Playoffs Strategy: Stay Healthy and add a Receiver

In order for the Detroit Lions to make a run at the playoffs, a couple things need to happen this week.

One: The Lions need to get through the Packer game relatively healthy
Two: The team needs to acquire either Jerry Rice or Keenan McCardell

The first is the most obvious and the most difficult. The second looks to the future rather than making a quick fix in the present.

As it stands, Detroit's wide receiver depth chart features Roy Williams, Az Hakim, Tai Streets and Reggie Swinton. No need to add Drummond here, as the Lions' coaching staff has made it painfully obvious in the first four games that his role is as returner only. So the question is, "Would you rather have Rice/McCardell or is Swinton the better fit?" The question, of course, is rhetorical.

Both Rice and McCardell have separate issues, however. Rice does not want to be a #4, or even #2 receiver. He wants to be a difference-maker on a team making a run for the playoffs. Personally, I could see him playing both for a Detroit team desperate to keep the pressure off of burgeoning star Roy Williams. In addition to helping Williams, Rice also allows the Lions to keep Az Hakim as the #3 receiver - a position that obviously caters to his strength.

When his hold out began, McCardell wanted to command a salary close to that earned by the league's top receivers. At 34, that doesn't seem likely to happen. But paying his guaranteed $2.5 million is not the worst hit the Lions could take. McCardell, like Rice, is sure-handed, professional and smart on the field.

Detroit has to be proactive in a year when Green Bay is showing its leader's age and whose secondary is in shambles (not to mention the non-existent run defense). Chicago, whose team is more talented than people give it credit for, is no longer a factor because of the rash of season-ending injuries to key players. Minnesota, by all accounts, is the team to beat; and the only way to beat them is to match them in points. The team is fairly well balanced, but its defense has been, and will continue to be, suspect.

The Lions need to strengthen the lineup before the trade deadline, and acquiring a sure-handed receiver that knows the offense is key. Williams will only get better. Streets is emerging and Az is again a threat to take it to the house. But with one more significant injury to any of these players, who would you rather have to pick up the slack? Given a choice between Rice, McCardell, and Swinton, my guess is most would quickly eliminate one name as a viable answer.

Written by: Ken Salgat, Staff Writer