- If Jason Hanson ever gets hurt, perhaps the Lions can just put Ndamukong Suh in to kick. After all, he used to play soccer, and during one of last Friday's practices, Suh nailed a 35-yard field goal during a kicking contest between the offense and defense.
"It felt good. It felt like old times. I kicked in high school, and I always joked around and did it in college, but the coaches obviously didn't let me do it in actual games, which I had begged them to do but it never happened," Suh said. "For me, it's just going back to my soccer days, planting the foot and following through and kick it."
Jonathan Wade, Dominic Raiola and Mike Moore all missed their kicks. -
Jim Schwartz on Jonathan Wade:
"He's probably been our most consistent corner in all our offseason stuff,'' Schwartz said. "He does a great job with his hands, with his feet and he's played the ball well downfield. He's a young vet and he's had some success and he's had some rough spots early in career but he's been very consistent in this stuff. He needs to keep building on that.''
Obviously that doesn't mean a ton since the comment was made in June, but it's still interesting to hear. - Speaking of Wade, he thinks the Lions will go 9-7 and make the playoffs.
- Amari Spievey picked off Drew Stanton twice during a practice last week. Stanton went on to throw another interception when Ashlee Palmer picked off a pass.
(More after the jump)
- According to John Niyo, Randy Phillips is expected to take another physical prior to training camp, which is when he could end up finally signing.
- Although Kevin Smith hopes to be ready to participate fully in training camp, Brandon Pettigrew probably will be limited. Then again, Jim Schwartz sounded pretty positive about Pettigrew's progress, so it's probably going to be a wait-and-see approach as we count down the days until training camp.
- Ndamukong Suh is "ready to roar."
- Matthew Stafford is an 80 in Madden 11, which is tied for 18th-best at quarterback with Kyle Orton. Jason Hanson is the seventh-best kicker with a rating of 89, although that is down from a rating of 95 last year.
- Kevin Seifert thinks the 1970 edition of the Lions were the franchise's best team ever.
- The Lions' win over the Browns last year came in as the third-best game of the 2009 NFL season.
- Happy Birthday to Zack Follett, who recently re-launched his website.
- CFL games are coming to the NFL Network. I watched a little bit of the game that was on Thursday and it definitely took me back, as I remember always watching the Grey Cup on CBC when I was a kid (Flutie and the Argos were unstoppable).
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Nicholas Cotsonika, the Lions beat writer for the Free Press, is apparently leaving for Yahoo! Sports to cover the NHL.