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Yeah, but Matt Millen is still there
If you have read some of my earlier entries in this blog, you understand that I do not necessarily think the Lions are going to be awful this season. I think Roy Williams and Kevin Jones have a chance to be star-caliber players in the NFL. I like how they fit into the offense of coordinator Mike Martz. I do not think the Lions' defense is going to dominate anyone, but it should be respectable. I disagree with most people and think their offensive line will be alright. The one thing I, and it seems like many Lions fans are having troubling getting over, is that Matt Millen still runs the franchise. His title is team president, but he essentially acts as general manager. He has a 21-59 record in that capacity. And beyond the record, his propensity to throw people under the bus for his own benefit is disgusting. I am particularly disturbed by the way Steve Mariucci is being perceived by the Millen minions in the media.. Mariucci was a soft coach, they parrot Millen's private commen ts. He didn't work the players. The players are really good. Mariucci did not get anything out of them. That garbage is brutal. Mariucci was not a very good coach for the Lions. And nobody in the media really got to know him. Those close to him, though, say he was simply overwhelmed by what he encountered and was shocked it went south so fast. But he did a decent job under a couple different circumstances in San Francisco. To make him sound so gutless and spineless is unjust. He was not the only problem, just part of it. So when it comes down to it, because Millen is the one constant, it is ultimately difficult to get too optimistic about the Lions. He is an ominous cloud hanging over the franchise. One that just will not go away.
Random thoughts
- Anybody notice how well Todd Jones is pitching lately? What he does better than anything else is throw first-pitch strikes. Wonder if he will be able to keep it up.
- Every wonder why Mike Martz is not the Lions head coach instead of Rod Marinelli? Me too.
- Wonder where they will play the NIT game between Michigan and U-of-D this season. Will it be at the Breslin Center or at Calihan Hall? Will Michigan be the only state school make the NCAA Tournament field.
Random thoughts
- Anybody notice how well Todd Jones is pitching lately? What he does better than anything else is throw first-pitch strikes. Wonder if he will be able to keep it up.
- Every wonder why Mike Martz is not the Lions head coach instead of Rod Marinelli? Me too.
- Wonder where they will play the NIT game between Michigan and U-of-D this season. Will it be at the Breslin Center or at Calihan Hall? Will Michigan be the only state school make the NCAA Tournament field.
posted by Pat Caputo at
6:29 AM
20 Comments:
Pat,
just reading your headline, i new i'd be posting this. A week or two ago, sports radio stations were saying how the lions could be like the tigers. Both have tough new coaches. Both brought in veteran leadership (rogers/kitna). Both will count on young players/rookies (3 WR, tigs young pitching). this is all fine and good. then they said this "both teams had GMs that had a rough start". pat, i nearly vommited in my mouth. I'm not sure if it was your station or your buddys up the dial, but comparing dombrowski to millen are you freaking kidding me!!! yes, the both had rough starts, the difference is before they got here millen was in a booth and dombrowski was winning a world series!!! Obviously, I agree with you whole heartedly. I think there comes a point, where even if millen would eventually learn to be a GM, the perception is so bad, you need to blow it up.
GO LIONS 3-13
also MLB - the twins have a 50/50 chance of sweeping the tigs. 5.5 up on the twins scares me...
Don't know why I worry when they bring Mr. Jones in he sure gets the job done. The middle relievers get to me with their tendency to walk hitters. I wish i could remember the stats on the hitter getting on base if the pitcher gets the first pitch over for a strike...V
nick p,
there is a big difference between jim leyland and rod marinelli. leyland has been very successful in the past, while marinelli is a new head coach. same with dombrowski compared to millen. there are a lot of teams with strange or bad organizations that somehow win. they hit with a draft pick or two. and i think williams and jones have a chance to be great players, especially for the years martz is here. i just wonder if any of it will matter as long as millen is overseeing the operations. it does make it difficult to get excited about the lions. you just get the feeling the karma can't be right under the circumstances.
caputo
v,
I think i read one time that it's .320 for the hitters after one ball and .180 after strike one...something like that. zumaya and rodney need to throw more first pitch strikes and walk less. as is, they are playing with fire.
caputo
Michigan State is playing U-D. And I think Amaker will find a way to keep Michigan out of the tourney once again.
Pat,
I've noticed Jones. In fact over the past few weeks, he may be pitching better then anyone else on the team. I really like his walk rate. He might not strike people out much, but he doesn't hurt himself. He let's this great defense do it's job. Oh yeah, and it's been over a month since he's given up a run.
I still think we paid a little too much for him, but if he helps us bring home the gold, it'll be worth it.
daver,
that's the problem with the lions right now. are they rebuilding? are they trying to win now? and i agree about kitna. i was at practice today. there isn't a lot of zip on his passes.
caputo
brian,
the things with jones, as much of a veteran as he is, he hasn't done it in a pennant race as a closer.
caputo
vande,
you're on the same page as i am on this. mariucci did not get the job done here, but was just one of many issues hurting the franchise. the biggest issue is ownership. william clay ford runs the team like a rich kid with a toy who constantly screams "it's mine." keeping millen after all this says it all. so does the backstabbing job millen has done on mooch. it's incredible, really, so many of millen's minions buy into his garbage. i've never seen anyone in a position such as millen's in sports ever hold themselves less accountable. it's awful.
caputo
WHat a time of year. football my favorite sport is upon us and we are going to be in a pennant race. Wow is there any other city in America more spoiled the Michigan when it comes to sports. hell even the shock are doing well. haha
back to real business. Has there been a bigger bafoon in the NFL the past 6 years the Millen. I do like the coaches he has assembled this time around. I don't think the problem was with Mariucci last year, but with his stuborness to not change. Other west coast offenses have been more successful becasue they change. At least with Martz we have a chance to open up. BEcause after all last I checked 10 yards not 5 get you a first down. My biggest concern for me is the secondary. Overall I think the lions can make some noise. If Rogers or M. Williams can step in and be the first round pick we are paying them and if K. J. (who I feel is on a short leash) can play like he did the second half of his rookie year then look out. Because I don't think our division is all that good outside of CHicagos Defense.
I have to admitt though early he showed signs of todd jones of before. Bottom line he has done the job. ROdney has been to speratic and If we were in the playoffs I'd be very surprised if he were used.
Personally I like Martz in the Offensive Coordinator role a little better. I like how we have an actual guru and he can focus just on that. However, I wouldn't be surprised if he can turn this offense around in a couple of years the reins can be turned over.
Michigan will win the Big ten this year. Sorry Sparty you'll have to wait another year. BEcause I expect Hart to be absolutely huge and Henne to come into a zone.
gogetemdetroittigers,
dombrowski, after a slow start, has done an excellent job building the team by using all elements -trades, free agency, rule 5 draft, improved farm system. it's also helped that some of the iterference from ownership is gone and they let him and his people get their work done.
caputo
Pat, it appears you have a personal grudge with Matt Millen. That is fine, some people just rub others the wrong way. I've listened/read and have been in agreement 100% with your statements that Millen should have never been given that 5 year extension. Looking at him, I too don't understand how he has a worst record than the expansion Tampa Bay Bucs yet still continues to collect a weekly pay check.
What I do disagree fully with is the assertion that Millen threw Mooch under the bus. If he did so, it was because Mooch fully deserved to be. Steve Marauchi blamed, scapegoated, and outright used Joey Harrington in attempt to cover his hindquarters. Never in my history of watching football have I seen a coach refuse to give praise to a player, especially after the big road wins versus the Giants and Atlanta where Harrington played outstanding. Instead we got lectures on how Joey doesn't hit the receivers correctly, Joey is struggling, and so forth. Never was it about the coaching, game planning, play calling or anything else. It was always on Joey. It was therefore no surprise when the team went down hill and the players looked at Harrington with disdain. They learned it well from their head coach.
I don't know any of these guys personally and you do, so I'll defer to you knowledge and speak only as someone who watches the Lions games closely. My question about Mooch/Millen is simple. Why didn't Mooch have the guts and integrity to say, I can't win with Joey, either you let me bench him or I quit ? If Millen was forcing Harrington onto Mooch, who knew that he could not get it done, why did he give him Jeff Garcia? That is a General Manager giving the Head Coach the tools he wants. Isn't that the definition of what a G.M should be doing ? To me it didn't go down that way. From my perspective it appears that Mooch said he needs a different QB, Millen got him the one he wanted. In doing so, Mooch hitched his wagon to someone who was even more egotistical and assured of his superiority than Mooch. In the long run, breaking his leg in preseason in a dumb 3rd quarter scramble sealed both their fates together.
I realize you despise the job Matt Millen has done, but not necessarily the man himself. Millen has done so many things wrong, pointing out how he treated Mooch isn't necessary. Mooch deserved what he got here in Detroit and that was a ticket out of town. He didn't develop young players, allowed 1st round draft picks to become malcontent, and tossed the number 3 player drafted under the bus because he was too stubborn to adjust his offense to Harrington's strength's.
Joey will likely become nothing more than a solid journeyman backup quarterback, not that there is anything to be ashamed about for him. Playing 10-12 years in the NFL is an accomplishment. Obviously he was not the player many of us thought he would be. However, he deserved better than what he got from Mooch and his complete 3 passes and punt on 4th and 4 offense he brought out week after week.
Pat,
off subject ... in Wednesday's afternoon game Infante was yanked late in the game in favor of Granderson. Infante had concluded the previous inning with a groundout to 3B. The third baseman bobbled the ball but still easily threw out Infante. It appeared to me that Infante had not busted his butt getting down the line, and then he was yanked. I saw no mention of this sequence of events in the media. Did anyone else see it how I did, or am I offbase?
- ray
atomicrod,
i don't have anything against millen other than football. i like matt on a personal level, but strongly believe that he has done a poor job in his position as lions president. two issues come to mind. one is the record. it speaks for itself. the other is way he points a finger of blame to others when he is the primary culprit of the lions' problems. i agree with you about mariucci. he did have those issues as head coach. he didn't speak up for himself. you never knew where he was coming from and that was his fault. but since he has left, they have made him sound like the worst coach ever. they have portrayed him in a way that has gone to the extreme, and they have done it in a caluculated manner that is both backbiting and excessive. it's shameful and unnecessary and millen has been the biggest one doing it.
caputo
ray,
i was at that game in cleveland and did not notice infante not running it out. he was replaced, as far as i know, by granderson for defensive reasons. they were protecting the lead. there was no mention of it in postgame other than granderson making a nice play almost immediately upon entry.
caputo
Pat, thanks a lot for the reply.
I see your point better now on how some of the tactics Millen is using to deflect some of the criticism's leveled at him. Ultimately for as poorly as I thought Mooch was here, Millen did hire him so he should shoulder blame for the failures of the system they implemented.
I think Millen finally has a staff here who share the same thoughts on football that he has. I suppose that does raise another question about Millen's competency because if he believes in tough aggressive football why did he hire two head coaches who were finesse structured.
I'll wait and see how Marinili does. I'm not at all encouraged by your reports that Kitna appears to lack arm strength. I have no idea how you can run a down field passing game if the quarterback throws rainbows which allow the safety to get back and help. I've thought since day one of his signing that it was a poor move.
Thanks again for the reply and talking with everyone that posts comments on here directly.
john
i don't know where the lions stand. are they in the sixth year of millen's program? or are they in the first year of marinelli's program? are they rebuilding again? Or do they expect to win now? if they don't win, doesn't having a new coach buy millen more time to win? seems like it does. how can that be? it's kind of strange how that works.
caputo
motowntim,
i think the lions' offense will be better this year. it's what i wrote my column about in monday's print edition of the oakland press. i think kevin jones is an excellent player. same with roy williams, and that mike martz will get the most out of them. i agree it is difficult, in a way, to believe that, though, just because the front office is the same with millen and the same people around who have been there seemingly forever.
caputo
sportswriter,
your point is well taken about ownership. but it should also be noted that dave dombrowski has won a championship in florida and did do a good job of setting montreal up to win when he was there. matt millen had no experience at all when was hired by the lions. same goes for jim leyland in comparison to rod marinelli.
caputo
Hello,
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