Detroit Lions Pre-Season Game 1 Press Conference

[Forenci]

The Detroit Lions owner Alex Anthony steps up to the podium with a disappointing look on his face, and it's pretty obvious as to why.

First off, I'd just like to say, while we didn't expect to win this game - we still hoped our players would go out there and play a competitive game. It should be known that we did bench 90% of our 1st String players against the 1st Team for Denver in the beginning half, and the second half we went further into our depth chart to make sure our starters and key depth guys didn't get injured.

That said, I still didn't like our performance out there yesterday. Our offense looked terrible with the exception of Brian Calhoun, who in his limited carries looked to be our guy to back up Kevin Jones this season. Our offensive line had too many holding penalties that hurt us. However, my biggest concern is the play of our quarterbacks. Dan Orlovsky started in the first half while Gibran Hamden played the second half. In both cases, we were unimpressed with them and at this point we don't know which one will be backing up Jon. What we do know is that Jon will remain seated for the remainder of the pre-season as of right now since we're not confident in the depth behind him.

The defense gave up a lot of points, but considering how poorly the offense played it's not surprising. They were put in a lot of bad posisitions because of our offensive play, or lack of offensive play rather. However, there were some bright spots, mainly James Hall. While right now he's backing up Will Smith, we hope to use him in some substitutions when the season comes around to help keep Kalimba Edwards fresh on the other side. Alex Lewis and Danny Clark also looked good. We think Alex Lewis gives us great depth at linebacker and Danny Clark was one of what I believe was two starters who were in the line up to begin for us. He looked great out there and we think he gives us a sure tackler on the field right now. Overall, I think we have some good depth on defense, and with our starters not playing, I think they did well considering the circumstances.

The Special Teams appeared to be the bright spot of the entire game for the most part. We'd like Steve Weatherford to improve the distance of his punts, but we felt like he did a good job. We didn't get a chance to see either of our kickers, so hopefully next game we can evaluate them better, but they did well on kick offs we thought. Jeremy looked very good out there besides his one turn over. Brian Calhoun also looked good returning kicks. However when the season starts I expect that Jeremy Bloom and Eddie Drummond will be our return guys for the season.

All in all, despite the fact our starters weren't on the field, we still expected more out of this team. We still plan to keep many of our starters off the field during the pre-season but hope to get some of them playing time over the next three games before the start of the regular season.

[Disturbed]

Who do you plan on taking with the #1 pick next season? haha jk

Seriously now.

Do you think this team in its current state has the playmakers on both sides of the ball to compete this season or will this season be more of a building block towards the future?

[Forenci]

Well, we think we have a lot of play makers on both sides of the ball, however we decided just for that reason they should sit the game out.

Will Smith and Shaun Rogers on the defensive line are huge assets to our defense and will really put the pressure on the opposing teams quarterback. Ernie Sims, Roman Harper and Daniel Bullocks are all player makers that weren't in the game either, with their speed and ability I think we should have a great young defense.

As for the offense, Kevin Jones is our holy grail so to speak, so it's unlikely he will see any playing time this pre-season. Vincent Jackson wasn't in the game as we feel he has the number one receiver spot locked up, and we think with his size and athleticism he should give our offense an injection of play making ability too.

All in all, one of the concerns going into the draft is we want more playmakers on the defensive and offensive side, but as of now we feel like we have enough to compete in a lot of games this season.

[ItalianStallion]

When will we see some of your 1st stringers come back into the starting lineup? Will that happen at all this pre-season?

[Forenci]

Well, as I've mentioned before, there are a couple of players we don't intend to start at all in the pre-season, such as Jone Kitna and Kevin Jones.

In the next few pre-season games some starters will likely see the field in order to see how they preform, but most of the aforementioned play makers in my previous statement probably won't see any time for the next three games.

We know how our great players will preform so we're not worried about seeing them in the pre-season. Some starters we hope to get a look are guys like Daniel Bullocks and a majority of our receiving corps. Most of the offensive line should see some play time, though we don't plan on starting Damien Woody at any point.

[titansrule]

Is there a chance the bad QB play stemmed from WRs not getting open? - Potentially highlighting the need for some of these guys to step up in the post Roy Williams line up?

[Forenci]

I think that's a very good point. Though Denver has a very good secondary, with one of the best corners in the league.

One of the things we'd like to address is getting a receiver who can really get some separation for us. It's one of the reasons we really wanted to get Jeremy Bloom on this team. We hope to sign him next year to a longer term, more balanced deal next year. Even then, we feel like we have a mismatch when Vincent Jackson is in. With his height it gives us a real advantage. It's one of the reasons we decided not to start him this week.

Again, you raise a very good point though. We think pre-season will be critical for us as we really get an opportunity to see who will be our primary receivers after Vincent Jackson.