Lamar Holmes is out, and Central Michigan’s Louis Palmer is in. The Lions are really bringing in a lot of undrafted players, which is good, generally if a player hasn’t popped by the time he hits year three or four, he’s not going to.
Graham Glasgow is expecting to push Travis Swanson for the Starting spot at Center for the Lions. I’ve said before that I think it’s a good thing that nobody is just expecting to be the starter this year, and that everyone is being challenged. Complacency was a huge problem for the 2015 Lions, with almost no turnover from the previous season at any position among players still with the team. With any luck the Lions are going to have the best 11 men for any job on the field at any given time, not just the old men that the staff trust not to screw up. Hopefully during the season I’ll be doing morning intel columns taking about how great the team looks.
I am not going to make a joke about the Lions hiring a Prophett. I’m really not. But if I were, it would probably read something like: “Prophett sees bright future for Lions, takes job as new director of pro scouting.” The Jets did a pretty decent job in free agency while he was with the team, from 2000-2015. I like the move.
Antwione Williams is a smart player. He’s apparently a smart enough player to help the coaching staff of his college team with the half time adjustments. That bodes well for a late round draft pick trying to make an NFL roster with less than spectacular measurables. A lot is made of his pro day 40 time not being great (4.82 seconds) but you have to remember, these small school kids are not getting the same level of training to prepare as the highly touted Division One prospects do. It’s pretty rare that you see these guys time really well, but a lot of players in the NFL came out of small schools in late rounds. I’ll take a Georgia Southern guy who ran a 4.81s over an Alabama guy who ran a 4.71s any day of the week. You know that Alabama guy was maxed out at 4.71s, and it’s possible that the small school kid just had a bad track coach helping out. I would be surprised if there were not a lot of morning intel features during the pre-season about how great this kid looks on special teams, and against the other hopefuls in the second half.
The rookies are in football school this week, learning the massive amount of jargon that goes in to an NFL playbook. It really is like learning a new language. A player knows all the words that are being said, but has no idea what they mean in this context until this process. Learning what the quarterback is talking about in the huddle is a massive part of the NFL learning curve, and the reason that many coaches and general managers will look past a slow time if the prospect can think the game. Better to go in the right direction at 30 MPH than the wrong direction at 60 MPH.
Have a great weekend my friends. Keep drinking the Kool-Aid and bask in the joy that is morning intel.
