OFFENSE

QB – Matthew Stafford, Shaun Hill, Kellen Moore, R.J. Archer

RB – Kevin Smith, Keiland Williams, Stefan Logan, James Bryant, Joique Bell, Stephfon Green, Mikel Leshoure, Jahvid Best

LT – Jeff Backus, Riley Reiff, Jonathan Scott

LG – Rob Sims, Dan Gerberry, J.C. Oram

C – Dominic Raiola, Dylan Gandy, Rodney Austin

RG – Stephen Peterman, Jacques McClendon, Pat Boyle

RT – Gosder Cherilus, Corey Hilliard, Jason Fox

TE – Brandon Pettigrew, Tony Scheffler

WR – Calvin Johnson, Ryan Broyles, Maurice Stovall, Dominique Curry, Lance Long, Terrence Toliver

WR – Nate Burleson, Titus Young, Patrick Edwards, Jarett Dilliard, Nate Hughes, Wallace Miles

DEFENSE

LE – Cliff Avril, Lawrence Jackson, Everette Brown, Ugo Chinasa

DT – Corey Williams, Sammie Hill, Tracy Robertson

DT – Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley, Andre Fluellen

RE – Kyle Vanden Bosch, Willie Young, Ronnell Lewis, Edmon McClam

OLB – Justin Durant, Tahir Whitehead, Carmen Messina

MLB – Stephen Tulloch, Ashlee Palmer, Korey Bosworth

OLB – DeAndre Levy, Doug Hogue, Travis Lewis

LCB – Chris Houston, Jacob Lacey, Jonte Green, Ross Weaver

RCB – Alphonso Smith, Bill Bentley, Justin Miller, Drew Coleman, Chris Greenwood

FS – Louis Delmas, Erik Coleman, John Wendling

SS – Amari Spievey, Sean Jones, Ricardo Silva, Don Carey

SPECIAL TEAMS

K – Jason Hanson, Derek Dimke

P – Ben Graham, Ryan Donahue

KR – Stefan Logan, Titus Young, Justin Miller, Nate Hughes

PR – Stefan Logan, Titus Young, Ryan Broyles, Patrick Edwards

LS – Don Muhlbach

Note: Starters in bold, Injured players are in italics.

What happened to Will Heller at TE?

I copied it from the Freep but they didn't list him. There are a lot more players on the Lions site:

http://www.detroitlions.com/team/depth-chart.html

Heller is listed behind Scheff at the TE#2 spot

All the sites did their own mock depth charts yesterday. Mlive had their own too. It's all a guess.

They did, but the the team also released its first 2012 depth chart yesterday.

You know an "unofficial" depth chart is, of course, unofficial. But did anyone knotice that Jason Hanson is his own holder?

That guy never ceases to amaze me!

Yes, but we probably shouldn't read into this too much. Often, the depth charts are generated by the team's PR staff without significant input from the coaches--a former Panthers team official was talking about this on the radio here in NC yesterday. He also noted that it's common to see no rookies listed on the first team at this point. Watching the games will provide the best sense of the depth chart.

I'm personally eager to see where/when Bentley and Reiff play? Will either see 1st team reps? Will Reiff first appear as a RT or LT? Will Bentley first enter the game in the nickel package or will he get significant reps outside?

This was encouraging:

I'll be surprised if Bently is the week one starter...

Like I said, we're returning virtually the same team as last year. We could have at least signed a FA that can start or drafted someone like DeCastro that would have started for us at OG. We should have made a serious run at a SB this year, instead of planning for the future.

So that way if we did pretty good this year we would have little chance of landing a quality tackle like we did this year with Reiff? Not saying it couldnt happen, but id say we got lucky this year getting him where we did.

That your take after attending all of the training camp sessions?

Strongly disagree.

It is not as if the Lions are "getting older." Stafford, Suh, Fairley, Pettigrew, Young, etc are pretty young players. Calvin has 3-4 years left of elite level play.

There are still too many questions on the offensive line and the defense is garbage. Even if the Lions had bet the farm on one or two quality FAs, they likely wouldn't be favored for a SB run.

This team is like the 03 Colts. Still a few years away from putting it together. The Lions must continue to think long-term.

To be fair to wjb, this time of year is basically stuffed full of journos wanting to get you to click on their stories. What's the best way to do that? It's to be writing stuff along the lines of "yeah, the depth chart may look pretty obvious to you, but with my insider access I can tell you that [X] is tearing it up in camp and may be a starter come game 1".

Not saying that this stuff about Bently isn't true - could well be, and boy would I be delighted if it happened. But the number of times I've read about pre-season superstars, who turned out to be the backups at best they were expected to be once the regular season came round, is too large for me to not take this story with something of a pinch of salt.

I agree with this solely on the basis that Gunther Cunningham notoriously hates the idea of starting a rookie at that position. Unless he is just that much better than anyone else, I think Bentley starts the season as the nickel back. But we don't know for sure.



First, DeCastro isn't exactly impressing at the Steelers camp, from what I've read. There's no guarantee he will start for Pittsburgh once the season starts. So to declare that DeCastro, whom I wanted as well, would be our day one starter is jumping the gun.

Secondly, the Lions are good enough now that they can draft for the future, and that's really what you want from your team. There were some analysts that had Reiff rated ahead of DeCastro overall, so it's not like the Lions crapped the bed with their pick. We had no depth at offensive tackle, no guarantee that Jason Fox could stay healthy. I have no issues with the Reiff pick, or the fact that he may not start this year. If Backus and Cherilus are playing well enough in the eyes of the coaching staff that they hold off Reiff, that's good for the team.

As for the Broyles pick, I still scratch my head over that. No doubt, a very productive receiver in college, but we could have addressed a bigger need. However, Mayhew and Schwartz have done a good job so far. I will second guess the picks, but not get all worked up about it.

The Lions core players are young enough that we don't have to make a SB run right now. I don't think there's any way the Lions could make it to the SB this year regardless of who they drafted. Getting some good developmental players means they aren't trying to put a bandaid on a broken leg. And as for the FA scene, well, the Lions didn't have that much money to spend. I know you were all about allowing Avril to leave, and I was too. But what's done is done, and there's no use going on and on about it.

I agree with what you're saying, but I think it's important to note that virtually every beat writer is saying something along the same lines. I know Gun doesn't like starting rookies, but sometimes circumstances demand it (like us cutting Berry).