions this past decade, and many hoped that spending a first round pick would solve the issue. Now, we’re just holding our breaths and hoping that his poor play was just a sophomore slump, and not a permanent issue.

Defensive Line:  C-

Coming into the season, the Lions defensive line was thin in depth, so it was no surprise that the Lions couldn’t generate pass rush. Cliff Avril lead the Lions in sacks with 5.5, followed by Jason Hunter with 5 sacks. Hunter was picked off the streets a week before the season began, and he was the Lions best pass rusher (unfortunately). Guys like Turk McBride, and Copland Bryant were brought in as waiver wire pickups, but they really couldn’t do much either. The saddest part is that Dwyane White, who was given a big contract just two years ago, only had 8 tackles the entire season. However, the interior of the line played pretty well. Grady Jackson and Sammie Hill were great cloggers in defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham’s defense. For the first time since the days of Shaun Rogers and “Big Daddy” Dan Wilkinson’s days, team ran away from the interior of the Lions defense.

Linebackers:  A-

This is the best position in the Lions team in terms of talent, depth, and versatility. The Lions had some great starters in Julian Peterson (75 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 6 forced fumbles), Larry Foote (99 tackles, 2 sacks), and DeAndre Levy (85 tackles, and 1 INT). Those three guys anchored the Lions defense and played as well as they could, especially DeAnre Levy. Levy’s play was so sensational that Ernie Simms, who had amassed 100+ tackle seasons his first three years in the league, had to take a backseat after he got injured early in the season. It will be very interesting to see what the Lions do in the offseason this year. They could either re-sign Larry Foote, and trade away Ernie Simms or keep Simms and move Levy to middle linebacker.

Secondary: D

This is the weakest part of the Lions team. The Lions featured a completely new secondary in 2009 in the hopes of improving their 32^nd ranked pass defense from the previous year, but that did not happen. Cornerbacks Philip Buchanon and Will James were beat deep continually, even though James played very well against short passes, and against the run. Anthony Henry, who was once considered a Pro-Bowl type player, proven that he really is washed out. The one bright spot on the defense was Louis Delmas, who amassed 94 tackles, two interceptions, a sack, a forced fumble, a safety and a defensive touchdown. Right now, he is the best defensive player on the team, and is a future star in the NFL. If you haven’t watched many Lions games, think of him as the Lions version of Troy Polamalu.

Special Tams: C+

Punter Nick Harris had another solid year, Jason Hanson didn’t have the Pro Bowl year he had in 2008, but was still very reliable, but the return game and coverage was spotty. The Lions used four different kick returners, and  three different punt returners during the season. Aaron Brown and Derrick Williams had some short lived success returning kickoffs, but neither played well down the stretch to keep their collective jobs. Punts were mainly handled by Dennis Northcutt, who was okay averaging 8.6 yards per punt (good for 14^th in the league). The main problem was punt and kickoff coverage. The Lions allowed 23.5 yards per kickoff and only had 4 touchbacks the whole season (that stat is even more worse when you consider 10 of their games were played in a dome).