Final Roster Prediction

[TSE]

QB
Stafford / Culpepper / O'Connell /Stanton
(gotta keep all 4 for value and hope we can trade 1 or 2 of them for whatever is the best deal out there)

RB
Smith / Morris / Brown / Davis
(similar for above, I would like to trade 1 or 2 of these RBs because there are going to likely be a lot of good RBs cut in a few days)

FB
Smith / Felton

WR
CJ / BJ / DN / DW / Looker

TE
Pettigrew / Heller / Gronk

OT
Backus / Gosder / Jansen

OG
Peterman / Loper (C/T) / Ramirez / Brown

C
Raiola

DE
Avril / White / IAF / Hunter

DT
Cohen / Fluellen / Hill / Harris
(4 bullets to audition/experiment for solving long term needs here, this would be a great opportunity to try and identify in-house upgrades. I'm also tempted to keep Smith and cut Milford Brown or Ramzee Robinson, but I also think another DT of interest could hit the waiver wire)

LB
JP / Foote / Levy / Sims / Dizon / Follett

CB
Buchanon / Henry / King / James / Roberson / Robinson

S
Delmas / Schweigert / Pearson / Simpson

ST
Hanson / Harris / Muhlbach

PS
OT Lydon Murtha
C Dan Gerberry
DE Orion Martin
LB Darnell Bing
LB Rufus Alexander
CB Cletis Gordon
S Calvin Lowry
TE Carson Butler

(Murtha should be safe, too many good players and other draft picks will be released, we shouldn't use a roster spot on him and gamble that we can keep his rights until an injury hits if does)

I think at least 3 of these guys from our roster will be replaced by upcoming waived players from other teams, so I will edit in my wish list of waived players as I hear they are cut.

POSSIBLE WAIVER WIRE TARGETS:

LB Jeremy Leman (ILL undrafted - Panther's fans were pretty upset about him getting cut)
LB Marcus Freeman (Ohio St 5th rounder)
C AQ Shipley (Penn St 7th rounder; Mike Mayock was pretty high on him)
G Trevor Canfield (Cincinnati 7th rounder)
FB Chris Pressley (Wisconsin undrafted, young good blocker)
DE/LB Bruce Davis (UCLA 3rd Rd 2 years ago)
DE Tim Crowder (Texas 2nd Rd 3 years ago)
DT Terrance Taylor (Michigan 4th rounder)
OT Jamon Meredith (SC 5th round, highly rated in the draft, Green Bay cut him)
QB Brian Brohm (LOU 2nd Rd 1 year ago)
S Anthony Smith (SYR 3rd Rd 3 years ago)
CB Marcus McCauley (Fresno St 3rd rounder 2 years ago)
CB William Middleton (Furman 5th rounder this year)
CB Trae Williams (USF 5th rounder 1 year ago)
CB Mike Mickens (Cincinnati 7th rounder)
CB Justin Miller (Clemson 2nd Rd 4 years ago, also KR ability)

[Liqourish]

Mayhew was talked to before the game about waive wire players and he stated that upwards of 600 players will be cut from teams and he will explore everyone of them to see if one could help improve the team.

That being said, besides a few stable positions, I wouldn't count on a final roster anytime soon.

I do think Gordon and Butler could have extra time to be seen. Both were added during the preseason and both have made good impressions so far.

[kellmellus50]

Tse.... i think you have it right, they may keep collins over bollinger because of trade value,and i believe lions will grab many off the waiver wire to make the team better.The only one i differ is wr williams may be cut ,he's had trouble catching punts
( but it will be hard to cut a 3rd round draft pick).

[TSE]

Tse.... i think you have it right, they may keep collins over bollinger because of trade value,and i believe lions will grab many off the waiver wire to make the team better.The only one i differ is wr williams may be cut ,he's had trouble catching punts
( but it will be hard to cut a 3rd round draft pick).

I'm a stickler for details, and I can't stand it when PRs drop simple balls, it's something that is totally inexcusable. I do have to be sensible as well though in admitting that the truth is that it is possible that it could just be some fluky and ugly happenstance mental error that he has had some early trouble and I will give him benefit of the doubt that he will improve. I have to do that though, cause the investment made in him was too high. We NEED him to develop into a good player or a tradable player and I'm going to give him every chance I can until I'm sure he's a bust, cause I have seen things I like too, and everything he's doing on ST is wrong, but he could be good if we coached him up correctly. Although I think Stan Kwan is very likely the worst coach we have on our team as I have major disagreements in how he instructs his players in ST, absolutely not on the same page as him.

[TSE]

Mayhew was talked to before the game about waive wire players and he stated that upwards of 600 players will be cut from teams and he will explore everyone of them to see if one could help improve the team.

Just about every team has 75 guys, so 22 cuts X 32 teams = 704 players to be released.

Say 20 of the 22 are much easier for every team than the last 2, so we still have 2 X 32 = 64 very interesting and capable football players that are going to be in the top 10% of the premium pickings. So if there are 64 other guys out there just as good as our last cuts, how many roster spots could we replace and get a possible upgrade? Heck it might almost make sense to cut our team down to 43 players right now and just enter a one-team only 64 player draft of which we own the first 10 picks and then the draft ends!

(although we don't have rights on all 704 as surely many will be IR'd and players with more than 4 years or so are exempt from the waiver wire and become FAs immediately, I'm not 100% sure on all the technical rules of the waiver system)

But in all seriousness I would be working my butt off to try and make trades if I was Mayhew. Whoever our 43-53 players are on paper right now in his mind, he should be SHOPPING those 10 or even 20 guys with every other team, and find out who he can sell for draft pick collateral, and then expect to replace them with what will essentially be comparable players. Somebody from our 43-53 has to be able to make the back end of somebody else's roster with 32 other teams out there.

[Liqourish]

^ Even if he only finds a handful of guys that can upgrade our team, it's well worth it. I applaud Mayhew. Man, he has just gone out and cleaned house. He doesn't care what it takes, he's going to go out there and find players (the right types of players) to bring into the organization to turn this team around. The future looks bright if Mayhew keeps this up.

[TSE]

^ Even if he only finds a handful of guys that can upgrade our team, it's well worth it. I applaud Mayhew. Man, he has just gone out and cleaned house. He doesn't care what it takes, he's going to go out there and find players (the right types of players) to bring into the organization to turn this team around. The future looks bright if Mayhew keeps this up.

24 hours from I will very much agree with this post or disagree with it, as now is the moment of truth. I'm CLAMORING for major house cleaning and shedding of aging players w/known-mediocrity for younger chips w/unknown-potential, so now's the time for Mayhew to show what he's made of. If he doesn't make some trades in the next 24 hours and find SOME way, ANY way, to convert current members of the roster into new assets whether new players or picks, then there is virtually no chance that I will be able to endorse our 53 man roster tomorrow at the deadline. I know there's deals that exist out there, and we need to hit the grindstone and hammer out some strategic trades, that's the #1 thing to be thinking about, with the #2 thinking about which players to snatch up off the wire.

We MUST win both of these battles or it will be another long season paired with another delay to fixing our team for the long-term. There's no reason for the Lions to not be potentially the best team for the entire upcoming decade other than failing at seeing the winning solution and pulling the trigger on it TODAY.

[kellmellus50]

Some players made a poor final impression at Buffalo.
"There was probably a couple that took themselves off the bubble maybe in a negative way rather than a positive way," Schwartz said. "I can think of a couple incidences where a guy made a good case for himself, but I can think of more where it was the other way around

Here's the two players in that game that looked bad: both receivers , Derric williams(fumbled ball again) and Keray colbert (allowed 2 int's).It will not surprise me that both are cut to send a message to the team that you have to perform or you will be replaced!!!

[TSE]

Keep in mind guys to nominate anybody you want for the waiver wire target list. I'm trying to keep it short as there are going to be so many guys that could potentially go on the list, plus it's not like I'm expecting a mad rush of people to be checking in for updates all day within this thread.

[Liqourish]

According to Jim Schwartz via detroitlions.com, he will be looking at players all year long. Anytime any player doesn't perform well, he could be cut for someone else. This isn't going to be a quick process.

He has three groups of players.

1. Star players i.e. players who are expected to stick with the team the entire season.
2. Bubble players i.e. could make the 53 man roster, but could also be cut at anytime for an upgrade
3. Bad players i.e. players who will be looking for work very very shortly.

[TSE]

A good candidate just became available. FB Chris Pressley from Wisconsin was cut. Bengals fans were pretty high on him, I've been hearing a lot of good things about him as a young solid blocker. We should consider dumping the veteran Smith and snatch him up.

[Bartender]

Did you put Levy starting in front of Simms?

[TSE]

Did you put Levy starting in front of Simms?

Sure did. Keep in mind I'm not suggesting he won't be in the starting lineup, I am not stating my opinions from the perspective of what I think that the Lions are thinking, I'm stating everything from the perspective of how it should be in my opinion. Levy has shown promise, and I have still never seen any promise from Sims and am still waiting for him to show up. He is my least favorite Lion's player of all-time on account of being somehow regarded positively by so many while actually delivering negative performances on a consistent basis, and he has been a huge handicap to our defense every year thus far. Sorry to all the Sims lovers, I've had years of being attacked by Sims lovers who haven't watched him carefully to acknowledge how he has hurt us more than help us, so I don't want to get into a huge argument here, I just don't like him as a player.

That being said, in all fairness to him and his high draft potential, I'm not ruling him out as a potential good player for us for the future. He gave an interview this offseason in which he provided a rationale for why this year he's going to be a completely different player, he said that the previous systems and coaches restricted him from doing certain instinctual things that he would have liked to do and that this year the system and coach will really cater to him improving his game. So I'm going to give the man one more shot to get on my good side, but I wouldn't gamble money on it.

[kellmellus50]

Detroit Lions - Claimed CB Cletis Gordon off of waivers from the Texans, waived WR Eric Fowler, released CB Keith Smith, waived WR Glenn Holt, released CB Dexter Wynn with injury waiver, signed QB Brooks Bollinger, claimed QB Kevin O'Connell off of waivers from New England, released G Terrence Metcalf, waived WR D.J. Boldin, waived LB Rob Francois, waived CB LaMarcus Hicks, waived DE Ryan Kees, acquired S Ko Simpson for an undisclosed 2010 draft choice, waived DE Orion Martin, released DT Chuck Darby, waived OT Lydon Murtha.

Analysis: The Lions are using the heck out of their top spot on the waiver wire these days. Darby should easily find work soon based on the lack of decent talent available at defensive tackle. Murtha should land on Detroit's practice squad if he's not claimed by another team first.

[TSE]

There's an unconfirmed report that Brian Brohm has been cut. Interesting. I'm putting him on the list for now hoping that the report proves to be true.

[kellmellus50]

The Lions will reportedly have cut receiver John Standeford and kicker Billy Cundiff.
According to ESPN.com, the Lions will release Cundiff, who was signed last week while Jason Hanson recovers from minor knee surgery.
Pro Football Talk reported that the Lions will part ways with Standeford, who caught 15 passes in nine games last year for the Lions.
The team has cut running back Aveion Cason and defensives tackles Chuck Darby and Lydon Murtha, according to reports on Scout.com.
That report's information was attributed to unnamed NFL sources. Lions spokesman Bill Keenist said the team will not announce any cuts until after the 6 p.m. deadline for all 32 NFL teams to trim their rosters to 53 players.
Cason, who also contributed on returns and special teams coverage, played the past three seasons with the Lions.
Darby, who signed a three-year, $4.7-million deal with the Lions in 2008, started 15 games last season.

Murtha was a seventh-round pick this year from Nebraska.

[TSE]

Unconfirmed reports are that GB will release former 2nd rounder Brian Brohm, and MIN will release former 3rd rounder Marcus McCauley.

They are just gift-wrapping him for us. I watched a few preseason MIN games and saw McCauley make a few good plays, although it's not like I studied him that indepth, just casual observances. Hopefully this turns out to be a correct report.

[kellmellus50]

ALLEN PARK, Mich. --The Detroit Lions announced today that they have released 21 players and placed CB Chris Roberson on the Reserve/Injured list to trim their roster down to the NFL mandated 53-man limit prior to the 6 p.m. league deadline.

The Lions released the following players: LB Rufus Alexander, QB Brooks Bollinger, G Milford Brown, TE Carson Butler, RB Aveion Cason, WR Keary Colbert, DE Sean Conover, K Billy Cundiff, DT Chuck Darby, RB Tristan Davis, LB Zack Follett, C Dan Gerberry, TE Dan Gronkowski, WR Dane Looker, DB Calvin Lowry, T Lydon Murtha, DB Ramzee Robinson, DB Stuart Schweigert, DT Shaun Smith, LB Spenser Smith, WR John Standeford

I am a little surprised at these four cuts, LB Zack Follett,DB Stuart Schweigert,RB Tristan Davis. TE Dan Gronkowski . maybe they will resign to practice squad.

[TSE]

Scweigert is the one that surprises me the most but I can still understand why, although to me I would have rather cut Manuel. Follett is also a guy I liked, but with all the releases we have a great shot at getting him on the PS and we don't lose out entirely because we kept Bing instead, so that's ok.

I am hoping for as many guys from this list end up getting cut in favor of some waiver wire players (or traded for those that have value).

C Gandy
CB (a couple from Gordon or James or King or Henry)
DT Grady
FB Smith
S Manuel
T Salaam
TE Fitz
WR Jennings

Also, I would love to see us trade away a couple of QBs

[kellmellus50]

here is a decent list of players who were cut.
http://www.macsfootballblog.com/2009/09 ... -cuts.html

I am happy cason and colbert were cut.