2008 Lions

[Don Wassall]

The Lions are a very typical Caste team -- white quarterback, some white o-linemen, and overwhelmingly black everywhere else except for tight end, which is mainly a blocking position in Detroit.


WR Mike Furrey "came out of nowhere" and didn't the darned overachiever tie for second in the league in receptions in 2006. That of course couldn't stand and Furrey was demoted in 2007 to fourth receiver behind Shaun McDonald. Furrey's receptions dropped from 98 in '06 to 61 in '07.


Veteran Jon Kitna is again the starter at quarterback. Kitna is one of those white quarterbacks the drunk white fans have always loved to ridicule but he's turned out to have a pretty venerable career -- certainly better than those "affletic" types who rarely seem to pan out -- and threw for over 4,000 yards in both 2006 and 2007.


Dan Orlovsky and Drew Stanton are the backup QBs. The very mobile Stanton, Detroit's second round draft pick last year, will likely get first crack at succeeding the 36-year-old Kitna.


Three whites start on the offensive line -- RG Stephen Peterman, C Dominic Raiola, and LT Jeff Backus, the former first round draft pick from Michigan.


Fifteenth year player Andy McCollum backs up Raiola at center.


Dan Campbell was the starter at tight end but ended up on IR. The team's current depth chart has Casey FitzSimmons and John Owens as second and third string at the position respectively.


After eight years as a backup, Jared DeVries was finally "allowed" to start at defensive end at times in '06 and '07 and again to begin '08.


Rookie Jordan Dizon, drafted early in the second round, is expected to be the starter at MLB at some point during the season. Dizon was a tackling machine at Colorado.


DeVries and Dizon are Detroit's only white defensive players.


NUMBER OF WHITE STARTERS: 5


APPROXIMATE NUMBER OF WHITE PLAYERS ON 53 MAN ROSTER: 15


GRADE: F+

 

[Don Wassall]

Finally:


Millen out as Lions president, GM


http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/8601458

 

[guest301]

Bye! I am suprised he lasted as long as he did. He's been hated by large parts of the fan base in Detroit for a long time.Edited by: guest301

 

[jaxvid]

Yeah, Millen was the most hated figure in the Detroit sports world that's for sure. I think the Ford's stuck with him because they were tired of changing people around and still losing. They went with the guy for too long but firing won't make a difference until and IF a new guy comes in and can do better.

 

[Poacher]

Lions just traded Roy Williams to the Cowboys. Hopefully that will open up things a little for Furrey.

Lions got something like four draft picks for him. Maybe this could end being a herschel walker type deal for them.

 

[whiteathlete33]

Yes, I'm wondering Poacher if Mcdonald will start or Furrey.

 

[jaxvid]

I doubt if Furrey will start. He might see a lot more PT but he won't start. As Don mentioned in another thread white receivers are only allowed 1 good season. Besides McDonald the Lions have other blacks scrubs they like to throw to other then the only guy on the team who can catch.

 

[Thrashen]

Why isn't Calvin Johnson being called a bust? About the only thing he does well is get injured.

Depite his 4.2 40 yard dash time out of Georgia Tech (which made the media-girls literally wet themselves), this guy looks very slow on the field and fails to get seperation.

To his credit, he's averaging about 70 yards per game through 5 weeks. Simply put, he looks average in the NFL. Do you really think Mike Furrey couldnt get 70 yards per game if he was starting? Please.

 

[Don Wassall]

Calvin Johnson looked very good the first few games, until the Lions completely fell apart on offense. He'll be a superstar with a good supporting cast around him. He looks "slow" in the sense that Matt Jones does to some, because his height and long stride makes it appear he isn't covering as much ground as he is.


I'm glad Roy Williams was traded as he was openly showing up his QBs on the field. He's a first class a-hole. Jon Kitna's back condition may not have been that bad but the team went ahead and put him on IR, a convenient way of parting ways with him. At least Dan Orlovsky and Drew Stanton will now get looks. Detroit is rebuilding almost from scratch to recover from the Millen era, a very good idea.

 

[jaxvid]

Dan Orlovsky looked good in his first game. He has the tools. He's big and rangy and can throw the ball through a brick wall. He may be a good one someday. Drew Stanton is a stud. One of the best running QB's in college when he was healthy, he won't get any chance to run like that in the NFL but he's looked good at times too.


Kitna's getting the blame for the Lion's poor performance. You can't fire the coach in mid-season so youbench the QB, stupid but that's what happens when the fans want to see somebody lose their head.


Roy Williams had "black man's disease" this season, an inability to catch passes thrown right into his hands. He's a better then average receiver (for a black guy). I can't figure if he was pissed that Johnson was getting his touches this year how he's going to be happy playing with TO??? Give it a year and he'll be crying again.

 

[Poacher]

Orlovsky seems like he could be solid if given half a chance.

Peter King tee'd off on him in his weekly "Monday Morning QB" article. I mean he spent two or three sentences just ridiculing the guy for that safety. Granted it was a bonehead play but it was his first professional start and he was on the road no less but King seemed intent on labeling him a bust right then and there and riding him out of the league.

Here it is:

"I think there's a reason UConn is not the cradle of quarterbacks, and Dan Orlovsky of the Lions illustrated it Sunday against the Vikes in one of the most idiotic single plays I've ever seen in 25 seasons covering the NFL.

The setup: Minnesota and Detroit were scoreless late in the first quarter, and the Lions had the ball, third-and-10 from their one. Backup quarterback Orlovsky, the former Husky, lined up in the shotgun, maybe five yards deep in the end zone, then rambled right and back when he got the ball. And with no pressure, he simply began to run on the white stripe, with no knowledge why the official back there was blowing his whistle and calling the play dead.

How can you be a quarterback, starting from your own end zone, and not know that if you fade back and run to the right you've got to be sure you don't step on the white line? Alarmingly foolish, the kind of anti-basic-instinct play that makes you wonder whether the guy has any chance to be a professional quarterback."Edited by: Poacher

 

[backrow]

John Standeford got promoted to their active roster...

 

[Freethinker]

John Standeford got promoted to their active roster...

Holy cow, 2 white receivers on one team....how long will they allow this to last.

Seriously, this is great news. Calvin Johnson is a legit #1 receiver. Mike Furrey has proven himself and should be starting now IMO. Shaun McDonald is a good systems receiver. He put up good numbers in St Louis and Detroit under Mike Martz. I doubt his productivity without Martz. That being said, maybe Standeford can get some playing time.

 

[GreatLakeState]

You could see Johnson's all-pro potential when he found the end zone on Orlo's TD pass Sunday. He's the one untouchable Lion, according to the players.

 

[bigunreal]

Great news! Standeford finally gets to suit up during the regular season. Now if Mike Hass could just get a chance to play....

 

[backrow]

in ideal world, it would be Calvin Johnson, John Standeford and Furrey as a slot. pretty much the way Patriots played, with slot receiver being on the field over 70% of the snaps.

 

[Poacher]

Should get to see Standeford and Furrey today I would think.

 

[Don Wassall]

From a fantasy site: Lions: In case you were wondering who will play for WR <A class=playerlink href="http://www.fantasyguru.com/football/subscribers/ftdb.php?page=playerstats&amp;pid=1266" target="_blank">Roy Williams</A>, and it's been an unknown, Lion WR Shaun McDonald told our Adam Caplan on Sirius NFL Radio last night that he'll be starting for Williams.

 

[Poacher]

Figures.Edited by: Poacher

 

[jaxvid]

Watched the Lions game on TVO and it wasn't too bad. Even though they are 0-8 they have played some interesting games. I think the QB Orlovsky has some skills, he can throw which is what a QB is supposed to do.


Anyway there were a couple of classic caste-comments from the color man (I don't know who it was). On one play Calvin Johnson burned the Bears black CB for a reception and he commented that it was the fault of the safety Craig Steltz because Steltz didn't even "open up his hips" on the play, so he was out of position or something even though he made the tackle and it wasn't his guy in the first place.


I imagined all the other "experts" were nodding their heads at the comment as "hip flexibility" is the white mans disease and every insider knows that.

BTW Steltz made up for his lack of hip swivel by using his huge white brain to put himself in a postion to intercept a pass that was thrown in his vicinity in the end zone. Steltz also used another white talent "sticky or glue fingered hands" to actually catch the ball instead of having it clank off his hands like so many black DB's have happen.


At another point in the game DL Jared Devries blocked his third passof the game and the color man went wild saying that Devries has one of the "hottest" motors in the game, and that he has made it 10 years in this league on his non-stop motor, and that his motor is always running and that he is the most motoring motor guy in a league with other high motor guys. I was thinking that Devries was some kind of Robo-lineman with all of the talk about his motor. Perhaps playing for a team in the "motor" city has enabled him to keep his motor at peak performance!


Those were just a couple of examples of caste clowning that goes on in every game and it has become so commonplace and silly that instead of being pissed off at it like I used to be I now laugh--because I've broken the code!!!!!

 

[Thrashen]

"Those were just a couple of examples of caste clowning that goes on in every game and it has become so commonplace and silly that instead of being pissed off at it like I used to be I now laugh--because I've broken the code!!!!!"


Haha, the code, thats basically what it is!

The announcer's code book is simple....

1) Never compare white ahtletes to black ones. Every white WR must be compared to Ed McCaffery, Wayne Crebet, or Ricky Prohel, no matter how idiotic or innacurate the comparison. This rule goes for all positions, no matter what.

2) Never bestow any positive "black comments" or any comments associated with speed, quickness, agility, loose hips, athleticism, jumping abilty, potential or field vision onto white athletes.

3) Always refer to athletic white defensive players as having a "high-motor," "non-stop motor," or being an "overachiever."

Jeez, it's like we found the Rosetta Stone.

 

[Poacher]

Lions are going to sign Culpepper.

 

[Don Wassall]

Dan Orlovsky, yet another white QB out of whom nothing is expected, has played pretty well the past two games but hurt his hand yesterday. The Lions keep claiming talented second year player Drew Stanton "isn't ready," which means Peppercorn may be starting as soon as this week. Culpepper, Jamarcus Russell, Seneca Wallace, there should be mandatory laugh tracks included in the broadcasts when these guys are playing.

 

[jaxvid]

I think the Lions signing Culpepper was a personal gift to me as I have recently complained about the dearth of crappy black QB's to goof on. Who knew I would get one right in my own home town? I think the NFL is monitoring this board and wanted to increase the Lions following by adding someone that we "caste" guys could rant about.


Remember the glory days of Micheal Vick and Vince Young and Byron Leftwich and those other pigmentally challenged oafs who entertained us so much and on a weekly basis and proved our theory of the existance of the caste system? There just isn't anyone like that to really HATE on anymore. Maybe Dulpepper has it in him to give us a few laughs before he retires to the usual life of the black ex-superstar, ie. spending himself into bankruptcy and abusing women.

 

[Don Wassall]

Here's a blurb from a fantasy site that pretty much reflects the consensus about RB Kevin Smith:


"There's absolutely nothing special about Kevin Smith and he's way too slow to be a starting RB in the NFL. A good frame of reference is on a goal-line carry in the first quarter. On a short run to the left on a goal-line carry, all he had to do is run over the defender on the ground who had his arm out. Smith stumbled on the player and didn't get much farther."


The guy has little elusiveness and he's slow, yet because he's black he's drafted in the third round and gets a prolonged opportunity to be a starting tailback in the NFL.