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Alot of changes the past few days. Rosters were cut down to 53. A trade was made. And two players were picked off of waivers. So what do we look like now?

This is my 53- man depth chart:

QB- Matthew Stafford/Shaun Hill/Drew Stanton
WR- Calvin Johnson/Derrick Williams/Stefan Logan
LT- Jeff Backus/Jason Fox
LG- Rob Sims
C- Dominic Raiola/Dylan Gandy
RG- Stephen Peterman/Manny Ramirez
RT- Gosder Cherilus/Corey Hilliard
TE- Brandon Pettigrew/Tony Scheffler/Will Heller
WR- Nate Burleson/Bryant Johnson
FB- Jerome Felton
RB- Jahvid Best/Kevin Smith/Maurice Morris/Aaron Brown

DE- Cliff Avril/Lawrence Jackson
DT- Ndamukong Suh/Andre Fluellen
DT- Corey Williams/Sammie Lee Hill
DE- Kyle Vanden Bosch/Turk McBride/Willie Young
LB- Julian Peterson/Landon Johnson
LB- DeAndre Levy/Isaiah Ekejiuba/Spencer Havner
LB- Zach Follett/Ashlee Palmer
CB- Chris Houston/Alphonso Smith
SS- Randy Phillips/Amari Spievey
FS- Louis Delmas/C.C. Brown/John Wendling
CB- Jonathan Wade/Aaron Berry

K- Jason Hanson
P- Nick Harris
LS- Don Muhlbach
KR/PR- Stefan Logan
KR/PR- Aaron Brown

Some Notes:

- Louis Delmas is the ONLY DB that was on the Lions last season. For everyone who says the coaches didn't address the secondary, where have you been? It's not a proven secondary, but it has been addressed. Time will tell if all the youth and speed works out.

- Lions also changed the Linebacking corp quite a bit. DeAndre Levy will be the starting MLB. Zach Follett is slated to be our WLB starter. We added two solid STers at linebacker with Ekejiuba and Havner. And Landon Johnson can play all 3 LB spots. He's expected to fill in for Levy if need be.

- Lions cut a number of veterans for unproven young guys. Yes, the veterans weren't mainstays for the future, but it's still shocking to see them cut ties so quickly when some of the young guys they were cut in favor of haven't shown the avbility to earn the spot.

Most noticable cuts? CB Dre Bly, DT Landon Cohen and OT Jon Jansen.

- Lions really addressed special teams this offseason. They brought in return specialist Stefan Logan. They added solid young ST defenders in Spencer Havner, Isaiah Ekejiuba, Willie Young and Alphonso Smith. Field position was a problem for the Lions last season. I'm glad Mayhew/Schwartz didn't overlook it while making roster decisions.

Stephen Peterman is a top ten RG in the NFL. You can plug him in.

Delmas should be an SS. Put Berry or Thomas in at FS please!

Pretty sure we could plug in Avril at the other DE spot as well. And Cherilus at RT.

^ Jim Schwartz has talked about moving around his tackles/gaurds... that's why I left those spots blank. I wouldn't be shocked to see Backus, Cherilus, and Peterman remain at their spots and us drafting a LG... but for right now I'll put them in with question marks.

Avrils not a lock as our other starting DE. He very could be... but it's not definite at this point.

We re-signed Will Heller and Jon Jansen and released Dewayne White. Not bad moves at all. Heller was a very good backup TE for us last year behind Pettigrew. He was a much better receiving option for Stafford than I thought he would be. I think Jansen is insurance incase Peterman is injured once again this year.

White wasn't going to play much with Avril, Hunter and KVB.

Releasing White gives us quite a bit more in "cap" space as well.

ps - I know there's no cap, but the Lions wanted to stay within a predetermined, self-inflicted cap number.

Whites playing time will be taken by KVB, and DeVries wasn't going to play after sitting out all last year either. Dropping them is fine by me.

I'm interested to see where guys like DeDe Dorsey, Ashlee Palmer, and Terrence Taylor fit in if anywhere.

Probably special teams, or cut.

Although it will be fun to watch Taylor's progress thru the pre-season....

I really like the moves we've made this offseason. Dare I say we'll be treated to 5 wins this year?

The Lions live and die with stafford if he continues to throw up interceptions the lions are doomed.

Now with that being said let's say he stops the int's and starts passing TD's they can win 6-9 games providing they have a great draft including picking up another RB.

I think Ashlee Palmer could probably be on the roster all year as a Special Teams/Depth Guy.

I think Taylor could stick around, but he could also get stuck in the Practice Squad this week, free agent the following pattern some players get stuck in.

DeDe Dorsey, it will completely up to the draft to see how pans out. If they draft a RB, i just can't see them keeping him at say the expense of Aaron Brown.

Lions just re-signed both S Marquand Manuel and DE Copeland Bryan to 1-year deals......

Honestly, not excited about either player re-signing here. Manual is super-slow and Bryan is kinda blah....at least they're both only 1-year deals.

Sorry, forgot the link:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20100316 ... land-Bryan

kellmellus50 wrote:The Lions live and die with stafford if he continues to throw up interceptions the lions are doomed.

Now with that being said let's say he stops the int's and starts passing TD's they can win 6-9 games providing they have a great draft including picking up another RB.

For once, I finally agree with you.

Manuel is okay, probably just insurance if the Lions can't draft a good S late in the draft.... Bryan was trash for us last year. Lions should have re-signed Jason Hunter long before Copeland Bryan.

Pretty sure Hunter will be back, especially with a 2nd round tender on him.....

Assuming he is brought back, plus already having KVB, Avril, Bryan, and McBride, its doubtful DE will be a draft priority for us at all.


Still not excited about slow-footed Manual being back.....we have two other safties I'd want back before him. Simpson is an UFA, while we also tendered Bullocks (RFA).

Hunter has already been re-signed.

Lions now traded for LG Rob Sims from Seattle. I updated my depth chart to reflect it.

Decent offseason so far IMO....

Lions traded Ernie Sims to the Eagles and got Tony Scheffler from the Broncos in return.

I really like the moves so far. Mayhew got his receiving TE and has been active in gettign rid of the players that don't fit the team. I can't wait to see how he builds the defense, hopefully starting with Suh @ #2.