my thoughts on the lions....

[pinnacle]

Looking at the lions..I decided that they have been doing of late what most of the people on this board always want the cardinals to do...example:

1. they take alot of guys in the draft (mostly after the 1st round) who are highly regarded talents but have injury, character or motivational issues. MOst were at one point considered 1st round picks and then fell hard in the draft..examples: boss bailey, shaun rogers. High risk strategy.

2. they sign a bunch of retread veterans..molden, wilkinson, Gary (not that old) are current examples. If they do not exactly get guys to sign with them - they are always mentioned as a destination for players and they seem to look at everyone....There are others they have signed - will have to look it up.

Did these retreads help? Not sure exactly...for some reason old, retread big name tackles get alot of coverage by the tv announcers..wilkinson, mcglockton, trayler, etc get tons of press....wilkinson looked good on a few plays - but I did not record the game - so I am not sure how great of an overall game he played - their defense did give up a ton of yards..

My surprise was that joey harrington is this good...in hindsight..perhaps he carried a marginal oregon team alot farther than they would have if someone else had been the qb..

with a very young qb and star receiver - I made the initial assumption that marriuchi would clean house and rebuild around the young guys - but they almost seem to have a win now attitude..

I think cincinnati is a team that seems to now employ a comparable strategy with lewis at the helm...but they look absolutely awful..

I am assuming mariucchi is not a guy who runs around preaching character...he seems to prefer talent #1 and figures the rest will sort itself out...


just some rambling thoughts..

 

[KingLouieLouie]

This thread (yes, it probably was confusing to follow since I was "high" on cold-medicine at the time) goes into detail as to why the Lions deserve more credit for yesterday's game than the constant bashing that has been directed towards the Cardinals.....

 

[ajcardfan]

I remember having a couple of rip-roaring draft arguments over Harrington. I thought he was going to be good, Ed B, in particluar, thought he was another Akili Smith.

Still too early to draw a final conclusion, but I still think he's on his way to being a good NFL QB.

 

[KingLouieLouie]

I for one wasnt too thrilled when the Lions drafted Harrington...
I thought that McMahon possessed the complete package, however, the most significant "knock" on him has been his lack of accuracy.... The Lions were in dire need of a CB and Jammer was available and I thought it would have been more logical to target that need, rather than creating a potential QB controversy.....

When the Millen had his post draft press conference, it seemed he was in complete disdain of selecting Joey and even said that he better change his name from "Joey" since it doesn't seem to be an assertive name for an NFL QB......

Harrington struggled last year because the Lions WR corp was immediately decimated by crucial injuries (mainly to Az Hakim), but now he has a weapon in with Rogers, with Bill Schroeder and Scotty Anderson as decent compliment receivers........ And also, pro-bowl caliber TE in Ricks and FB in Schlesinger Plus, the OL is coming into it's own because they've been together for 2+ years for the most part and developing that necessary cohesion....

Harrington seems to have the major intangibles for QB, mainly his leadership capabilities and the "cockiness" of a seasoned vet....
Plus, perseverence, because he overcame that accelerated heart-beat that cost him the final 2 games of last season.......

Yes, it is too premature to deem him as the next "Joe Montana", but with the "Mooch" as his coach/guide, the possibilities are unlimited...

 

[AZ Shocker]

I think there is no doubt that Harrington will be a good, if not great NFL qb. When its all said and done, he will have had a better career than say...Donavan McNabb.