ding ding ding! we have a winner!
here is my bottom line report card for mayhew:
we have a ton of free agents and not much spending room
we need to sign, resign or draft 8 new starters on defense
were 4-12
what do we CURRENTLY have to show for all the picks weve traded the last 3 years?....whitehead, thomas, sims, best and his mush brain, and an overpriced corey williams most people dont even want on the team.
Did he even sign a free agent last year?
His special teams sucks cause we have no depth cause we never draft after round 4 anymore and when we do pick we pick guys like Hogue that are cut the following year.
)We'll get money to sign the guys we want with a KVB cut, Peterman cut, Stafford extension and Dom/Burleson pay cuts.
2)We will re-sign Houston and Delmas and one starting OLB back, we have Tulloch, both DTs set and we have Bentley/Bartell/Green to fight for the other CB spot. Draft a stud DE and safety. Palmer/Whithead/Lewis can do just as as well as Levy in fact Palmer did last year in 2 wins. The other DE spot is the big issue with Avril overvaluing himself. So they need 3 new defensive starters really, 2 which can come in Round 1/2(De/Safety). We'll see what other DE we get to pair with Young and the rookie top 5 pick and Ronnel Lewis.
3) 4-12 sucked but were are not that bad of a team especially just watching the many many close games. Stafford rebound year like 2011 could fix it alone. We're more of a .500 team really right now based on recent trends. Give me a stud DE, safety, Houston, Delmas back and Detroit can compete for a playoff spot. Stafford is a huge key to that and flipping the turnover differential.
4) Corey Williams was hurt this year and good player in 2010 and 2011. The few games he did play he played well in 2010. Worth the 5th round pick in 2010, no doubt about it. And Mayhew drafted Fairley for the future.
5) Mayhew spent the money last year on Avril, Tulloch, Shaun Hill, Jeff Backus and Jacob Lacey. All free agents. All were worth re-signing at the time and they did a great job to get everybody back they wanted with a tight cap.
6) Logan sucked but the special teams coverage was really good after the bye. Lewis/Whitehead/Palmer/Wendling can all cover on special teams and will get better in year 2. Depth gets rocked when both starting safeties go down at the same time and the 3rd best one(Carey) gets hurt in TC. Same with 2nd/3rd CBs, plus Berry's antics after the draft and your rookie 5th round CB all hurt most of the year. Nobody has enough depth to cover almost everyone getting hurt especially if almost the entire secondary and WR crew gets hurt. Green did a solid job filling in and Bartell had one good game. Florence was a problem after he came back from his stint on IR.
Lions had great depth at DT, tackle, QB, Palmer filled in well for Levy and there was good depth at CB (just a ridiculous number of injuries). Safety no depth but the top 3 safeties got hurt early in the year. Round 2 safety fixes all of that along with Delmas/Carey back healthy. And the Lions didn't give away picks. Many times they gained picks with trade downs. See Jonte Green, see 2009 trade down which gave us a 4th for SLH. At worst they gained a good veteran player like Sims, Houston, Lawrence Jackson, Williams and Hill. And all of those guys were very helpful in 2010 and 2011 and even 2012. This theory you have about the Lions just giving away picks is false and pure stupidity.
