Brian Damage
12-19-2009, 12:47 AM
Head coach Jim Schwartz was livid after the Week 14 blowout loss to the Ravens, saying that the team had to “take a stand” in order to get itself out of a horrible rut that began well before he ever got to town. But Detroit-area fans and media were shocked when the Lions did not cut three or four players the Monday following the game, before reality set in. Whom were they going to cut? What players could the Lions have benched to make a statement?
True, it was the low point of the season after losing 48-3, and there are some elements of the team that clearly have gone backward. But the “accountability” that Schwartz preached throughout his Monday press conference, he says, goes beyond sending messages to players through benchings, players cut and signed, and so on.
No more clearly was it made than through Schwartz’s assessment of his own team’s roster.
“There is a significant portion of our roster that’s on our roster because they were castoffs from other teams,” Schwartz said. “There were teams that didn’t want them or let them go, or stuff like that, and we need to make sure, or the players need to make sure, that they’re not in the same position this year with us.”
The Lions have spent a significant portion of the past year using its high waiver-claim position to add other teams’ castoffs, and it has improved a spot or two on the roster, which is about as good an effort as the team could have expected. They have sifted through the trash long enough, though, and the realization about the Matt Millen regime — that the team has one drafted player from 2002-06, Ernie Sims(notes), still on the roster — leaving the cupboard bare is no more evident than now.
This typically is the time of year where bad Lions teams have given experience to younger players who are evaluated for next year. But Schwartz said the goal is to win. Several rookies, second- and third-year players have played a good deal this season, but what Schwartz is saying is that if players have not been good enough to crack the lineup until now, the fact that the team is 2-11 will not grant them magical amnesty in the final few games.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=pfw-20091217_schwartz_lions_simply_dont_have_enough_talent&prov=pfw&type=lgns
True, it was the low point of the season after losing 48-3, and there are some elements of the team that clearly have gone backward. But the “accountability” that Schwartz preached throughout his Monday press conference, he says, goes beyond sending messages to players through benchings, players cut and signed, and so on.
No more clearly was it made than through Schwartz’s assessment of his own team’s roster.
“There is a significant portion of our roster that’s on our roster because they were castoffs from other teams,” Schwartz said. “There were teams that didn’t want them or let them go, or stuff like that, and we need to make sure, or the players need to make sure, that they’re not in the same position this year with us.”
The Lions have spent a significant portion of the past year using its high waiver-claim position to add other teams’ castoffs, and it has improved a spot or two on the roster, which is about as good an effort as the team could have expected. They have sifted through the trash long enough, though, and the realization about the Matt Millen regime — that the team has one drafted player from 2002-06, Ernie Sims(notes), still on the roster — leaving the cupboard bare is no more evident than now.
This typically is the time of year where bad Lions teams have given experience to younger players who are evaluated for next year. But Schwartz said the goal is to win. Several rookies, second- and third-year players have played a good deal this season, but what Schwartz is saying is that if players have not been good enough to crack the lineup until now, the fact that the team is 2-11 will not grant them magical amnesty in the final few games.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=pfw-20091217_schwartz_lions_simply_dont_have_enough_talent&prov=pfw&type=lgns