Detroit Lions Should Be "Most Improved" NFL Team In 2010

Imagine being a devout Detroit Lions fan during the early summer of 2008.  Hope bounds eternal on an improvement over the 2007 season, when the Lions had their best win total (7-9 and 3rd in the NFC North) since the 2000 season (9-7 and 3rd in the NFC North).  The fans are hyped and expecting great acts of daring do from the #2 overall selection in the 2007 NFL Entry Draft, former Georgia Tech star wide receiver Calvin Johnson.

As the summer moves on, August comes, and with it, an undefeated pre-season mark of 4-0 by the Detroit Lions.  Lions fans are stoked, as they know big doin’s are in the works.  Big doin’s for sure:  OwenXVI Champions.

“Do you believe in now?”  (Don’t answer that.)  “In Rod We Trust!”  Ummm, yeah.

On one of the most robust Detroit Lions forums known to the Internet (thanks for your creation, Al Gore) can be found at http://www.mlive.com/lions .  For the past 13 years I’ve participated in one form or another, but regardless my level of participation, one thing about Lions fandom rings true:  passionate, die-hard, blue-collar fans will never give up hope that someday even the Lions will reach and win the Super Bowl.  Do Lions fans not have as much faith as found in the mustard seed?  (What’s in the mustard down NOLA way?  Congrats Saints fans.)

As fate would have it, the 2008 Detroit Lions became a national laughing stock by finishing 0-16, earning the dubious distinction of being crowned “OwenXVI Champions”.  Heads rolled.  Enter the men responsible for raising the NFL’s “Titanic”:  Martin Mayhew, Tom Lewand, Jim Schwartz, Scott Linehan, and Gunther Cunningham.  “The ‘D’ Team”.  (Sorry, B.A., had to go there.  Nice chains.  Nice haircut.  I pity the fool too.)

After churning more than half of their roster heading into the 2009 season, and with new leadership guiding the organization from the top down, the Lions were able to manage two victories (Washington and Cleveland) during the 2009 campaign.  The Lions win over storied rival Cleveland (see 1950’s rivalry) was an unimaginable tale from which the hope of a promising new gunslinger emerged:  QB Matthew Stafford, destroyer of “the curse of Bobby Layne”.

I’m sure that going into the 2008 season, the Lions had expectations of 10-plus wins and a trip to the playoffs.  Going from a 7-9 team to a playoff team would certainly have met the criterion for improvement.  But what would Lions fans consider “improvement” following the Lions two-win 2009 season?

Perhaps it would be best to visit “improvement” a little more in detail:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/improvement

After consulting several sources, I thought the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary captured the essence of “improvement” most accurately:

The act of improving; advancement or growth; promotion in desirable qualities; progress toward what is better; melioration; as, the improvement of the mind, of land, roads, etc.

The act of making profitable use or application of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; a turning to good account; practical application, as of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse.

The state of being improved; betterment; advance; also, that which is improved; as, the new edition is an improvement on the old.

Increase; growth; progress; advance.

In each of the four instances provided by Webster’s, I see the Lions making strides of improvement, and I’m sure Lions fans can see it as well.  The front office has worked diligently to churn the roster and acquire more talented players.  The principle and theory behind what Schwartz and his staff are trying to implement becomes clearer day-by-day and will eventually permeate through the players and translate into more wins.  I see a new edition that is going to be an improvement over the old.  I see increase, growth, progress, and advancement, albeit in incremental stages.  I’m just saying that all witnessed improvements don’t always translate to victories, but such continued practices will create synergy and the ensuing wins.

Now, as it relates to the NFL, where “winning is everything”, can we or should we dare to tout improvement pursuant to the absence of victories in the “win column”?  I’m thinking about it in this way:  bringing strawberries to harvest.  WHAT?  Yes.  Strawberries.

When you plant strawberry seeds, you go into that knowing there will be no fruit that year; rather, you are planting for the harvest of a future crop.  Well, what if that first crop didn’t fare very well, and you had to replant, once again, half of your crop, because last season, half of the plants bore no fruit?  Enter the Detroit “Strawberry” Lions.  (You know that mane with just a tint of strawberry in it?  Zach “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego” Follett knows the deal.)  Fortunately, Martin Mayhew is a pretty decent gardener thus far, and has had no trouble in identifying which weeds to pull, which to till under, and which to keep, fertilize, grow, and reap the harvest.  The amelioration of a garden recently sprayed with atrazine presents a particular level of difficulty.  Martin Mayhew is attacking the problem at flank speed.

As the 2010 Detroit Lions continue to sift and winnow through personnel, the fruit of their “improvement” may not have a dramatic effect on how many games they win this season.  The Lions will have zero continuity in the defensive backfield, save the presence of former WMU standout Louis Delmas.  The linebacker corps has a question mark at OLB.  The defensive line will feature a completely new group who has never played together before as a unit.  The talent and caliber of the club appears much improved on paper; yet a “paper Lion” wins no battles.  The Lions must face dangerous opponents in the NFC North, NFC East, and AFC East, opponents who will help the Lions to “test their mettle” and see how they compete against the league’s elite.  Chemistry, continuity, and cohesion are not yet on the Lions’ side.  A work in progress, yes, but a finely-tuned machine, not as of the now.

Offensively, the Lions have added some key elements that should help to improve both the running and the passing game.  The offense in the NFL continues to change, and creating physical mismatches is at the heart of it all.  Clearly, the addition of Jahvid Best gives the Lions true game-breaking speed at a position of need.  The flip side is that Lions fans are unlikely to see Jahvid “pound the rock”, as it would seem his touches will be spaced and situational.  Having a stable of capable and competent NFL-caliber backs is a must have in today’s NFL (see the NY Giants version of “Earth, Wind, and Fire”).  It is Best’s legitimate threat to take it all the way any time he touches the ball that may finally help to create a more-open Calvin Johnson.  Coach Schwartz said to the Lions fan base, “If you want our passing game to improve, cheer for our running game to get better.”  There it is.

Despite the final regular season record posted by the 2010 Detroit Lions, they will at least have added more pieces to the foundation going forward into the 2011 season and beyond.  To the extent that it took Payton Manning eight years to win the Super Bowl, I expect that the Stafford-led Lions will take time to congeal as well.  Let’s give Matthew and his draft class the chance to meet the “sophomore slump” challenge and then look forward to a 2011 team that will be entering their third year under the Schwartz regime.

I promise a far less moribund prediction for the 2011 Lions.