There are almost always growing pains anytime a franchise changes direction. In the case of the Lions, long-suffering fans didn’t have the patience to see how things would play out. The inability of the offense to get on track, despite having retained their incumbent offensive coordinator, Jim Bob Cooter, and the defense not being able to stop the run seemed to be the major boiling points.
But what a difference a few weeks can make. It wasn’t long ago we were nit-picking everything about this team from Bob Quinn’s draft picks to poor, if not downright stupid, play on the field. The run defense looked like a modern-day version of the Three Stooges at work.
However, as we sit here this morning preparing for the Lions to face the Seattle Seahawks in a big game that could certainly have tie-breaking ramifications for the playoffs, this almost seems like a completely different organization.
How many times over the last few weeks have we started to notice how many good players Bob Quinn has acquired for this franchise? From the draft alone we have been paying attention to Kenny Golladay, Kerryon Johnson, Graham Glasgow, Taylor Decker, Frank Ragnow, Da’Shawn Hand, Jarrad Davis, A’Shawn Robinson and corner back/kick-returner Jamal Agnew.
And In free agency Quinn had signed players like Marvin Jones, LeGarrette Blount, T.J. Lang, Rick Wagner, Devon Kennard, and Ricky Jean-Francoise. This didn’t even include picking Romeo Okwara off of the waiver wire who has fit like a glove and trading for Eli Harold who has also been a contributor to a surprisingly good pass-rush.
Now, this past week Quinn went out and got a bargain on ‘Snacks’ from the New York Giants ‘we give up’ dumpster sale.
Damon ‘Snacks’ Harrison was the perfect acquisition for a team needing to improve at stopping the run. Which brought to my mind a singular foreign thought about these Lions; this is how championship teams are run…