FanHouse DanOrlovsky

Nate Davis has had a rough few months. After an impressive junior season at Ball State -- one in which some folks had him pegged as a possible first-round pick -- the MAC quarterback has experienced a series of setbacks that will cost him millions of dollars, and perhaps the opportunity to play professional football.

ESPN.com's Jeffri Chadiha wrote earlier this month that Davis "... seemed destined to follow Ben Roethlisberger, Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich as the next great Mid-American Conference quarterback to enter the NFL," although now he's more likely to be lumped in with Bruce Gradkowski, Charlie Frye -- or worse -- Omar Jacobs.

Maybe he will go on to NFL greatness, but for now, Dan Orlovsky is best known as "that dude who ran out of the end zone for no apparent reason." The Lions' 2005 fifth-round pick, Orlovsky started started seven games at quarterback last season, but has decided to test the free-agent market instead of returning to Detroit.

It has less to do with the Lions' 0-16 putridity and more to do with the organization telling Orlovsky, in so many words, that there was a better chance he'd lead the league in rushing yards than win the starting quarterback job.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

I'm going to do my best to avoid use of the phrase "Well, things can't get any worse," or anything like that. Really, I am. But it's worth pointing out that this is a true statement. Things are looking up for the Detroit Lions because they absolutely can't get any worse.

With two first-round picks and a ton of available cap space, a well-managed organization could make a significant dent in one year.

When quarterback Jon Kitna landed on injured reserve six weeks into the 2008 season, many people figured his Lions career was over. It wasn't an especially earth-shattering notion at the time; the team would use the opportunity to see if Dan Orlovsky was a long-term option, or, worst case, get Drew Stanton some work in the hopes that he might emerge as something more than an embarrassment in 2009.

But these are the Lions we're talking about. Orlovsky was injured a month after taking over for Kitna and Daunte Culpepper was summoned off his couch to take over. Predictably, things didn't go so well.

During the fourth quarter of Saturday's Ravens-Titans game, Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco dropped back to pass in his own end zone and nearly stepped on the end line:



It was very, very close to a safety, and stunningly, the CBS producers didn't bother to show a replay, while the CBS announcers didn't say a word about it. Only much later, after the game, were viewers able to see another replay angle (the second one shown above) that appears to show green grass between Flacco's foot and the end line.

The now 0-14 Lions have many believing that a winless season is not only possible, but probable. This is 0for08, FanHouse's eye on the Detroit Lions and their quest for a winless season.

Some fans and pundits have looked at the Lions schedule over the last four or five games of the season and thought that their best chance to get in the win column would come today against the Saints. On ESPN's Sunday Countdown this morning, Tom Jackson -- normally a rational NFL mind -- stood firmly against the rest of the crew in picking the Lions today.

The Lions aren't going to win today.

At halftime, the score is 28-7, and Detroit can't stop a single thing New Orleans is doing on offense. The Saints have scored four rushing touchdowns by four different players (Robert Meachem, Deuce McAllister, Pierre Thomas, and Mike Bell). Meanwhile, Dan Orlovsky has a quarterback rating of 19.6, though that number is damaged by a prayer at the end of the first half which was picked off by Usama Young, and a long touchdown pass to Calvin Johnson that was called back on an illegal formation penalty by Gosder "The Human Penalty" Cherilus.

Still, the game is as lopsided as the score indicates.

UPDATE: It gets worse. After returning the opening kickoff of the second half, the Lions get called for 12 men on the field. Those are your halftime adjustments at work.

It's playoff time! In what should be championship week, FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled in order to provide answers to your possible lineup dilemmas. If you need further assistance, please feel free to shoot us an email question.

I often write about the topsy-turvy fantasy football world. It's a love/hate relationship. You love it when it works out for you, and hate it when it doesn't.

This week's twist of fate? A New England quarterback is going to lead teams to their fantasy championship, and it's Matt Cassel. There have been ups and downs, but Cassel has shown himself plenty able to exploit poor defenses and turn that into monstrous fantasy points. The Arizona Cardinals are a terrible defense on the road, and they just allowed four touchdown passes to Tarvaris Jackson at home.

That post-Week 1 waiver priority move is going to pay big dividends if you are still playing this week and own Cassel.

More notes after the rankings.

1. Drew Brees, at DET
2. Peyton Manning, at JAX
3. Matt Cassel, vs. ARI
4. Jay Cutler, vs. BUF
5. Donovan McNabb, at WAS

It doesn't matter your affiliation to a certain team, we can all admit that, during a sports year, athletes make just as many idiotic decisions on the field as they do off it. You have backward passes, premature celebrations, and rare "I'm not even sure what was supposed to be happening there" plays that can make you go bald from all the head scratching. This year was no different in the NFL, and here is what we came up with as the NFL's dumbest plays of 2008.

Dan Orlovsky's Phantom Safety -- Do you want to know how bad this play actually was? When bringing this idea up to the FanHouse football group, all I had to say about this play was, "Dan Orlovsky." Everyone knew which play I was talking about. The poor guy was thrown into a terrible situation in Detroit, and decided his legacy was going to be "running out of the back of the end zone without ever really knowing what went on." Running out of the end zone as a quarterback is one thing ... not knowing you did so and continuing the play is quite another. I can guarantee Orlovsky one thing -- his video will be shown by high-school coaches all around the nation as what not to do when stuffed back by your own end zone.

The Free Kick Attempt by Neil Rackers -- It sure wasn't the dumbest play of the year, but it was definitely the most confusing. With five seconds left in the first half against the Giants, Ken Whisenhunt actually made the decision to opt for a "free kick," even though nobody knew what in the world a free kick was. Rackers set the ball up on a tee, rared back his heavy leg and ... muffed it. Not only was it unsuccessful, but it gave the Giants a chance to return it. I guess the good news was that we learned what a free kick was and that Rackers has no 68-yard leg.

Lucky for the media, they're only allowed to watch part of Lions' practice, but from what mlive.com's Tom Kowalski saw, things are worse than usual for the team just three games away from 0-16.

If you somehow missed it, Drew Henson, formerly of the New York Yankees, was under center for the last snap of Sunday's loss to the Vikings because Daunte Culpepper suffered a shoulder injury the series before.

Culpepper has since had an MRI on his shoulder and didn't take part in individual drills this afternoon. Dan Orlovsky, who missed the last five games with a thumb injury on his throwing hand, did take part in practice ... and proceeded to look like crap.

"... his throws were very inconsistent. It appears that Orlovsky is still struggling to get a firm grip on the ball. When he tried to really zip a throw, some were on the mark but others sailed high and others wobbled.

There's more (of course there is): Drew Stanton, the biggest embarrassment in the history of professional football, is the healthiest of the three quarterbacks who didn't previously play baseball for a living, although he's coming off a concussion. And he's embarrassing.

You know, it's still not too late to forfeit the Colts game and prepare extra hard for the Saints. Or, better still, maybe head coach Rod Marinelli can spread around some of that invisibility cream he's been bragging about. That might be the Lions last, best hope at avoiding a big fat oh-fer.

As the Detroit Lions gird up their loins to hit the field of battle on another turkey day, they face quite a daunting task. No team in the history of the NFL has ever lost 16 games in the regular season. That's probably because they only play 16. You have to be a really, horrifically brutal football team to finish 0-16, which is why no one has accomplished that feat before.

A peek at the Lions schedule from here on out shows their task. Any win for an 0-11 team would be an upset, but this is a stout group left on the docket for Detroit. They play the Titans (10-1), Vikings (6-5), and Saints (6-5) at home, while traveling to face the Colts (7-4) and the Packers (5-6). The most winnable game would seem to be Green Bay, but beating the Packers in Lambeau on December 28th isn't an easy task for a team used to the indoors.

Simply put, I think the Lions are going 0-16. I actually have for quite some time.

Let's examine their profile against some of the worst teams in NFL history (Super Bowl era) to see where they might rank.