Enough With The Wide Receivers
By: Eric Thomas
The natives are getting restless. I count myself among the natives because I am restless. Jacksonville WR Mike Thomas could be a good addition. He might score 10 touchdowns in the next three games. That's not the point. The point is that the Lions keep acquiring receivers. Enough with the wide receivers please. I don't understand what it is about this team and receivers. They are obsessed with adding WRs, with defensive line as a close second. There has been nothing but injuries to the defensive secondary, from Chris Houston to Bill Bentley to Louis Delmas and others, but when Nate Burleson went down the Lions go get someone. Suddenly they are willing to belly up to the trade bar.
It's really frustrating. The Lions have had an anemic secondary since Jim Schwartz became the coach. Most Lions fans had no idea what the word 'anemic' meant until they saw the Lions recent secondary. Now you hear the word everywhere. I don't understand why this team will back a money truck for defensive line and WR, only to close the door for every other position. The team has glaring holes and no hope for fixing them. They will trade for a wide receiver without a second thought, but when a corner comes available they wag their finger about overspending.
The Mike Thomas trade might have been necessary. Maybe they feel like there were only three receivers available. But even people with only a casual interest in football can see that the Lions have a major need in the defensive secondary. Regardless the team continues to pour resources into positions where they don't need. Lion fans filled their Twitters and Facebooks with grumbling messages yesterday at the Mike Thomas trade announcement, and they have every right to be angry. Honestly, how much money are they going to spend on the defensive line while letting every other position atrophy?
We need to see some progress. The team is famously tight lipped when talking to the media and that policy is beginning to hurt more than it helps. Fans are starting to wonder if they see the same problems as we do. You get the Bill Belichick "benefit of the doubt" when you make it to the Super Bowl, not before. Do they really think that this is an NFL defense? Do they really think that Joique Bell is the answer in the backfield? They talk like they do and we are just hoping they are putting a positive spin on a bad situation. When they trade for Mike Thomas, and draft Ryan Broyles in the second round, it doesn't inspire confidence.
It inspires doubt, and that's the last thing that Lions fans need right now. The last guy, we don't speak his name, had the thick headed tendency to acquire players the team didn't need. They last guy told us that he knew better, that we didn't understand his genius. He told us that, and we still have nightmares about how that turned out. The Lions need to start showing us that they understand their flaws and they need to start getting proactive about fixing them.
Fans are starting to wonder. I'm starting to wonder. That's not good.
