John Thornton turns the Lions down...

by lions_sucker on Jul 13, 2009 8:48 AM EDT

According to John Niyo of the Detroit Free Press, John Thornton has turned down an offer to play for Detroit next year:

" I would probably have to gain weight. That was the situation with Detroit [and] Coach [Jim] Schwartz, who coached me in Tennessee.

"I went up there and we kind of agreed to a deal and a few days later I sort of backed out of it for various reasons," Thornton added. "I would have had to gain about 20 pounds actually. He wanted me to be pretty big in the middle, so I would just have to start eating a lot. I'm in pretty good shape."

"I wouldn't be able to come back right now and play 60 plays, but I don't think anybody can right now."

It's nice to see that Schwartz is sticking to his "Get Bigger, Get Better" mantra and not bending on it just to get a solid free agent. It's also nice to see a player turn us down for a reason other than "it's the Lions".

Essentially this leaves Kevin Carter or even possibly Simeon Rice to help out our defensive line, unless some players get released during training camp or leading to training camp to make it to 80-players, but obviously these cuts aren't exactly the cream of the crop. Perhaps we could organize another trade before training camp for a solid DT. Only time will tell.

Heres a link to the original article:

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090713/SPORTS0101/907130368/1265/SPORTS08/Free-agent-says-no-to-Lions

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride of Detroit or its writers. FanPosts are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable fans.

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I saw this posted on the Bengals Site too.

Thornton was listed at 6’ 3" and 297 pounds. He is 32 years old going into his eleventh season. See his profile here: http://www.nfl.com/players/johnthornton/profile?id=THO783513
Too bad, I thought this guy might be able to help us out. Unless he is a lot lighter than 297 now, I think he could have been serviceable at that weight.

Carter and Rice are DEs, which in my opinion is not as much of a need as DTs.

by NorthLeft12 on Jul 13, 2009 10:08 AM EDT reply actions

Both offensive and defensive lines...

…will probably just need to be addressed next year. Which is one of the reasons this team will struggle again this year. It’s hard to imagine “rebuilding” after eight years of “destroying” but I think we’ll all just have to come to grips with that.

by Mushy on Jul 13, 2009 12:50 PM EDT reply actions