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It's easy to dismiss the Lions' trade of Gerald Alexander for Dennis Northcutt as a minor deal, but they are slowly building depth on a team that seriously lacked it last season.
Northcutt will battle for the slot position and can return punts. Both spots needed depth. Now you have Northcutt competing with rookie Derrick Williams, Ronald Curry and others for the third and fourth WR spots, and Northcutt, Williams, Aveion Cason and rookie Aaron Brown could be your returners.
Look at the variety of moves they have made this offseason:
- Swapped CBs Leigh Bodden and Travis Fisher for Anthony Henry, Phillip Buchanon and Eric King. That's an improvement.
- Exchanged Dan Campbell and Michael Gaines for Brandon Pettigrew, Will Heller and Dan Gronkowski. Upgrade.
- Special teams should be better with the additions of the return guys we mentioned, professional coverage guys such as Cody Spencer, King and Terrelle Smith.
- There's more depth on the offensive line with Jon Jansen, Daniel Loper, Toniu Fonoti, Dylan Gandy, Kirk Barton and Lydon Murtha. None are great, but again, they add depth and competition.
- Made a big improvement by ditching Mike Furrey and signing Bryant Johnson and Curry, drafting Williams and trading for Northcutt.
- Of course, at quarterback, you now have Matthew Stafford competing for a starting spot. The Lions played five different quarterbacks in 2008. They hope that number is two this season: Stafford and Daunte Culpepper.
- And without question, the position they improved the most was at linebacker, also easily the worst position on the field in '08. Larry Foote, Julian Peterson, DeAndre Levy and Cody Spencer could make up four of their top five linebackers along with Ernie Sims. Huge improvement over last year's lot.
Lots of depth. It's a big upgrade. The easiest bet in Vegas is that the Lions will win at least 3-4 games this season, even though it might take them a few weeks to get on track.
The one position I would like to see more help is at defensive tackle. They might have to wait until next offseason to get any real assistance there, but it would not surprise me at all if they scour the wires -- as they have done all season, with the first crack at unvested veterans -- to add a D-tackle to their rotation.
Very intriguing team down the road, these Lions.
