Posts tagged CharlesRogers at FanHouse

When Mlive.com's Tom Kowalski writes that the Martin Mayhew -- the chap burdened with the impossible task of being less competent than Matt Millen -- is taking draft preparations seriously some five months before Roger Goodell starts reading names off a sheet of paper, pretty much tells you all you need to know about why the Lions are annually the worst team in football.

Millen had no business running a team (in case that wasn't obvious, the careers of Charles Rogers and Mike Williams confirm as much) and even though Mayhew is only the interim general manager, he has a chance to show he's capable of handling the full-time gig. (And when I say "handling" I mean in the conventional sense; not in the "Matt Millen shows up for work to catch up on his sleep" sense.)

The Lions are so bad ...

How bad are they?!

The Lions are so bad that Calvin Johnson longingly watches CFL games and wonders if they'll let him back on the Yellow Jackets if he returns to Georgia Tech for his doctorate. They're so bad he's bugging Ben Roethlisberger for advice on how not to survive a motorcycle crash. They're so bad he's contemplating a name change to Charles Rogers.

They're so bad that, though the score between the Lions and Texans currently reads 28-10 in favor of Houston, the Lions have managed to fall behind 21-0 for the fourth time this season. In only six games.

And while those opponents -- the Falcons, Packers, Bears, and now Texans -- are better than their current 12-12 aggregate record, there's no good news here. It's bad enough to lose all four (which the Lions have, on top of every other freaking game they've played). But it's inexcusable to crumble so easily and early -- almost every 21-0 deficit came in the first half -- when you claim to be a professional football team. I don't care how many garbage time yards and points you produce in response.

Maybe somebody from Elias Sports Bureau can put this stretch of putridity in perspective, but it's not necessary. I keep thinking the Lions have hit bottom, but they keep sinking. This is the worst I've ever seen the team play. And there's no Millen to blame anymore.

You think Charles Rogers has been sitting around watching the Lions bumble their way to 0-4, wondering where it all went wrong? The second-overall pick in the 2003 draft lasted two seasons, 15 games, 36 receptions and four measly touchdowns before Detroit decided he was a bust (roughly 24 months after every other team in the league!), and in the three years since he was released, Rogers has been out of football (save the occasional failed comeback attempt).

But, hey, sometimes draft picks don't work out. At least Rogers has that $14.2 million signing bonus to live on while he plots his next career move ... or not.

Bad news, Chuck, you might want to get moving on scanning the want ads: the Lions want $8.5 million of that bonus back, and after three years, an arbitrator agrees.

When [Rogers] was suspended by the NFL for substance abuse in 2005 -- his third strike under the league's policy -- the Lions argued that he triggered a clause that put him in default of his contract. At the time, the club was seeking $10.2 million -- a pro-rated portion of Rogers' bonus money.

The Lions now must go through a few routine legal procedures before they can demand the repayment obligation and take action to collect. The Lions will get $8.5 million added to their salary cap next season, but only if they physically collect the money.

Cheer up, Lions fans, your long national nightmare is about to end. That's right, in just three days the curse of Bobby Layne is set to run out, and your beloved football team will once again return to prominence in the NFL. What's that you ask? The Lions were cursed? Yeah, I had no idea. But apparently this explains everything from Matt Millen, to Joey Harrington, to Barry Sanders suddenly walking away from the game. The Curse Of Bobby Layne website has the full story.

In 1958, after leading the Lions to 3 NFL Championships and providing Detroit nearly decade of Hall of Fame play, the Lions traded Bobby Layne. Bobby was injured during the last championship season and the Lions thought he was through and wanted to get what they could for him. According to Legend, as he was leaving for Pittsburgh Bobby said that Detroit "would not win for 50 years"

With this news, and the fact Millen was finally relieved of his duties two weeks ago, things are really starting to look up for the Lions. But back to this curse business ...

Remember how star receiver turned NFL analyst Cris Carter said he knew all along that Charles Rogers and Mike Williams would be NFL busts? And remember how he said he could have warned Matt Millen not to draft them?

Yeah, it turns out that Carter wasn't exactly being truthful.

Charles Robinson of Yahoo! reports that in reality, Carter was singing the praises of both Rogers and Williams before the Lions spent Top 10 draft picks on them.

Said Carter of Rogers just before the 2003 draft, "He's very similar – and I don't like to make a lot of comparisons – to Randy (Moss) in a sense, a big basketball player playing wide receiver. He's the only receiver that's come out since Randy that you can make an honest comparison to. He has a yearning to learn."

As for Williams, Carter said just before the 2005 draft, "I think he's going to be a great player. I think people will be surprised at the kind of person he is. He's really a hard worker. He takes his training very seriously and wants to be very good."

None of this changes the fact that Millen screwed up when he spent Top 10 picks on Rogers and Williams, or the fact that Millen is the worst general manager in NFL history. But for all the mistakes Millen made running the Lions, failing to call Cris Carter was not one of them.

Cris Carter was one of the best wide receivers in college football history and one of the best wide receivers in pro football history, and he's frequently invited young receivers to work out with him, many of whom have raved about his ability to help them improve. He knows a thing or two about playing the wide receiver position.

And Carter, who is now a TV analyst, said on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown that two of the young receivers he worked with, Charles Rogers and Mike Williams, were clearly not suited to becoming good NFL players. Carter said he worked with Rogers and Williams before they were in the NFL and would have been happy to share a candid assessment with Lions President Matt Millen, but Millen never asked:

"Matt Millen, do a little undercover work," Carter said today. "Williams and Charlie Rogers both worked with out with me before the draft, and I could have told them, 'don't draft neither one of them.' ... Never asked me."

Millen, of course, used Top 10 picks on Rogers and Williams. Both were terrible in Detroit and are now out of the league.

It's common for NFL teams to do obsessive levels of research before drafting a player with a Top 10 pick, but Millen apparently couldn't be bothered to find out that his prized wide receivers had been working out with a future Hall of Famer, and that the future Hall of Famer didn't think much of them. Which is why Millen is now, finally, out of work.

UPDATE: Turns out Carter wasn't exactly being truthful.

We're nearing the end of Day 1: Life After Millen, and by most accounts, it's been a joyous occasion. Now begins the arduous process of rebuilding the Lions, no easy task given what hell Matt Millen hath wrought on this franchise in just eight years.

During tonight's NFL Total Access, Rich Eisen got current NFL Network analyst and former Lions head coach Steve Mariucci on the horn to talk about what it meant to work for the worst general manager in the history of sports. (Click Millen's handsome mug for the moving pictures.)

Some highlights after the jump.

I always think people overlook Charles Rogers when they list the all-time biggest busts in the history of the NFL draft. Sure, he always makes the list, but he's never at the top, and really, how was he any better than Tony Mandarich or Ryan Leaf? At least Mandarich and Leaf caught on with other teams after they washed out with the Packers and Chargers. Rogers didn't do that.

At least, he hasn't yet. But some people still think it's possible. He said this about his future:

''When I know, you guys will be the first to know,'' Rogers told The Saginaw News. ''That's all I'm saying right now.''

And his high school coach said this:

''He's had a couple workouts with some teams and has a workout with the Minnesota Vikings. He's getting caught up (with playing in the NFL again). I tell him to play where he can play and enjoy it. People get caught up on where the best spot for him is."

I suppose it's possible that the Vikings will really give Rogers a tryout, but color me skeptical that he'll actually be invited to training camp, and extremely skeptical that he'll ever play another regular-season down in the NFL. Rogers wasn't good enough to help the Lions win when they cut him in 2006. What makes anyone think he's good enough to help a team win after a two-year layoff?

Via PFT.

I think it's safe to say we all have a little chuckle when a former NFL star (or supposed-to-be) treks it up to Canada, because we all like to watch other people's lives fly off the rails to compensate for our own personal disappointments (or maybe that's just me).

Many of these athletes take advantage of the lessened competition and lenient stance on marijuana -- Josh Howard might want to consider a summer home in Montreal -- to get back on the field and out of the squad car, to sort of regain their life (or at least slow the self-destruction). Others ... well, you know what they say about old dogs.

Ex-Lions and Spartans receiver Charles Rogers was close to playing for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. Now, it's unclear whether he will actually play there.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reported that Rogers verbally agreed to terms with Montreal several weeks ago, and was sent a contract by the Alouettes shortly thereafter. But not only was the contract not sent back to Montreal, Rogers and his representatives have not returned phone calls from the team recently.

Who knows what's going on with Rogers these days, let alone what's going on in his head. But at least there's a comforting precedent -- if any of you think this is Rogers' last chance, kindly refer to the Quincy Carter Career Model.

Of course, the premise in the above headline is ridiculous -- Matt Millen certainly isn't getting unfair treatment from Lions fans and, if it's even possible, should probably get worse.

But Drew Sharp finally puts down his pitchfork to play devil's advocate -- maybe all the Lions' first-round blunders aren't his fault?

Only once has the team's early selections exemplified the kind of mouth-frothing football Millen identified with as a player. And that was his first draft in 2001, when he focused exclusively on the interior line ....

Joey Harrington was ownership's pick. Charles Rogers, Roy Williams and Mike Williams in successive years were Steve Mariucci's brainstorm. Ernie Sims was Rod Marinelli's idea. Calvin Johnson was Mike Martz's obsession.

Of course, Millen can still be blamed for hiring these poor drafters and signing off on the picks (except Sims, who so far looks great), but the point remains -- these were not Millen's choices. And two of the top three players in the '01 crop he picked -- Jeff Backus and Shaun Rogers -- turned out to be significantly less than anticipated themselves.

I don't agree that Millen has to take the reins this year; he should finally make this Marinelli's team. And I don't agree that the Lions "must" pick a rookie Pro Bowler this year; that's just setting an unrealistic goal. All the Lions have to do is resist the temptation to take a running back and address one of the lines. They'll get a good, impactful, immediate contributor if they do, and Ray Rice will still be there in the second.