Watch out: Lions slowly building depth across the board

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Eric Edholm

eedholm@pfwmedia.com
Senior editor

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.

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STEVE PILATO

While this is exactly how it has to begin for any team to turn things around, it is still very safe to say Detroit has a ways to go. Having drafted near the top for so long, with so little to show for it, the Lions are as talent bare as last year's record indicates. But, they are doing a credible job of beginning to add competitive talent, which won't improve much by itself, but will force greater effort to maintain roster spots from those who are at the bottom end of the roster. Ineveitably, this does make it's way up the ladder to the top of the roster. The process is slow, & usually takes 3 years or so, provided no catastrophic injuries or really bad personnel evaluations further stunt the growth of talent on the team. I truly wish the Lions luck, it would be nice to see a franchise that has been so far down for so long rise up to the top. Certainly, we won't see real clear evidence they're headed in the right direction until the last part of this season, at the earliest, & if we do, it'll be in baby steps. But if they can get a bit more help on the defensive line, & Buchanon & Henry turn out to be the badly needed upgrades they should be in the secondary, the Lions could play spoiler for someone late in the season. Should be fun to watch their progress through the 2009 season.