View Full Version : Give Smith more carries, start Stanton
Canseco
10-21-2008, 06:24 PM
Kevin Smith is averaging 4.9 yards a carry, but the Lions barely use him. I guess they gave up on him after his bad performance in week 1. He needs more carries.
Drew Stanton should be the starter. He is a mobile QB, and is a proven leader. Orlovsky doesn't have upside IMO. Isn't he a free agent after this season also? I think it would do more good than harm to give Stanton some reps. There are concerns about his knee, but if it blows out, they always have those two first round draft picks...
Kevin Smith is averaging 4.9 yards a carry, but the Lions barely use him. I guess they gave up on him after his bad performance in week 1. He needs more carries.
Drew Stanton should be the starter. He is a mobile QB, and is a proven leader. Orlovsky doesn't have upside IMO. Isn't he a free agent after this season also? I think it would do more good than harm to give Stanton some reps. There are concerns about his knee, but if it blows out, they always have those two first round draft picks...
What's new about that? The Lions have always misused running backs, even Barry Sanders who was taken out so often when the Lions got inside the five. Using Smith more is just one thing they should be doing.
The Lions still have Jon Kitna. Why do they need Stanton when they have the most perfect quarterback in history? Even when he's hurt, he's still the best since Unitas and everything that goes wrong is somebody else's fault.
racosun
10-23-2008, 06:30 PM
Actually, we only "technically" have Kitna. He's done for the season after the Lions put him on Injured Reserve. Kitna complained to the media about it, saying he'd rather hear that they are benching him for poor play instead of using his back injury as an excuse. Which is dumb, if you ask me. At least if he was injured, a team might look at him for next season. If you have the Lions saying that you're not good enough to play for them, how will that help him find a team next season? It won't, we did him a favor by using the back injury instead of his ineffectiveness. The team tried to trade him before the deadline, but couldn't find any takers. They'll try to trade him again in the off-season, and if there are still no bites, he'll be released.
But I agree that we need to play the youngsters way more for the rest of the year. While I'm glad Ford Sr. fired Millen, he didn't finish the job. He needed to completely clean house immediately: Millen, Marinelli, Mayhew, etc. They made it obvious that there was no hope left for this season when they traded Roy Williams for draft picks. Right there is the point where all highly-regarded rookies and youngsters should have been handed starting jobs, or at least given substantially more playing time.
Kevin Smith might become a third-round steal; he certainly looks good when given the chance. The bigger need is to get our latest first-rounder (Gosder Cherilus) on the field. I'd say get him out there MORE, but Marinelli didn't even let him play last week. Instead, we were entertained with George Foster and his false-starts and blown protection. According to Marinelli, Cherilus needs to "earn" his playing time. Really? Just like Foster is "earning" his? C'mon.
The problem with allowing Marinelli to continue coaching this team is that he has no reason to play his young players. He doesn't need to find out what he has for next season, because he knows he won't be back. Marinelli's trying to win a couple of games to increase his own value when he seeks a defensive coordinator job with some other franchise. He won't be helped by rookie mistakes and the learning and experience that comes with them. That's why he needs to go NOW. We need to find out if Millen made yet another first-round mistake or if right tackle is set for the next five to ten years.
Unfortunately for us fans AND for next years' squad, our owner has no clue how to run a professional franchise or what it takes to build a winner. He needs to step aside and let Billy Junior take over for a while. More wishful thinking on my part, but it makes more sense than what Ford is currently doing. These final ten games are very valuable to next season, but like the past eight years, it's being needlessly wasted.