Lions lose again, get #2 pick in 2010 draft

Another disappointing season is finally over.  The Lions were beaten by the Bears this afternoon, mostly in the 2nd half, which was the norm for the entire season.  I’m not doing a recap as it was depressing enough the first time.  With that loss and a loss by the St. Louis Rams, the Lions will end up with the 2nd pick in the 2010 NFL draft.

Who will be that player?  Many Lions faithful hope the Rams pick a quarterback at #1 and leave Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh for the Lions.  Time will tell.  Free agency comes first and that could change a lot with an uncapped 2010 season.

There were some bright spots this year, most notably the 2009 draft class.  Matthew Stafford has shown himself to be the future face of the franchise and a team leader, both on and off the field.  TE Brandon Pettigew was coming along nicely before his season ending injury and should be a great TE for the Lions.  Safety Louis Delmas was a stud and the only player that could actually perform in the Lions extremely poor secondary.

Linebacker DeAndre Levy started 9 games this season and look fantastic though he did occasionally make some rookie mistakes.  Sammie Lee Hill performed well at DT and if he can keep it up will be a nice bonus for the Lions.

RB Aaron Brown showed flashes of greatness at times but made a lot of mistakes.  he should be back next year, especially with the injury to RB Kevin Smith.

One of my favorite players and all around heat seeking missile, Zack Follett, played well on special teams and should be back next season.

WR Derrick Williams played poorly at WR and also in the return game.  I don’t expect him to be on the team next season.

I’m not sure what will happen for back-ups for Stafford next year.  Stanton still has a year left on his contract and Ramsey may be an ok fill-in.  As long as Culpepper is gone, I don’t care.

A lot of us Lions faithful were drinking the kool-aid heavily in the pre-season and were hoping for a better performance from this team.  That definitely didn’t happen.  I’m pleased with the coaching staff except for ST coach Stan Kwan, who should be gone as soon as possible.  Jim Schwartz has fire and determination and I believe is what the Lions need heading into the future.  Coach Cunningham did not have the talent needed for a good defense this year but hopefully that changes this offseason.

This will be an interesting time leading up to the combine and 2010 draft.  This is looking to be an uncapped season and will screw over many players who will become restricted instead of unrestricted free agents.  I just hope that they put in a rookie salary cap in the next contract.  With the bizarre costs of signing a top draft pick, it doesn’t help those teams that are drafting high because they don’t have a lot of money left over to get other good players.  Something needs to be done in the next contract as parity in the NFL is slowly disappearing.

I’ll start up a series of scouting reports in the next few weeks and talk about where the lions are heading and what I think they need to do to win.

Happy New Year and, hopefully, a new start to the Detroit Lions.