Read this post, or the terrorists win

Okay, this should be my last Lions post until August (preseason) so be thankful and enjoy.

Defense, defense, defense.

Bit of a shakeup on the defensive line over the last year. Dan "Big Daddy" Wilkinson left the team before the start of last year leaving Shaun Rogers and Shaun Cody to man the DT/UT positions while James Hall and Cory Redding played DE. A few games into the '06 season James Hall hurt his shoulder and was subsequently traded to St. Louis for a 5th round pick at the end of the season. Shaun Rogers played in the first 6 games of the '06 season and got suspended for a violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy, went in for surgery during his suspension and more was wrong than they thought so he was moved from the 'Suspended' category directly to 'Injured/Reserve'. Shaun Cody dislocated a toe 6 games into the '06 season and promptly joined Rogers and Hall 'Injured/Reserve' list. This prompted Cory Redding to be moved from the DE position to DT where he thrived. This year he's expected to start alongside Shaun Rogers with Shaun Cody working in on a rotation in what could well be one of the best DT/UT combinations in the NFL. As of right now Dewayne White will be starting on one side but the other position remains in limbo. Ikaika '5-0' Alama-Francis will certainly be a contender but unless he learns at very rapid rate I wouldn't expect him to start right off the bat though I do expect him to work in on a rotation until he does, likely 4-8 games into the '07 season. Until then I expect Kalimba Edwards and/or Jared Devries to carry the bulk of the load.

Linebacker in Detroit has been.. how to put this? It's like a really bad running joke. Seriously, Mike Cofer was our lone leftover from the Lions' "Silver Rush" defense of the 80's and since that group retired all we've had has been Chris Spielman and Stephen Boyd. Reggie Brown could've been in that group had he not suffered a career-ending neck injury. Since then it's been a bunch of injured under-achievers... until last year. Ernie Sims came in last year and as a rookie and lead the team in tackles, a feat last accomplished in 1988 by Spielman. It's a foregone conclusion that he'll retain his starting job at the Will position (Will, Mike, Sam - Defense speak for Weakside, Middle and Strongside). It's likely that Boss Bailey will return as the starter at the Sam position. Bailey showed some promise last year recording 85 tackles with only 12 starts, though his ability to remain injury free is still questionable. In the middle Teddy Lehman, Paris Lenon and rookie Johnny Baldwin will vie for the starting role. Lehman started every game his rookie season, recording 120 tackles but has only managed to play in 9 games over the last 2 seasons. Reports say he's healthy and if he can return to his form of 2 years ago it's likely the starting job is his. Lenon had a good season in '06 starting every game and had 97 tackles, which is a bit misleading as he lacks aggression which translates into him getting the tackles after the opposing RB has already gained 5 yards. Johnny Baldwin is an utterly unknown quantity out of Alabama A&M but Rod Marinelli gushes about the kid, so if his talent translates well into the NFL game he could emerge as a starter this year though I suspect that won't happen until at next season at the earliest.

The only bigger joke on the Lions' team other than LB over the past few years has been their CBs. Dre Bly is gone and Fernando Bryant is back from yet another injury (Ernie Sims accidentally knocked him out briefly and gave him a concussion causing him to miss the final 4 games of the season) which brings his grand total to 22 games played in the last 3 years. Starting opposite him is anyone's guess, and mine is Travis Fisher who, on average, breaks his arm every other year or so. When these two go down the Lions have no shortage of backups with Stanley Wilson, Keith Smith and Dee McCann all returning from last year in addition to 2 rookie draft picks from this year and 3 other FA signings. While the talent is questionable, one thing is certain... there's a lot of them.

We're actually sitting nicely at Safety this year for the first time since Bennie Blades and William White played (Ron Rice had a few good years and so did Mark Carrier but I'm talking 2 competent safeties) with Kennoy Kennedy and Daniel Bullocks starting. Rookie draft pick Gerald Alexander is quite likely Kennedy's replacement but probably not this year and FA signing Idrees Bashir was only brought in to add depth.

We're sitting pretty at Specialist this year with both Jason Hanson and Nick Harris returning. Hanson enters his 16th season as only the 13th player in NFL history to break the 1,500 point barrier (which is really saying something when you play for Detroit) and is currently 5th in points among active NFL players and I think he's 13th or so all-time. Harris didn't duplicate his punting brilliance of '05 but still had a good year in '06 ranking 5th in the NFL for punting average. Shout-out here to longsnapper Don Mulbach who remained virtually invisible last year by not screwing up, which is the only time anyone notices a LS.