In other news, the Browns have decided to release Derek Anderson, as expected, rather than pay his roster bonus that is due in a few days.  He will definitely draw interest considering how weak the free agent quarterback group is.  Will he draw interest from the Lions to serve as Stafford’s backup? 

Anderson enjoyed a Pro Bowl season in 2007 when he and Braylon Edwards established a great rapport.  Anderson doesn’t have the greatest accuracy, but he has good timing on downfield throws and displays a strong enough arm to get the ball there.  Anderson regressed in 2008, but so did his offensive weapons.  Edwards led the league in dropped passes, Kellen Winslow struggled with injuries and the Browns had no running game to speak of.  2009 was abysmal for Anderson as he struggled with learning a new system and the absence of Winslow (traded in the offseason) and Edwards (traded midseason.)

Anderson is only 26 and has played in a Pro Bowl, so he may draw interest as a starter in Buffalo.   Carolina or Arizona could be interested in having him compete with Matt Moore or Matt Leinart for the starting position.  If he doesn’t get the opportunity to start he could make a great backup for the Lions.  He has a similar skill set to Matthew Stafford and they are the same style of player.  Both struggle with accuracy, both are at their best throwing downfield and both are pocket passers.  The Lions obviously need an upgrade over Daunte Culpepper, Anderson could provide that.

Wade has good speed and is an explosive athlete, like Houston, he has yet to capitalize on that ability.  Wade is expected to compete with Eric King for the nickelback position.

The Detroit Lions roster continues to go through a wave of changes as the team announced the signing of tight end Will Heller — to a three-year contract — and free agent receiver Brian Clark. The team also has released veteran defensive end Dewayne White

Here’s the link

Look for the Bears to make a move on White, Marinelli played a big role in bringing White to Detroit.

The Lions are reportedly pursuing Lito Sheppard with some competition from the Bears per ProFootballTalk.com.

Sheppard was drafted by the Eagles and had a contractual based falling out with ownership.  He was traded to the Jets in the 2009 offseason for a fifth round pick in 2009 and a conditional 2010 pick.  The 2010 pick may have been related to him being on the Jets roster since his play didn’t warrant his release.

After a couple of down seasons and some early season injury issues Sheppard put together a strong performance in the second half of the season.  More impressive was the fact that he was being targeted more frequently as teams shied away from teammate Darrelle Revis.

Sheppard has struggled with injuries and is not a long term solution, but the Lions need to add more bodies to the cornerback position to avoid handicapping themselves in the draft.

Today the league is expected to approve a trade that will send Chris Houston to Detroit for a 6th round pick and the Falcons and Lions will swap their fifth round picks.  The trade is contingent upon Houston passing his physical in Detroit.

Houston was a second round pick out of Arkansas in 2007.  He started 37 of the 44 games he played for the Falcons and at one point was viewed as one of the top young corners in the NFC.  He’s struggled with consistency and the Falcons deemed him expendable after they signed Dunta Robinson on Friday.

Houston is a fluid athlete with good height for a starting cornerback.  He has great speed, clocking a 4.32 at the 2007 combine, but he hasn’t been able to harness his talent and get results on the field.

He needs to work on his technique and footwork and must improve his ball skills, he has only picked off three passes in his career and has been flagged 12 times for penalties. 

Houston has all the raw talent in the world, but he never capitalized on it in Atlanta.  Can he excel in Detroit?  If last year was any indication, this coaches staff can maximize the talent of their players, they just had too many players that didn’t have talent.

ProFootballTalk.com is reporting that the Falcons are looking to trade Chris Houston now that they have signed Dunta Robinson, could he be the Lions next target?

Chris Houston is an athletic but underachieving third year player that might be available for a late round pick.

Rod Hood after an interception vs the Jaguars

The Lions have pulled out of the free agency frenzy after a busy first day.  In addition to signing Kyle Vanden Bosch and Nate Burleson and trading for Corey Williams, they released Grady Jackson and Phillip Buchanon.  The Lions are not expected to resign Anthony Henry and William James is visiting with the Seahawks.  Per Tom Kowalski of MLive.com, the Lions are not planning on pursuing any more significant free agent additions.

Where does that leave the secondary?  Henry and Buchanon are not coming back, and James may not be back either, that leaves the Lions with Eric King, Kevin Hobbs and Jahi Word-Daniels at cornerback.   The Lions are bringing in Jonathan Wade for a visit, but he has six starts in three years and will not be expected to start.

The Lions will look to bolster the secondary in the draft, but with seven picks it will be difficult to find two starting caliber corners, especially with one pick assumed to be a defensive tackle and potentially another used on a running back.

After the first few days of free agency my cornerback ranking needed to be adjusted for signings, so here are the available options:

1. Rod Hood – It blows my mind that he hasn’t been brought in yet.  Not only is he young, he has good size and he played in the Titans scheme last season, which didn’t change much after Schwartz left.
2. Frank Walker – He is not starter material, but he has good coverage skills and the Lions may be able to get a solid year or two from him.
3. Marlin Jackson – In a somewhat surprising move, the Colts allowed Jackson to become an unrestricted free agent.  He has struggled with injuries and is more of a Tampa 2 style corner, but he is young and plays the run well.  He is a huge injury risk  coming off of ACL tears in both knees in the last two seasons.
4. Benny Sapp – Sapp also comes from a Tampa 2 defense, but he has more coverage ability than I initially expected.  He logged a few starts due to injuries and he held his own.
5. Lito Sheppard –  Sheppard was a premier corner a few years ago, but he has struggled with injuries and consistency ever since.  He gives up a lot of big plays and doesn’t compensate by making big plays.

Leigh Bodden, who was a longshot to even consider Detroit, has several teams bidding for his services and will get a big money deal soon.  Dunta Robinson was snapped up by the Falcons on the first day of free agency.  Nate Jones signed with Denver yesterday.

“I was shocked,” Vanden Bosch said on WDFN in Detroit, per SportsRadioInterviews.com. “I was gearing up all day waiting for 11:00 – it was 11:00 my time – waiting for phone calls to see what we were going to do. My wife was up with me watching the Real Housewives of Orange County or something. Coach Schwartz called me right at 11:00 and said, ‘I’m a block from your house. Can you give me a minute?’ He had sent me a text that I missed about a minute before that that said, ‘I could be anywhere right now, but I’m coming to talk to you because you’re the guy I want.’”

First and foremost, I am not a huge fan of the Burleson signing because he is so inconsistent.  However, let’s clear up something about his contract.  Everybody is freaking out over the amount of the deal, on the surface it looks like a ridiculously high contract.

The guaranteed money is all going to be front-loaded, meaning the bulk if not all of it will be paid this season.  Since there isn’t a salary cap the Lions can pay as much in guarantees as they want, and they protect themselves by paying all the bonus money in the uncapped year.  If the cap comes back next year, they can cut Burleson without his bonus money accelerating into the 2011 cap.

Signing bonuses always made it tough to cut players with the cap in place because it caused all remaining bonus money to count against the cap that year.  For example, the Lions sign Burleson to a 5-year deal with a guaranteed bonus of $11 million with the bonus split evenly over the 5 years and they decided to cut him after one.  He would have been paid $2.2 million of his bonus in that first season, but would still be owed $8.8 million.  In the salary cap environment, that $8.8 would count against the salary cap in the season the Lions cut him.  Since there is no cap this year, the Lions can put the whole bonus into this season, and if the cap comes back, they won’t be handcuffed to Burleson if he doesn’t pan out.

I think the Burleson signing is risky and they overpaid, but if he can free Calvin from the constant double and triple teams who cares how much they paid?  The bulk of the bonus is up front and the high salaries are back loaded in the final years of the contract which he’ll never get even if he does pan out.  If Burleson busts, it won’t handicap the team going forward and if he pans out great.

The Vanden Bosch signing is a good one on all fronts.  The contract is structured like the Burleson deal to protect the Lions financially if/when the cap gets reinstated in 2011.  KVB knows the system, has a great work ethic, provides great leadership and he is an upgrade at an important position.

The Corey Williams trade addresses a huge need with very little cost.  Many fans don’t remember back in 2007 when Williams was with the Packers and was a disruptive force at defensive tackle.  He helped get that team to the NFC Championship game and racked up 6.0 sacks from the tackle position.  He was miscast as a 3-4 defensive end in Cleveland and he will return to tackle for the Lions.

After the initial flurry of day one of the new league year, I give the Lions a B-.  I am not thrilled with the Burleson signing, I would have preferred Kevin Walter who is a safer signing.  I’m not sure if Walter was ever an option, but the Burleson addition was riskier than I am comfortable with.  However, the biggest rewards come from big risks and Mayhew deserves the benefit of the doubt.  KVB is a solid addition, although I think he’s a short-term solution.  I would have loved to see the Lions pursue Aaron Kampman, but again, not sure if he was interested.  I am a big fan of the Corey Williams deal, and it only makes the addition of Suh or McCoy that much more impactful.

There were several factors that contributed to the appalling performance of the pass defense.  Lack of talent obviously factors in, but the absence of a pass rush, assignment errors due to the new scheme and constant personnel changes also contributed to the failure.  The secondary is the quarterback of the pass defense, too much credit when things go well and too much blame when things go poorly, this was evident in the AFC Championship game.  Darrelle Revis and the rest of the Jets’ secondary looked brilliant when the front seven were getting pressure on Manning.  As soon as the Colts figured out their protection schemes and kept Manning clean, the number one pass defense in the league was picked apart.

The Lions’ lack of pass rush really is the culprit, but the secondary needs an infusion of talent and continuity.  From the time the Lions broke training camp to the end of the season they had nine players play snaps at cornerback and seven play snaps at safety.  There isn’t a team in the league that has enough depth to deal with the number of injuries the Lions had in the secondary.  By no means is that an excuse, as I have stated in the past I believe injuries are far more common on less talented teams.

Here are some brief comments on each player and what direction the Lions will take in the offseason.

Phillip Buchanon: Buchanon actually played well after some early season inconsistencies.  He is not a physical corner, he relies on his speed and quickness in coverage and struggles with larger receivers.  He is better suited to be a second cornerback, rather than being matched up with the number one receivers.  2010 Season: Buchanon will be back as a starter in 2010.  He came from the Tampa 2 and the transition to the Lions scheme took him longer than expected.

Anthony Henry: Henry was better suited to play at safety, but the lack of capable bodies at cornerback forced the Lions to keep him at corner.  He is a physical player and does well in press coverage, but he lacks the speed and fluidity to turn and run with receivers after the jam.  This type of player is easily exposed by offenses when the quarterback has time to throw…and he was definitely exposed.  2010 Season: Henry may be back as a potential safety candidate.  I think the Lions would prefer a younger player rather than another stopgap type.

Will James: Will James played extremely well in short spans, but overall struggled just like the rest of the secondary.  He is an average nickel back and an above average dime back.  He is a far below average starter though as he lacks the speed and quickness to stay with receivers in man coverage.  2010 Season: James will probably be back in 2010 as a dime back.

Eric King: Eric King was awful in week one surrendering four passing touchdowns against the Saints.  He bounced back over the next few weeks in limited playing time and was getting comfortable as the nickel back.  His season ended during the Pittsburgh game in week five and he was on injured reserve the rest of the year.  At best King is an average nickel back, but he played so little in 2009 it was hard to fully evaluate him.  2010 Season: King is inexpensive, young and has a history with Coach Schwartz.  He will be back in training camp, but it’s too early to guess whether he makes the team or not.

Louis Delmas: I had high expectations of Delmas in his rookie year and he exceeded them.  He not only came in and played well, but he became a leader in his rookie year, which is no easy task.  He needs to spend more time with the JUGS machine and improve his hands because he dropped several interceptions and should have finished with far more than just two.  His level of play as a rookie speaks volumes of his commitment and work ethic and I can’t wait to see the strides he makes this offseason.  2010 Season: Delmas will start and make all the secondary calls.

Ko Simpson: Ko was a late addition to the team added via trade from Buffalo.  I liked Ko Simpson as a rookie and had him ranked higher than Daniel Bullocks.  As a brief aside, here are the defensive backs drafted in the second round after Bullocks: Danieal Manning, Roman Harper, Cedric Griffin, Bernard Pollard, Richard Marshall, and Tim Jennings.  Not one is considered a bust, thanks Millen.  Anyhow, Simpson was getting acclimated to the Lions defense on the fly and he was showing a lot of promise before getting injured, struggling through a pair of games and then going on injured reserve.  2010 Season: Simpson didn’t have enough of an opportunity to prove he can be a major contributor, but at the minimum he will be back as a backup.  I think he showed enough promise to compete for the starting strong safety position.

Marvin White: White was another midseason addition that came in over his head and was thrust into playing time.  His performance was what you’d expect.  He was lost in coverage while he struggled with missed assignments and had little to no chemistry with his teammates.  White also struggled with missed tackles, usually due to poor angles.  2010 Season: Might be back as a camp body, but I don’t expect that he will make the team.

Marquand Manuel: Manuel is a professional stopgap player who has bounced from team to team, but always plays well enough to find a starting position somewhere.  He is average in all phases of the game, but excels at none.  Yet another defensive back that finished the year on IR.  2010 Season: I anticipate Manuel being resigned and allowed to compete for a spot in camp.

Offseason Goal(s): The Lions need to add at least one starting cornerback and bring in a safety that can compete for the other starting safety position.  I believe the Lions are looking to add at least 2 corners and a safety and there are some intriguing possibilities for each position.  Dunta Robinson, who the Lions were expected to pursue last year, will be a free agent and he is still only 28 years old.  Rod Hood played well for Tennessee last season and is also still young.  Nick Harper is 35, but has a history with Jim Schwartz.  Richard Marshall of the Panthers is a restricted free agent for the Panthers, but he would only cost the Lions a second rounder as compensation.  At safety Antrel Rolle will be cut by the Cardinals, but he wants an $8 million a year contract.  There are a few more stopgap veteran players like Mike Brown, Tyronne Carter and Ryan Clark.  Sean Jones played with the Eagles for one season and was mediocre, but in previous seasons with the Browns he looked like an up and coming player.

The draft is very deep at corner and there are some interesting safety prospects, but I’ll review those prospects in the coming weeks.