Detroit Lions: Decisions Galore Heading Into The Season

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Every team is evaluating their talent and working on things that became evident in the first two preseason games, but some teams are really hard at work, with big decisions looming. 

One of those teams is the Detroit Lions.

The Lions will be a team that all opponents will circle on their schedule, but not in the typical sense of wanting to focus on them. 

They will be chalking them up as an easy win. 

The Lions' players and staff are aware of this stigma, created over the past decade of futility and capped by last season's 0-for-16 effort. It is their job collectively to make improvements on last season, setting themselves up for a possible playoff run next season.

Don't get me wrong, every team wants to make the playoffs every year, but that cannot be a realistic goal coming off of an 0-16 season.  Everyone associated with the franchise (although they might not admit it) would be absolutely excited if they were able to get seven or eight wins this season.

While many fans are pessimistic and expecting the same old Lions, there does appear to be at least a glimmer of hope created by the staff. 

General Manager Martin Mayhew made numerous changes to shake up a terrible roster. And at least on the surface, he appears to have improved both the offensive and defensive units.

Gone from last year's team are at least 11 starters.

Offense

On offense, they project to go into the season with the following two-deep depth chart: (New players in bold)

QB: D. Culpepper, M. Stafford

RB: K. Smith, M. Morris

FB: T. Smith, J. Felton

WR: C. Johnson, D. Northcutt

WR: B. Johnson, D. Williams

TE: B. Pettigrew, W. Heller

LT: J. Backus, E. Salaam

LG: D. Loper, T. Metcalf

C: D. Raiola, D. Gandy

RG: S. Peterman, M. Ramirez

RT: G. Cherilus, J. Jansen

Defense

On defense, they project to go into the season with the following two-deep depth chart: (New players in bold, rotation players in parentheses)

DE: D. White, J. Hunter

DT: G. Jackson, S. Lee Hill (Landon Cohen)

DT: S. Smith, C. Darby (Andre Fluellen)

DE: C. Avril, I. Alama-Francis

OLB: J. Peterson, J. Dizon

MLB: L. Foote, D. Levy

OLB: E. Sims, Z. Follett

CB: P. Buchanon, E. King

CB: A. Henry, K. Smith

FS: L. Delmas, M. Manuel

SS: K. Pearson, S. Schwiegert

Preseason Games 1 and 2

For the Lions, the first preseason game wasn't a disappointment aside from a good number of their starters missing the game due to injury.  They played adequately on defense against the first team offense of the Falcons.

But they struggled with tackling and allowed some big plays.

On offense, all three quarterbacks looked pretty good. Stafford threw a bad INT but made up for it with a beautiful TD pass later on. Culpepper and Stanton were solid.

Rookie running back Aaron Brown, wowed the crowd with two long touchdowns—one rushing and one off of a screen pass. He put his game-changing speed on display for all to see and was certainly a bright spot.

The team was able to win the game on a field goal as time expired and a celebration ensued.

Now, this was just preseason and therefore they were clowned by the Falcons for celebrating "like they just won the Super Bowl," but it had to feel good for those guys to win something. 

Momentum seemed pretty good going into the second preseason game, but they came out and laid an egg, losing 27-10 to the Cleveland Browns. 

Stafford struggled mightily and threw another bad INT, indicative of his inability to read defenses and make plays at this stage of his development. It's clear he needs more time and seasoning.

Culpepper didn't dazzle either, but was markedly better than Stafford and moved the offense well. Stanton played solid again late in the game.

The offense as a whole didn't do much and the defense failed to make an impact, sending the team into the third preseason game with more questions than answers.

The Rest of Preseason

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?