LIONS SECONDARY PURGE CONTINUES

The Lions have continued to purge their secondary with today's release of DB's Kalvin Pearson and Dewayne White.  Both 7 year pros came to Detroit from Tampa in 2007 during the Millen/Marinelli regime.  Remember M&M?  Remember the "Tampa Two"? 

Neither player was a real factor during their stay in Detroit.  It got me thinking about all of the moves that the Lions have made thus far to address the most pourous secondary in the league.

The DB's on the 2009 roster who had regular season game stats were:

Louis Delmas          William James          Phillip Buchannon         Marvin White             

Anthony Henry       Marquand Manual     Kevin Hobbs                Eric King

Kalvin Pearson        DeAngelo Smith       Demarcus Faggins        Marcus McCauley

Jack Williams          Ko Simpson

Note:  Daniel Bullocks was on IR for the season.  Ko Simpson was also on IR for much of the season.

The Lions roster, updated on Lions.com today, no longer has William James, Phillip Buchannon, Anthony Henry, Kevin Hobbs, Kalvin Pearson, Demarcus Faggins, Dewayne White, or Marcus McCauley.

The Lions have made some offseason acquisions:  Chris Houston, Jonathon Wade, and Dante Wesley.  If one of these DB's steps up it would be a real benefit.

It appears to be addition by subtraction for the Lions secondary this year.  The draft, and the free agent crop of DB's in 2010 is very deep.  The Lions should have little trouble fleshing out the DB corps.  They have met with Adam Jones and Lito Sheppard as preamble moves.

Coach Jim Schwartz reminds us that the DB's have the highest turnover due to injury.  While DB's have improved their overall athletic abilities, they have not, as a group, increased in size.  The punishment takes a toll.

In the final analysis, the Lions need two starting quality DB's prior to the opening of training camp.  Even with other defensive upgrades, the Lions cannot afford another year where mediocre CB's are left on an island, nor can they put the load on Delmas that he had last year.