Bunting and McShay have Lions selecting a guard in latest mock drafts

National Football Post draft analyst Wes Bunting and ESPN’s Todd McShay have both released their second NFL mock draft’s and each has the Lions selecting Georgia guard Cordy Glenn with the 23^rd pick in April’s NFL Draft.

“The Lions need to improve both their tackle and guard spots on the offensive line and Glenn has the talent to play either spot,” Bunting wrote.

“He’s a gifted athlete for his size with natural movement skills and if he can ever put it all together he has the skill set to play at a high level in the NFL.

McShay on Glenn:

“There is no cornerback or linebacker available who is worth this pick, so it might be an opportunity for the Lions to trade back with at team looking to trade up and get a quarterback like Ryan Tannehill (Texas A&M) or Brock Osweiler (Arizona State),” McShay wrote.

“If not, Glenn is a solid pick. He has the size and power to thrive at guard in the NFL and could develop into a solid right tackle at some point. He held up well against top pass-rushers at the Senior Bowl but is still a work in progress at that position.”

The Lions have three players (T Jeff Backus, C Dominic Raiola and G Stephen Peterman) who are 30 and older and general manager Martin Mayhew said after the season it’s an issue the team needs to address.

Bunting and McShay feel the same way, apparently.

Mock drafts can’t be taken too seriously before the combine, individual workouts and interviews have even been conducted, but they get fans talking, and that’s fun.

Stafford and Raiola named to USA TODAY All-Joe Team

Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford isn’t an All-Pro, but he can be proud of the fact that he’s an All-Joe.

Stafford was named to the USA TODAY All-Joe Team on Friday.

The All-Joe team was created in 1992 by longtime USA Today NFL writer Larry Weisman as a tribute to Joe Phillips, a 14-year defensive lineman who did yeoman’s work for the Chiefs that season. His effort in the trenches didn’t lead to much glory. USA Today has honored the unsung Joes of the NFL ever since. Only players who have never been named to the Pro Bowl during their careers are eligible.

That may mean this turns out to be Stafford’s one-and-only nomination.

“The last time the All-Joe team selected a player who passed for more than 5,000 yards and 40 TDs was never,” the paper wrote of Stafford. “Despite posting such numbers and leading Detroit into postseason for the first time this century, Stafford could not snap the Lions’ 40-year streak of failing to send a quarterback to the Pro Bowl. But he’ll fix that soon enough.”

Center Dominic Raiola, who played in his first playoffs this season after 11 years in the league, was also named to the team.

“Consider this a lifetime achievement award for a fiery team captain who endured so many losses in his first 10 seasons before enjoying his first postseason trip,” the paper wrote of Raiola.

Dominic Raiola voted Lions Offensive Lineman of the Year

For the seventh year in a row, center Dominic Raiola won the Eric Andolsek Top Offensive Lineman Award as voted on by his teammates.

Raiola has been a team captain since 2006 and the heart and sole of the offensive line.

He was drafted in the second round of the 2001 draft and has been a starter for the Lions since 2002. Over that span, he’s missed a grand total of four games due to injury.

“He’s the quarterback of the offensive line and the nucleus of it,” said offensive line coach George Yarno. “He makes all the calls and declarations. He allows us to do a lot more upfront than maybe some other lines that don’t have an experienced center.”

Raiola (6-1, 295) has been criticized for being undersized almost his entire career. But it has to say something that he’s survived five different coaching changes since 2001 and all of them kept him as their starting center.

He and quarterback Matthew Stafford have build a nice rapport over the last three seasons and Stafford has said many times how much of an asset Raiola’s experience has been to him.

“I think especially with a young quarterback it’s a great benefit,” Yarno said. “Quarterback has what we call right of first refusal, he can change what we’re doing at anytime if he sees something or wants us to block a certain way he can do that, but Dom will come up and make the first call and that probably helps Matt focus on the perimeter of the game. I think it’s very helpful for Matt. They have a really good working relationship, there is a lot of trust there, and that’s helpful for a young quarterback.”

It’s easy to trust the center if you’re Stafford. He was sacked only 36 times in 663 pass attempts. That’s only 5.2 percent of the time.

The top offensive lineman award is given in the memory of the Lions’ Eric Andolsek, who was an emerging young guard for the Lions when he was killed tragically in an off-season accident in 1992. Andolsek started every game from 1989-91 and was named to the USA Today’s All-Pro Team in 1991.

Backus has surgery on bicep; others on the mend, too

Lions starting left tackle Jeff Backus had surgery to repair a torn bicep muscle Monday.

Backus injured his arm trying to reach back at a defender in the fourth quarter of the Lions’ 45-28 loss to the Saints in the playoffs Saturday.

“He’s going to miss a significant portion of time,” Lions head coach Jim Schwartz confirmed Monday. “You always have guys that will have an ankle cleaned out or a shoulder cleaned out – stuff like that. Jeff was really the big one that came from this last game.”

Backus, 34, began training camp on the physically unable to perform list because of a torn pectoral muscle.

He overcame that injury and was able to maintain his consecutive-start streak, which has reached 176.

Backus didn’t start the season as well as the Lions would have hoped, maybe because of the late start, but he was consistent the second half of the season.

“I thought that he settled down and then I felt protected very well as the year went on and has consistently been one of our best run-blockers also,” Schwartz said.

“A little bit that gets lost with Jeff is that Jeff is a very good run-blocker; very good at getting up the linebackers and cutting guys off and things like that. So it’s not all just pass blocking.”

Backus will be a free agent this offseason and it’ll be interesting to see how the injury and his age affect his prospects. The Lions could re-sign him for a discount.

“People take Jeff for granted,” center Dominic Raiola said. “He has a tough job every week. He’s playing against the right defense end and they’re some of the highest paid guys on the field. He does a great job and I think people take that for granted.”

Rookie offensive tackle Johnny Culbreath also had surgery Monday. His was on an elbow, Schwartz confirmed.

“He had a procedure on his elbow – not that big a deal,” he said.

Linebacker Isaiah Ekejiuba will see a specialist on his injured shoulder Jan. 25 and will have surgery shortly thereafter. Ekejiuba was placed on injured-reserve after Week 3.

Small taste of playoffs isn’t enough for Backus and Raiola

Jeff Backus and Dominic Raiola have played 249 NFL games between them. Saturday was the first time either one of them had played in a playoff game.

After such a long wait to play a meaningful game in January, they were both hoping to experience a larger sample size than just one-and-done.

Being eliminated from the playoffs so quickly is a bitter pill to swallow for both of them.

“I am 34 years old,” Backus said. “It is a step, but I would rather mature during the process of making it through the playoffs instead of just making it one and done.

“I don’t think anybody expected tonight to be our last game of the season. We all had bigger goals I guess. I think everybody is extremely disappointed.”

That includes, Raiola, 33, who was drafted with Backus in 2001.

“It is hard to swallow right now,” he said. “We are in and now we are out.”

But Raiola doesn’t think this will be his last time in the playoffs.

“We will be back,” he said. “Hopefully we can do this at our place next year, but I don’t think anybody in this locker room is ready for this. It is just difficult right now.”

Not only were the Lions eliminated, but Backus said after the game that he tore the bicep in his right arm in the fourth quarter.

“Guy made an inside move and I went to go hook him with my arm and my bicep popped. It is pretty simple,” he said. “I knew right when it happened what happened. With the experience with my (pectoral), I knew what it felt like to tear a muscle and it was the exact same sensation.”

Backus missed half of training camp with a torn pectoral muscle.

It will be interesting to see if the Lions start to address the their age at left tackle and center in this year’s draft or through free agency.

Lions would like to put an end to one more nasty losing streak at Lambeau Field

Coach Jim Schwartz and the Lions can be proud of the fact that they’ve ended some rather nasty losing streaks over the last couple years.

There was the 19-game consecutive losing streak they ended in 2009.

There was the 26-game consecutive road losing streak they snapped in 2010.

Then there was the 19-game losing streak to division opponents that fell by the wayside last season.

But there’s still one streak that looms large over the franchise.

The Lions haven’t won in the state of Wisconsin since a 21-17 victory over the Packers in 1991.

“We’ve ended a lot of losing streaks and I think it’s important to us to knock this one out,” said Lions center Dominic Raiola.

The Lions have a chance to “knock it out” on Sunday when they close the regular season at Lambeau Field, needing a victory to secure the No. 5 seed in the NFC playoffs.

“Yeah we’ve snapped a lot of streaks over the last couple years and it will be a nice one to get off our resume, but you know, whether it’s the Green Bay Packers or whoever — it’s the next game on our schedule and that’s the most important thing,” coach Jim Schwartz said Thursday.

“It’s hard to hold Matt Stafford accountable for something that happened in 1992, 93, 94, 95, and so on. That doesn’t mean a whole lot, it’s more important what we’re doing this week, what we do in practice yesterday, today, tomorrow, and how we play on Sunday — not what happened 20 years ago. But it would be nice to get it off our resume so to speak.”

Lewand, Lions comment on sudden death of beat writer Tom Kowalski

Tom Kowalski, longtime Detroit Lions writer for Booth Newspapers and MLive.com, died this morning, according to his fiancee, Diane Wolan.

“The entire Lions organization, the Ford family, and me, personally, were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Tom Kowalski this morning,” said Detroit Lions Team President Tom Lewand. “Tom was a true professional, the consummate beat writer, somebody who brought a lot of tremendous information to our fans — even in times of disagreement; we always had the utmost respect for his professionalism.

“He will be sorely missed and our deepest sympathies go out to Diane and to his entire family. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of them.”

HEAD COACH JIM SCHWARTZ
“I’ll just say this about Tom,” said Head Coach Jim Schwartz. “The one thing he always tried to do was get it right. He knew football and he always wanted to get it right and we had a lot of respect for that.”

Schwartz lets the first question go unanswered in honor of Kowalski

DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR GUNTHER CUNNINGHAM
“It was tough hearing the news today about Tom because I felt like I lost a good friend and not just a writer,” said Defensive Coordinator Gunther Cunningham. “When he asked me questions, it was important to him to be right. Obviously, he always did his homework and that’s what I respected most about him. To me, he was an old-school writer. He was honest and fair.

“The way I look at him, he is all Detroit. People in this area that I met, they are all alike and he epitomized that. Our conversations were solid, and there was mutual respect for each other. Beyond football, we would also talk about life.

“I am sad that he is gone. God bless his family and friends.”

CENTER DOMINIC RAIOLA
“On behalf of the team, we consider him part of the family; we saw him every day,” said center Dominic Raiola. “I dealt with Tom every day; I’d see him out here. (It will) take a lot of time to get over this.

“In the end, Tom always had the best interest of everybody in that locker room. He always wanted to know more about why things happened on the field and he always did a good job of that. He was a good person; he was fun to be around. (I) had a lot more personal relationship with him, so that was some tough news to hear.”

KICKER JASON HANSON
“I have too many (memories),” said kicker Jason Hanson. “It is one of those things, just like with everybody, takes you by surprise. It kind of knocks the wind out of you. You don’t know what to say or think yet. It is just amazing. Of all the reporters, I think he was the one that got it right most of the time and really had the insight.

“Beyond that, regardless of any of that, he will be missed by all of us. And everyone in this locker room, their condolences and their prayers and their thoughts go to his family and friends. I am just at a loss of words. I don’t know what to think. We all are like ‘Is it true?’ We are devastated.”

QUARTERBACK MATTHEW STAFFORD
“Tom was a great guy,” said quarterback Matthew Stafford. “He was a big football guy; you could tell he knew football, he loved it. He was always a good guy in our locker room and we were blessed to have him around.

“As coach pointed out on the field, he said ‘You know, he always tried to get it right, which is something you respect from a reporter.’ He will definitely be missed.”

A collection of Tweets honoring Tom

Schwartz Announces 2010 Team Captains

Lions players voted on their team captains for the 2010 season and Head Coach Jim Schwartz announced the names following Monday’s practice.

Offensive team captains are QB Matthew Stafford and C Dominic Raiola; defensive team captain is DE Kyle Vanden Bosch and special teams captain is K Jason Hanson.

Steelers Present Tough Defense

From day one of training camp, the offense’s main focus has been to run the football. In Week 5, the philosophy remains the same.

Last week in Chicago, the offense rushed for only 90 yards, and this Sunday it won’t get any easier. The Steelers defense brings its patented 3-4 defense, which is ranked fourth in the NFL in rush defense.

Center Dominic Raiola is aware of the challenge and feels this game will be a good measuring stick.

Raiola: “Every week we are trying to improve on it. That’s what we set out to do going into this season. It’s going to get better every week. We’ll have to see what we can do. I mean, you figure out things to improve on week-to-week, and come up with better things to do. I think it is just more of a challenge to see where are run game is.

“It’s just different. We make our little adjustments here and there. We have 3-4 rules and then we have 3-4 rules, so we just go over the 3-4 rules. It is a little more preparation because we don’t go against it a lot, but it’s going to be good for us because we are going against two 3-4 defenses in a row.

Fullback Jerome Felton, who has played an essential role in the Lions offense, believes the running game has suffered due to a lack of execution and this week he knows there will be no room for error. 

Felton:  “I just think it was execution (against Chicago). We watched the game and went back on Monday and watched film and I just feel like we didn’t execute when we needed to. We knew they were going to put a lot of people in the box and we were going to throw it early and that’s what we did and we were successful at it. Then, when they took a guy out and went to stop the passing game we should have been a lot more successful running the ball.

“It all comes down to execution and that’s something that’s always a work in progress and that’s something that we have to come in here this week and correct. They’re not going to give you anything cheap; you’ll have to earn everything you get. They’re just a tough bunch and you have to match the intensity and be physical to go play against them.”

The majority of the defenses the Lions will face this year will run a 4-3 defense and Raiola and Felton that facing a 3-4 requires extra preparation in game planning. 

Felton: “We practiced against a 4-3 all through training camp and most of the team’s that we play have been a 4-3, so when you go up against a 3-4 you have two big outside linebackers that are really good at rushing the passer and you have three big guys in the middle. You don’t really get a lot of push on it because they’re really big up front, so you have to get a lot of stretch and try to respond to gaps on the defense. It’s definitely challenging and something that we’re really going to have to focus in on and execute our game plan to be successful.”

Players Review the Tape

The film didn’t look any better than it felt in the moment.

RB Kevin Smith: “We didn’t do as well as we were supposed to, to give us the chance to win.”

The Lions and Bears were knotted up for the first half of play, but came out flat in the second. Head Coach Jim Schwartz has been asked about the team’s general problems in the third quarter, but doesn’t have an answer.

Schwartz: “I don’t know maybe we need to get a different supplier for oranges at halftime or a different mix of Gatorade or something like that. It hasn’t been one thing.”

Detroit had kept things close in the first half, leading for the majority until the Bears went ahead 21-14. The Lions responded after that, putting together a 98-yard touchdown drive and the two teams went into the locker rooms tied at halftime.

C Dominic Raiola on Detroit’s third-quarter struggles: “I don’t know if you can do anything to turn it around, I think you’ve just got to do it. It’s pretty frustrating after you put a half like that together and, again, even in the one win we did have we still came out slow in the second half, so I don’t think there’s anything more you can do at halftime.”

Offensively, the Lions struggled with the run game, only gaining just 90 total yards; 30 from Smith.

Schwartz says the primary concern with that was that Lions wasn’t running against an eight- or nine-man front … they were running against Cover-2.

Smith on the running game: “It’s looking at the details. Not to say that they’re doing a bad job but my whole thing is when the run game doesn’t get off, and I have 20 carries for 30 yards, it’s very frustrating for me as a runner.

“So I go into practice trying to dial up how I can make run more effective even when everything is perfect because it’s not going to be perfect all the time. That’s my goal this week. My goal is to attack practice and pay attention to my details and focus in on how I can make a run more effective.”

The players will have Tuesday off while the coaches game plan for the Steelers. Then it will be time to get back to work on Wednesday.

DE Cliff Avril on Schwartz being upset after the game: “I mean, he should be after a performance like that; after a half like that more than anything. He should be pretty mad, but you know everything from offense, defense, to special teams, we weren’t playing right and we’ll make big corrections this week.”