DETROIT LIONS FOOTBALL

BY: JON VIGI

Team has not won an NFL Championship since 1957

Decades of mediocrity and disappointing seasons

Only team in NFL history to go 0-16 (2008)

After reaching the playoffs in 2011, they show promise for the future.

A VERY BRIEF HISTORY

Barry Sanders

The team had maybe the greatest running back of all-time, Barry Sanders (‘89-’98)

Won Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma State in 1988.

Rushed for over 2,000 yds. in 1997

Retired too early, Lions fans were stunned

Head Coach Jim Schwartz

22-42 as Head Coach of the Lions (1st year was 2009)

0-1 Playoff record

Although he is credited with getting the Lions back to the playoffs, he is back on the “hot seat” and needs to have a successful season in 2013.

Matthew Stafford

1st overall pick in 2009 out of Georgia

Strengths: Big arm, playmaker, leader

Weaknesses: Durability, sometimes has bad mechanics

Just signed an extension through 2017, due to make $76.5 million over the next five years

Running Backs

Reggie Bush – Recently acquired from the Miami Dolphins

He is versatile and will create matchup problems for defenses.

Mikael Leshoure and Joique Bell will be good “change-of-pace” backs and will provide more of a power run game.

Calvin Johnson

Nicknamed “Megatron,” he is the best receiver in the NFL

Set an NFL record for receiving yards in a season in 2012 with 1,964 yards

Strengths: playmaker, leader, extremely athletic, 6 foot 5

Weaknesses: none really

Other Receivers

There is a good supporting cast of receivers around Calvin

Nate Burleson and Ryan Broyles will be the #2 and #3 receivers

Burleson brings experience and leadership and Broyles brings youth and athleticism

Tight Ends

Brandon Pettigrew and Tony Scheffler (WMU)

Pettigrew is a big target that can block and catch

Scheffler is a quicker, slot receiver type player

Both should catch a lot of passes this year and be a big part of the offense

Offensive Tackles There are some question

marks along the offensive line for 2013

Projected starting LT – 2012’s 1st round pick Riley Reiff (Seen on left)

Projected starting RT – Jason Fox

Reiff is sure to replace the recently retired Jeff Backus (seen on right) at LT but there is competition between Fox and Corey Hilliard for RT

None of these players have significant NFL game experience although Reiff did rotate in last year

Center & Guards

Long-time Lion’s captain Dominic Raiola is expected to keep his spot at center

Rob Sims is expected to keep his spot at LG

It is too early to tell who will play RG as there have been up to 3 or 4 players getting reps in OTA’s.

The inexperience of the 2013 offensive line raises some questions and, in my opinion, is the area of biggest concern going into next season

Defensive Tackles

Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley will be the interior defensive linemen in 2013

Fairley recently stated that him and Suh make up the best DT tandem in the league, a claim that Suh agrees with completely

These two have put the target on their backs but they just may be good enough to back it up

They can both be an absolute terror to opposing quarterbacks and can dominate opponents

Ezekiel “Ziggy” Ansah

Ziggy was the Lion’s 1st round draft pick in 2013

He is originally from Ghana but he attended BYU

He is an unbelievably gifted athlete at 6’5, 275 pounds

He has not played football for very long but he is a raw, hard working player that can develop into something very special

Other Defensive Ends

While Ansah will replace Cliff Avril as the rush end, Jason Jones and Israel Idonije will replace Kyle Vanden Bosch as the weak side ends

While neither of these two players are superstars, they are both respected veterans that will be key role players in 2013

Jones last played for the Seahawks while Idonije last played for the Bears

Jones is a native of Detroit and went to EMU

Outside Linebackers

DeAndre Levy, who has been a solid starter on the defense the past few years, is expected to continue in that role.

Ashlee Palmer, Travis Lewis, and Tahir Whitehead all have taken reps at the OLB position with the first-team defense during OTA’s

I expect Palmer to be the starter Week 1

Middle Linebacker

Stephen Tulloch Tulloch has been a great

addition to the defense when he came here from the Titans in 2011.

He is a captain and the clear-cut leader of the defense

A very high energy, emotional player

Cornerbacks

Chris Houston will be the #1 corner in 2013

There are questions as to who the corner opposite Houston will be, though

2013 2nd round pick Darius Slay, Bill Bentley, Jonte Green, Chris Greenwood, and Ron Bartell will all be in contention for the starting spot

Safeties

WMU’s own Louis Delmas and recently acquired Glover Quin will be the starting safeties in 2013

Delmas is a high-energy player but has durability issues. Hopefully, he can stay healthy.

Quin last played for the Houston Texans where he was one of their best defensive players

Special Teams

Jason Hanson, who holds many NFL kicking records, holds the NFL record for most seasons with one team (21 with the Lions). He retired at the end of the 2012 season at age 42.

Havard “Kick-a-licious” Rugland and Veteran David Akers will compete to be the Lions #1 Kicker

2013 5th round draft pick Sam Martin is expected to be the punter

Reggie Bush (situationally), Ryan Broyles, Steven Miller and a few others will compete to return kicks with the departure of Stefan Logan

Thanks Jason

Offense

Bush

Calvin Johnson

Stafford

Pettigrew

Broyles Burleson

- One of Calvin Johnson’s receptions against Atlanta, the game he broke Jerry Rice’s record

- The names are replaced with what they would most likely be in 2013

- ATL was playing man coverage

- Pettigrew runs across middle, screening the CB over Johnson

- Johnson catches a side-arm pass from Stafford and outruns everybody down the right sideline

- 49 yard gain

Empty Formation (No running backs in the backfield)

Defense-2nd and 10-A play in a win against the St. Louis Rams-St. Louis runs a draw play-Suh is blocked one-on-one-Fairley is getting double teamed-Suh dominated the RG and tackles Stephen Jackson in the backfield-If you double team either Suh or Fairley, you can’t double team them both, which is why they are so dangerous as a tandem

Fairley Suh AnsahJones

Tulloch LevyPalmer

DelmasQuin

Slay

Houston

4-3 Defense – Cover 2

Week 1 Sep 8 1:00PM Vikings Week 2 Sep 15 4:05PM AT Cardinals Week 3 Sep 22 1:00PM AT Redskins

Week 4 Sep 29 1:00PM Bears Week 5 Oct 6 1:00PM AT Packers

Week 6 Oct 13 1:00PM AT Browns Week 7 Oct 20 1:00PM Bengals Week 8 Oct 27 1:00PM Cowboys

Week 9 BYE Week 10 Nov 10 1:00PM AT Bears

Week 11 Nov 17 1:00PM AT Steelers Week 12 Nov 24 1:00PM Buccaneers

Week 13 Nov 28 12:30PM Packers Week 14 Dec 8 1:00PM AT Eagles Week 15 Dec 16 8:40PM RavensWeek 16 Dec 22 4:05PM Giants

Week 17 Dec 29 1:00PM AT Vikings

Lions 2013-2014 Schedule