Lions Notes: Kevin Smith's Spot On The Roster In Jeopardy?

It was me and a couple of other pod members just joking about it as soon as he fumbled….lol

And let the threads begin…

Detroit needs to really show case Stanton this week as well, to bad Spievey switched from cb to s he may have had a better chance of bumping Bly or King for a nickle than taking the job from Phillips.

if you listen to the entire Schwartz presser it doesn’t really sound like Kevin is going anywhere. you kind of took that quote a bit out of context.

Schwartz was completely evasive when addressing questions about roster moves. this just falls in line with what he was saying. they (Gash, Schwartz, Linehan) all think highly of Smith and realize that it takes some time to get over the psychological aspects of the injury. Gash said something to this effect too.

Sometimes unsettling things happen to great people. Maybe a cutting would benefit KS also by not burying him behind 3 other runners.

But if they release him, it will be most likely because of concern over his ACL recovery. Wouldn’t you think?

….I don’t think we’re any better than 6-10 with our secondary/LBs and the tough schedule. Our offense will have to outscore, which they are capable of doing. But I just don’t see it. I REALLY hope I am dead ass wrong though.

he is still young and i would like to see him progress but remember he couldnt hardly break a 20 yarder when he was healthy. do you guys know of anyone who has came off of that serious of a knee injury better than they were in the first place…….if there are some examples im willing to say lets keep him for a while and see how he works out…… but also we were fairly deep at lb last year and we got rid of foote and sims….. two of the better players on the team

Kevin is just a name..Could include. Bryant Johnson, Manny Rameriez, Dennis Northcutt, DeDe dorsey, Eric King. Just saying don’t take that comment for anything Schwartz never gives news on ANYTHING.

 I agree with Profiler Kevin is just a name thrown in to bring attention to the article he isn’t going anywhere. The Lions should trade for Matt Leinart he has plenty of experience holding the clipboard and could be a good 3rd string QB Mayhew could probally get him for a case of Faygo and a pair of Red Wing tickets.

and davis The Red Wings tickets will be for a phoenix game so what the hell

I’ll just say that I don’t personally think it makes any kind of sense to cut him right now. Let him play this season; if by the end of the year it looks like he’s still not the K-Smith of old, then yes, it may be time to let the man go. But it just seems foolish to let go of the guy right now when you consider the amount of promise he showed as a rookie.

Kevin smith is not a starting rb and never will be but i think he is a good backup. lions wont cut him i don’t think but they might trade him. for a 5th or 6th rounder.

I’m kinda jazzed that we get to see the first team offense again on Thursday, but my worst nightmare goes something like this…. (read in an announcer’s voice… preferably not Matt Shepherd for sanity’s sake)…

“Stafford drops back”
“Good coverage by the defense”
“Pocket is collapsing”
“Oooooh Maaaaaan…. did he take a shot to the knee!!”
“He is not getting up….”
“Trainers are already on the field and Stafford is holding his knee”
“The look of excruciating pain on his face says it all”
“Let’s take another look at the play….”
“Wow… his knee just buckles”
“Folks, if I was a betting man, Stafford’s season is over”
“You just don’t come back from that in less than 12 months…..”

Drew startles awake, drenched in sweat… breaths are short and panicked….

why did we cut him again? Is anyone able to make sense of this?

First off lest start with this. The 3rd game of the preseason is a dress rehearsal for the opener. Most teams have their 40 man rosters set and some even pretty much know what their 45 is. The final 8-15 spots usually depend on team strengths, player versatility, player potential and growth, and probably more importantly special teams. Also many GM’s have an agreement with their coaches to not be attached to the bottom 2 or 3 players on the roster in case someone better becomes available on the waiver wire. Every team has a kicker, punter, and long snapper pretty much set into that.

Now lets take a look at the 3rd game. Smith fumbled, so what, it wasn’t a problem in the past, and it wont be in the future. It was not an issue with Schwartz either. People know the guy has more in his head right now because of the injury, that will remedy itself real soon. Yes it sucked because it was a big momentum changer but better it happen there in the preseason than later when it counts. Gives him the opportunity to correct it.

My next point. Who was the running back put in when best came out to run with the first team? Smith, yes he is 2nd on our depth chart. The coaches know he can handle the load if needed. He is not very explosive but he can get the job done. The offense with Smith in there was plugging along, chewing clock, moving the ball. He actually is really good as a clock possession runner.

When he messed up Morris immediately went in. He didn’t impress me. That tells me that he was probably the 3rd on depth or at least getting looks with the 1st string offense to see how he did. Honestly Smith was far better. If you don’t believe me go back and watch the game.

When the 2nd string came in, along with Shuan Hill came in our 2nd string offensive line (Hilliard, Gandy, Gerberry, Ramirez, Jansen), Aaron Brown came in along with Jerome Felton. The 2nd string looked good, they outplayed Cleveland and won us the game. Aaron Brown looked solid as a kick returner, running back, and slot receiver. Jim Schwartz said it is his best game he has seen from him yet. After the game there is a buzz about Brown. He is in NFL.com photos, on NFL Network mentioned by Jamie Dukes and Marshal Faulk as looking good (Morris or Dorsey not mentioned at all BTW), and even the main guy talked about in a running back story on detroitlions.com. BTW Dorsey barely even seen time at all even very late in the game.

Basically going into that game, just my take on it, is that the depth chart was Best, Smith, Morris, Brown, Dorsey. Brown jumped ahead of Morris for several reasons. Not only is he a good 3rd down back and change of pace type, he also returns kicks and can play slot if the injury bug hits the receivers. On top of that he makes less than Morris and has a lot more upside. Count on it, Morris and Dorsey will be the cuts. Smith will be given the chance to work his confidence back up, however it looks like Brown is going to be breathing down his ass the whole time competing for snaps. IMO the Lions will use both Brown and Felton as different styles of change of pace backs. It also gives them good depth since Felton can take snaps at half back if needed and they can slide a tight end to fullback.

More analysis on the Smith fumble. It hurt yes but not as much as what others are failing to criticize so heavily. The ONLY time in that game we got our asses handed to is us when we did it to ourselves. Basically most of the 2nd quarter. We took 6 penalties in the 2nd quarter, and none the rest of the game. 5 of those 6 were on the defensive line. 2nd and 13 and Avril jumps off sides, 3rd and 8 and Suh bottle caps Delhome for a personal foul, 2nd and 7 KVB roughing the passer blow to the head, 3rd and 8 KVB off side. The bigger issue than Kevin Smith is the fact that our defensive line is going to cost us games if they don’t pull their heads out of their ass. KVB being the number one guy to do it, he is the veteran, he is the leader. He needs to cage that beast just a little bit and unleash it on the SNAP OF THE BALL and STOP ON WHISTLE!

The Nate Burleson push off was the other penalty which was the least detrimental to us. We made it up easily and didn’t lose any drive momentum due to it. Though I am not saying it is all right to take a penalty I can live with that more than the others. The timing on some of those defensive line penalties absolutely sucked, we had them in 3rd and long or just stopped em for a moderate gain on 1st down.

Also Cherilus had a holding penalty that negated a big catch on a broken play by Nate Burleson. Couple that with the fact that the Browns right tackle was not called for holding Avril at the .53 second mark play on their final scoring drive and you can see that there are bigger fish to fry than Kevin Smith right now. Why the Lions defensive line can get 5 penalties in one quarter and the Browns can get away with holding on what would have been a game changing sac is beyond me. Joe Thomas also got away with a blatant hold on KVB at 5:23 of the 3rd quarter.

Not necessarily Kevin Smith related but I have not seen this pointed out anywhere yet so thought I would mention it. Our defensive line also got a lot more pressure than people might think. Take away the holds and we have a couple sacks on a top 5 pass protect line. Furthermore I counted 10 QB hurries before the 2nd half was even over. I counted a hurry as someone being within a second or a step of a sac thus effecting the throw. We also flushed the pocket many times. So their is some sunshine to the line battle.

Also of note is that Donte Wesley and Caleb Campbell are absolute beasts on kick cover. Those two pretty much shut down Cribbs and I fully expect them to make the team on those merits alone.