Retooling the Lions would simply be the same old story
By Robert Jones
There is always risk involved to build a championship team
The lure of finding a fast and easy way to build a championship team, while still being competitive and winning, has led many teams astray over all the decades that professional sports have been around.
The Detroit Lions aren’t the only casualty of that thought process, they just happen to be more guilty of it than any other franchise in any sport.
Retooling the current Lions roster could be a very alluring thought process from the standpoint that the offense has the possibility of being pretty good with some upgrades that work out. The downside, whether we want to blame incompetent general managers and head coaches or not, is that it hasn’t worked up to now.
When we also consider that the entire defense needs to be scrapped and built back up from scratch, that puts the Lions in a position of not being able to truly compete for anything right away since defense is one of the key components to winning championships.
In essence, the only logical choice is to trade away any players of value that aren’t young and talented enough to fit in with a rebuild for any draft capital the Lions can get and then go about the business of building this team the right way.
Yes, that does leave a lot of uncertainty, but any path that relies on the continued retooling of this roster will only lead to that familiar ending we have seen far too often and all wish to never see again.
Sheila Ford Hamp has the final say as to who her new general manager will be. Finding one that believes this team needs a serious rebuild shouldn’t be that hard. The key will be finding one that has the ability to identify talent and can work with the Lions’ new head coach.
As for the new head coach, he has to have the ability to develop talent, put them in a position to succeed, and get the most out of those players. He must also share the same vision as the Lions’ new general manager.
If Sheila can accomplish both of those hires, then a complete rebuild won’t be as painful as all the previous retooling this franchise has done because it will show steady progress. The type of progress that should ultimately lead to the Detroit Lions being a legitimate contender.
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No process can guarantee a win in the Super Bowl. As a matter of fact, all championship teams have been built with a certain degree of risk involved. It’s far past time that the Lions actually took the risk necessary to build a championship-caliber team, rather than continuing along the safe and familiar path that has led to nothing but heartbreak for their fan base for so very long.