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The Lions hired Titans defensive assistant/quality control coach Matt Burke to be their linebackers coach. This move was expected after news came out Monday that the Lions were granted permission to speak with Burke. Since he wasn't a position coach in Tennessee, it wasn't hard to figure out that he would be coming to Detroit in the near future to continue his climb up the coaching ranks.
- I will put together a table keeping track of the assistant coaching hires sometime later today. Right now, the Lions have hired an offensive coordinator, a defensive coordinator, and a linebackers coach. They reportedly had hired a secondary coach as well, but it doesn't appear that that story was accurate.
- Jon Kitna doesn't seem opposed to returning to the Lions next season.
- According to Dave Birkett, offensive coordinator Scott Linehan will likely coach quarterbacks as well as the entire offense.
- Also on Dave Birkett's blog is a recap of the Lions' town hall meeting from this past weekend.
- During a chat on NFL.com, Adam Schefter said this in response to a question about whether or not Ernie Sims might be traded:
Detroit has three untouchable players: wide receiver Calvin Johnson, pass rusher Cliff Avril and Sims. None of those guys is going anywhere. Jim Schwartz needs some building blocks and those are his three best ones. But outside of those players, anyone else is in play. Just make an offer.
I'm a little surprised running back Kevin Smith isn't on that list. He showed quite a bit of promise last season, and that was with a nonexistent offensive line. I think there is probably a near 0% chance that Smith would be traded, but I just found it a bit odd he isn't on the untouchables list, especially since Cliff Avril is.
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