Friday Notes: Lions Retain Stan Kwan

by Sean Yuille on Feb 6, 2009 9:53 AM EST in Notes Comment 0 comments

As mentioned in a FanShot yesterday, special teams coordinator Stan Kwan has been retained. I really don't understand why the Lions decided to bring back Kwan. I personally have thought he deserved to be fired even before last season. The Lions' special teams just are not very good. Obviously Jason Hanson is a great kicker and Nick Harris is a pretty good punter, but that isn't necessarily something you can coach. Things like returning and covering kicks and punts -- things the Lions do poorly -- are coachable, and quite frankly, the coaching has been pretty bad.
Even though Leigh Bodden is going to be released, a some people thought that the Lions might eventually re-sign him (that way they avoid paying him the bonus and get him back). Although anything is possible, I highly doubt Bodden would even want to come back to Detroit. He called the decision to part ways "mutual" during an interview yesterday, and I imagine he would want to find a better team to play for anyways.
The SB Nation football writers have compiled a database of players that will be free agents this offseason. (Thanks to Buffalo Rumblings for putting the database together)
All of this recent discussion about changing the logo and uniforms has generated quite a bit of discussion and quite a bit of creativity. As I posted yesterday, Matt Zelley created a brand new logo for the Lions that I like quite a bit. After reading some of the talk about his uniform concept, he created a bunch of new uniform designs and posted a picture of his helmet concepts as well. Matt isn't the only one that shared his idea for a new logo, as BriansLions and detroitslion posted their own concepts as well.
Proof of how much the Lions lack talent on their roster should come in the fact that not a single free agent from the Lions is in the Sporting News' list of the top 99 available players.
Apparently a play out in California is about a Lions fan.
According to Jay Glazer, the Chiefs have hired Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley as their head coach.
The Patriots franchised quarterback Matt Cassel on Thursday, meaning he will either be traded or re-signed by the team. I hope this ends all discussion about the Lions going after him, as I really don't know if Cassel would be all that good outside of New England. Regardless of that, though, now that the only way to get Cassel is by trading for him, there is no point in wasting draft picks that are absolutely vital to the rebuilding process.