:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/26236115/168522789.0.jpg)
- Brandon Hepburn signed a futures contract with the Detroit Lions on Friday. He was on their practice squad last season, so it was strange that he didn't sign a futures deal when 10 other players did earlier in the week, but he did eventually get under contract.
- Louis Delmas surprisingly was not fined for his unnecessary roughness penalty against the Minnesota Vikings last week.
- Here's a throwback... check out the list of coaches who interviewed with the Lions back in 2009 before Jim Schwartz was hired.
- According to Dave Birkett, this is the basic plan for the Lions' coaching search this time around:
The Lions, meanwhile, are still in intial interview stages. Finalists expected to meet with ownership after this initial round of interviews
— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) January 3, 2014
- The Detroit News reports that Martin Mayhew had "extensive talks" with Lovie Smith before Smith was hired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as their head coach.
- MLive has a recap of the Lions' snap counts for the 2013 season.
- Five players are up for the NFL's Rookie of the Year award, but Larry Warford is not one of them. I suppose that's not a huge surprise considering he's an offensive guard.
- The Lions ended up with three players on Mel Kiper's All-Rookie team: Warford, Ziggy Ansah and Sam Martin. Kiper ranked Warford 10th and Ansah 16th among the 2013 rookie class.
- Mike O'Hara drew an interesting comparison between the early years of Peyton Manning's career and what we've seen out of Matthew Stafford so far.
- Even former NBA player Charles Barkley is aware of how many struggles the Lions had during 2013 despite having so much talent.
- USC wide receiver Marqise Lee has declared for the 2014 NFL Draft.
