Roster Prediction / Cuts Debate

[TSE]

Oh don't worry, I'm sure Mayhew and Linehan and company have it all figured out. Our RB crew and play will be near perfect and super stellar this year.

[ajaX82]

Cut some guys today, among them Rayner and Mike Bell. I'd guess Harrison is the RB3 now and obviously we are giving Hanson at least one more year.

[kellmellus50]

The Lions released Rayner and running back Mike Bell, receivers Demario Ballard and Marcus Harris, defensive back Michael Johnson, defensive tackle Montavious Stanley and linebacker Dejuan Fulhum today, and waived-injured tight end Richard Dickson.

[TSE]

MJ's release means I can take Wendling off the bubble for now. No other changes to do for now. Might be a good idea to try and stash Mixon for the PS too so that we can consider keeping the vet Ekejiuba. Or Berry for Anthony Madison, whichever we think is less likely to get scooped up.

And I can't see Hanson not being the kicker next year too. He'll be solid for certain there, and possibly even a 3rd season to go. No reason to consider a K in next year's draft unless there was some once in a decade type of guy.

[TSE]

Lions cut Jerome Felton. I was surprised by this considering he only touched the ball 3 times and had 2 runs for a 10 yard average and a 17 yard reception, he looked strong, fast and hungry to me on the limited times we saw him. I think it sounds like they are dead set in keeping Maurice Morris, but for now I'm not going to put him on my list unless somebody sells me on a case for keeping him, I don't see the value in that play. If we can trade him then we should just do that, if he's not valuable enough to trade then he's not valuable enough to keep. So for now I'm going to use the bonus roster spot to simply protect our last draft pick Culbreath. Hilliard is moved to Guard, which is what the Lions look like they might be doing anyhow. I would have considered Matt Clapp since he's the last FB left, but he seemingly presents no offensive value and I have no way to accurately judge his blocking skills at this point. With a PS opening I put Zac Robinson there.

List updated for now, but we have 1 more cut to make today from what I hear, but it's hard to know what our official roster is since our team doesn't share that with the public. I still don't know if Cody Brown is on the team since he's still not listed on the roster.

[kellmellus50]

Felton played sparingly in his first three seasons as a Lion, rushing for just 126 yards on 38 carries. His role diminished even further this preseason, as the Lions began using tight end Will Heller more as a fullback.

i also agree and am also suprise they cut him instead of matt clapp

http://www.freep.com/article/20110830/S ... ext|Sports

[TSE]

Sucks that we couldn't find some team that could use the combo of Rayner and Felton for a low draft pick, but more importantly what other players will we cut that other teams would rather have over their own players? To me wasting decent players and prospects is bad business. If you can't get something for Felton then it's better to trade the next best guy, Heller maybe, and then keep the weaker player, but to let drafted players go out for nothing is a terrible exit strategy and in volume and in the long-term that's how we get short changed from our max potential. We have to think things out better than this. Such a waste of 2 usable players.

Oh and in case anybody was wondering, we don't have to cut anybody else today cause Leshoure's status on the IR is now official, and that counts for the 1 spot that other reports claimed we still needed to trim. I figured I'd tell you guys that since the Lions don't obviously care about keeping their fans informed about interesting information that we give a crap about.

[kellmellus50]

Sucks that we couldn't find some team that could use the combo of Rayner and Felton for a low draft pick, but more importantly what other players will we cut that other teams would rather have over their own players? To me wasting decent players and prospects is bad business. If you can't get something for Felton then it's better to trade the next best guy, Heller maybe, and then keep the weaker player, but to let drafted players go out for nothing is a terrible exit strategy and in volume and in the long-term that's how we get short changed from our max potential. We have to think things out better than this. Such a waste of 2 usable players.

Oh and in case anybody was wondering, we don't have to cut anybody else today cause Leshoure's status on the IR is now official, and that counts for the 1 spot that other reports claimed we still needed to trim. I figured I'd tell you guys that since the Lions don't obviously care about keeping their fans informed about interesting information that we give a crap about.

TSE were both are not going to be happy with their cuts and choices as we can see there is no logic to them.Your right they could have got a late pick if they would only have shopped them.

Matt Clapp bio :http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/clapp_matt00.html
this guy will be cut too.

[TSE]

Well the bright side is we should at least get to see Clapp play some in this next game, that could be fun!

[kellmellus50]

Schwartz says release of Felton was based on an evolving offense,"Our fullback position has been de-emphasize

Can the lions not really use a fullback and go with just quickbacks ?

http://www.detroitlions.com/news/articl ... 4688ed5a60

[TSE]

Sure, you don't need a FB. Heck you can play without any TEs too. There are offensive schemes that can be designed in absence of those 2 positions. If you take away the average of 4-5 guys that take up the FB/TE position, well you can basically call that 4-5 of your inactive spots. And if you then have 4-5 extra positions that have 1 more guy active, then you can spell your energies for everybody in all of those positional groups and pickup massive depth, insurance, and quality usage out of ALL of those players over the course of a game. That's a MASSIVE bonus, and can be worth more than having a traditional roster that does have FBs and TEs on it. That's obviously not what they are doing here cause they still have the TE group, but it nevertheless is one possibility, and with just having a non-existent FB group, you have 1/4 of that dynamic in effect. It can totally be beneficial so long as the coaches plan appropriately and harness the right advantage. If we end up keeping 4 TEs though, then that's not the right way to play it, so I'm hoping to god they don't keep 4 stinkin' TEs, or something equally as bad such as 4 RBs or 4 QBs.

[kellmellus50]

The Lions are likely looking at keeping the following running backs: Jahvid Best, Maurice Morris, Aaron Brown and Jerome Harrison.
they also have logan if needed.
http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles ... 978594.txt

[Piston Pete]

Looks like we will keep 10 RB's and WR's combined:

Best, Morris, Harrison, Brown, Logan, CJ, Nate, Titus, Stovall, Davis.

Most interesting cuts might come from LBer. Tulloch, Durant, and Levy are givens. Then we have a handful of others fighting for the remaining 3-4 spots.

[TSE]

Derrick Williams had a stellar ST tackle in the last game and he's not going to get cut. Unless he blows it tonight which could happen. It's a big day for him, he gets to decide if he's on the team or not.

[ajaX82]

I think Williams is probably a gones myself. Look at WR: CJ, Nate and Titus are locks. Stovall has played his way on and Davis is a good ST player. I'm not even counting Logan either, who I guess you could lump in as a RB. Thats 5 and I doubt we keep 6

[chrbal]

Derrick is done as a Lion. The Lions have better Special Team players and better receivers. 1 tackle isn't going to make up for the lack of production hes shown.

[TSE]

Well the 4 locks are obviously CJ/Burleson/Titus/Stovall, other than that we don't have any WR on the team that has shown quality production, or consistent ST play. So that argument doesn't make sense to me to cut him for any of our other WRs. That only makes sense if he loses his job to somebody else on the waiver wire. DW has shown the most WR related production of anybody we have presently, and he has good speed and agility to use on ST and has already shown at least something there. He has only 1 tackle, but it was a deep pinning fantastic tackle, plus that's 1 more than the combination of Rashied David, Tim Toone, and Nate Hughes. Those guys are atrocious at ST, especially Davis, he was completely ineffective and had lots of tries. I don't know what the stats are but he looked like he was given more opportunities than the rest to try and help out in the department.

[TSE]

Not really much to change considering the cuts will be here soon and we'll know what our team looks like shortly, but I wouldn't be surprised if Wendling gets cut in favor of Aaron Francisco who stood out a little in the last game, or if we keep an extra player for offensive depth in his place instead.

All I care about is hoping for some trades. I would like to see one player from every positional group traded, and then to use our depth or waiver wire to fill out those final spots. If nobody will pay us for our 3rd stringers that's fine, it just means we should look at selling some 2nd or 1st stringers.

[kellmellus50]

cut projections for today

http://www.freep.com/article/20110903/S ... ext|Sports

[ajaX82]

cuts today so far:

Robert Callaway, Nate Hughes, Quinn Pitcock, Keyunta Dawson, Kirk Chambers, Paul Pratt, Cobrani Mixon