Motown Making Noise Early In Free Agency

It looks like second year Lions head coach Jim Schwartz is going to have some new toys to play with in 2010.

Early Friday morning at the start of Free Agency, the Lions struck fast by signing WR Nate Burleson (formerly of the Seattle Seahawks) and inked the speedy wide out to a 5 year 25 million dollar contract. Burleson has had an up and down career and will be two years removed from knee surgery at the start of next season. However, he did manage to put up respectable numbers last year in Seattle (63-812yds-4td's) while playing for a pitiful Seahawks team. Burleson is a definite upgrade playing opposite Calvin "Megatron" Johnson over Bryant Johnson from 2009.

The Lions then traded for DT Corey Williams (Browns) for what has been reported as a 5th or 6th round pick in this years draft. Williams is a 7 year veteran out of Arkansas State and is considered to be a pass rushing specialist. Williams brings a big body to the interior of the Lions defensive line at 6'4" 320 pounds and 21.5 career sacks at the tackle position.Detroit will have to acquire Williams' 6 million dollar contract for next season as well.

Detroit wasn't finished there. Twitter accounts this morning reported that head coach Jim Schwartz was at Titans DE Kyle Vanden Bosch's house shortly after free agency started after midnight Friday. Minutes ago, Adam Schefter reported that KVB has signed a 4 year 26 million dollar deal with the Lions.Vanden Bosch is coming off of two year's of dealing with some nagging injuries, but his most productive years as a defensive end came while playing alongside former teammate, Albert Haynesworth, now with the Washington Redskins.

The signing of Williams and KVB now creates an interesting scenario for the Lions, which hold the second overall pick in the first round of the upcoming draft. Do they take one of the top DT's available, in Ndamukong Suh or Gerald McCoy, or do they move towards shoring up a porous offensive line and take OT Russell Okung to protect Matthew Stafford. Either way, these moves today helped the Lions improve.

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