Changes Made In Lions' Secondary
Lions coach Jim Schwartz, perhaps trying to stamp out a fire before it sparks, huddled his team at midfield early in practice on Thursday. He wouldn't share his words, but the gist of his message was clear: Every player on the roster matters and you have to practice accordingly and be ready for when your name is called.
"Everyone on our 53-man roster has a role on this team and everybody who is going to be on our active 46 will have a role in the game," he said, in response to a different roster question. "We expect a lot from everybody on this roster and we have a lot of confidence in everybody on this roster and we're going to need all of them over the course of the season."
The talk wasn't pointed at cornerback Brandon McDonald, but it could have been. Before practice, McDonald had posted his displeasure over losing his starting nickel cornerback spot on his Twitter account.
"Sick of being played," he wrote. "But gotta grind n eventually my hard work will be appreciated."
McDonald held the nickel role for the first three weeks of preseason. Starting right cornerback Eric Wright moved into that role before the final exhibition game.
Wright will remain the starting corner in the team's base defense, but Aaron Berry has been inserted into the cornerback spot in the nickel package.
"I thought I had a pretty solid preseason and camp," McDonald said. "Not to get too worked up on it, but obviously they feel someone else can fill that role better. I can't control that. All I can do is keep getting better and whatever role I have on this team, that's what I have to do."
Wright played some nickel in Cleveland last season, but only after he lost his starting cornerback spot.
"The main thing is just changing your mentality," Wright said. "It's one thing when you are strictly a nickel back and just coming off the sidelines on third down. It's different when you are playing first and second down on the outside and then all of a sudden you slide inside and play. You have a number of different route combinations and you get different types of receivers.
"The main challenge is being able to turn your cornerback back brain off and immediately turn your nickel brain on."
Wright said he has gotten enough reps now to where he's comfortable.
The Lions figure to use their nickel packages prominently against a Tampa Bay team Sunday that features a strong, mobile quarterback in Josh Freeman and a diverse passing game that includes tight end Kellen Winslow who can be a tough cover for any linebacker.
The linebacker rotation in the nickel package remains in flux, as well. In practice Thursday, DeAndre Levy and Bobby Carpenter ran with the first nickel package. Stephen Tulloch and Justin Durant, the starting middle and outside linebackers, were off the field.
The Lions have tried all combinations of linebackers in the nickel.
--If you had to boil the 2011 season down to one sentence for the Lions it might go something like this: As long as quarterback Matthew Stafford stays healthy, the Lions have a legitimate chance to make the playoffs.
It really is as simple as that.
The entire offense is built to complement his powerful and accurate arm as well as his beyond-his-years command of the offense. When he's on the field, the Lions are usually in a position to win.
In the three games he played last season before two shoulder injuries knocked him out, the Lions won one and were ahead in the other two when he got hurt.
"The quarterback is in his third year," said center Dominic Raiola. "I think that's the biggest thing we've got going for us. What people are forgetting, yeah, he's older and smarter, but he's hungry. He really feels that. He wants to put this city on his back and win and he wants to do it for a lot of people -- for the guys in this locker room, for the organization, for the fans, and he wants to validate their reasons for drafting him first.
"He feels that responsibility. It's not pressure. He just really wants to be good."
After missing more games (19) than he's played (13) his first two seasons, Stafford has come back physically stronger from his offseason shoulder surgery and his command of the offense has never been more complete.
"I don't think the injury humbled him, I think it (ticked) him off," Raiola said. "I don't think anybody's happy being injured, but in his case, being the first pick of the draft, it (ticked) him off watching. We all know his talent and his smarts. But he's working extremely hard -- not that he didn't before -- and he's hungry, extra hungry."
He is the unquestioned leader of the offense.
"Matt's having more fun, but personally, I think he's become so much more of a leader," said wide receiver Nate Burleson. "He's talking a lot more, taking more control. In his ability to make throws in tight spaces, he's one of the best in the league. A prime example was the touchdown I had (in the preseason against the Patriots). I ran the route not thinking he's gonna throw it, and he zipped it right behind the defensive back's neck. There's not a lot of quarterbacks that can make that throw physically, or have enough guts to take that chance."
Stafford's improved health and mood has generated a renewed energy on this offense. Once Stafford took a couple of hits in the exhibition season and sprung back up, the entire organization seemed to sigh in relief.
"When that (New England) linebacker hit him in the chest, I said, 'Hey, you all right?'" Raiola said. "He said, 'Great, I've been wanting to feel that all preseason!'
"Joking aside, he's been great. He knows it all, and I'm not saying he acts that way - he really does know it all. He knows what's going on, he's super attentive, he's everything you want in a franchise quarterback."
Last season, after the team had lost 10 of its first 12 games, Schwartz closed a press conference by saying, "There are great things ahead for this football team." Those great things were predicated on having a healthy Stafford at quarterback.
Stafford's mastery of the offense and his overall efficiency this preseason, has lent a belated gravity to Schwartz's proclamation.
SERIES HISTORY
54th regular-season meeting. Lions lead the series, 28-25, and are coming off an improbable 23-20 overtime win in Tampa last season. The win snapped the Lions' 26-game road losing streak and helped knock the Bucs, who finished 10-6, out of the playoffs. The Lions went on to win their final four games of the regular season. The teams, former divisional foes in the old NFC Central, have met once in the playoffs -- 1997 with the Bucs winning 20-10.
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