FanHouse EdwinMulitalo

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: Jon Kitna -- man of God, man of many passing yards, man of many lapses in judgement. With Kitna, Mike Martz found a quarterback who could air it out appropriately in his offense. Appropriately, in this instance, means bombing away with little regard to risk, and the interception and sack totals with Kitna under center reflect that. Martz is gone and the Lions are shifting to a more conservative offense. Kitna isn't the right man to helm it, and, turning 36 early this season, should be on his last tour in Detroit. The problem is that the Lions aren't sure if they have anyone behind him to take over, with Dan Orlovsky and Drew Stanton possessing exactly zero starts and only 17 passing attempts between them, all Orlovsky's. Heat Index: 5

Running back: That conservative offense will put more work at the feet of the team's tailbacks. The Lions' running game in 2007 was 31st in the league and lost their best runner in Kevin Jones. Still, they're going about improving in the right way. They kept Tatum Bell and Brian Calhoun from last year and tailored their attack to a one-cut zone blocking system that suits their skills. Bell had almost 2,000 yards and 10 touchdowns running in that system in 2005 and 2006. Assuming he stays healthy, he should bring a big-play punch. But the biggest impact will be made by the biggest unknown -- rookie Kevin Smith. He also excels in a zone system, and the wildly productive college back is one of the players I think is going to absolutely turn heads this year. Heat Index: 7

Today, the Lions' march towards the Super Bowl the playoffs a 10-win season respect a .500 record something other than crippling embarrassment began in a big way.

Joke all you want about 'em, but the Lions scored 36 points and put together a late fourth-quarter comeback against a top five defense, and got big plays on both sides of the ball in the process. Moxie? Hard work? Resiliency? These aren't your father's Lions. These aren't anybody's Lions, actually.

But oh, did it look like the bottom was falling out, as Josh McCown led the Raiders on a 21-3 run in the second half that put them up 21-20 after going down 17-0. Lots of people expected the Lions to put up points, but the Raiders were downright frisky on offense as well and, actually, both groups resembled legitimate NFL squads. It's true.

If you run an NFL team, and you want success, you might want to make sure your coaches don't contradict each other out of childish spite.

The line's biggest collisions involved line coach Larry Beightol and offensive coordinator Mike Martz...

Sometimes, Beightol would give the linemen instructions on how to block a certain play. The linemen would follow his orders in practice, and Martz would yell at them for following Beightol's instructions.

The players were like kids caught in the middle of a big nasty divorce. Some weeks, they wouldn't know what they were supposed to do until Saturday.

That sound you're hearing is that of Lions season ticket holders expressing their gratitude for getting such a fine-tuned product for their money. In all fairness, I see what the Lions were doing -- in college, I always did best on the exams I crammed for last minute. You may call it a lack of cohesiveness, organization, and professionalism; I call it a bold managerial strategy.

With new starters in George Foster and Edwin Mulitalo, Martz is optimistic about the state of the Lions' offensive line. It doesn't hurt that, with Beightol gone, the players can focus more on blocking schemes and less on blaming themselves for the split and what weekends they get to see Daddy.

To get you ready for the season, FanHouse is previewing all 32 NFL teams. Here's Detroit's outlook.

2006 record: 3-13

2006 Offense: People tend to hold the misconception that Detroit's offense last year was good despite their poor record, based on the presence of Mike Martz and Jon Kitna's 4,208-yard, 21-touchdown year. What those people are overlooking are Kitna's 22 interceptions and the Lions' dead-last run game, which averaged only 70.6 yards per contest. For some perspective, 21 individual backs averaged more. Including Edgerrin James. Who ran for the Arizona Cardinals. Embarassing? You bet.

2006 Defense: This is a unit that ranked near the bottom five in just about every major defensive category last year. Linebacker Ernie Sims and safety Daniel Bullocks both showed promise, but the star of the defense, Shaun Rogers, was underwhelming. The Lions have some new blood that, on paper, should improve the unit, but that's not exactly a task, either.

2006 Special Teams: Eddie Drummond (no, you're not getting the Bermanism) had a solid, unspectacular season as the Lions' main returner, and kicker Jason Hanson is a keeper (the Lions relied on a lot of field goals, and Hanson had the third-most in the league). Still, the Lions special teams was middle of the road, at best. Noticing a theme? I should have just heeded that old "If you can't say anything nice ... " saying and saved myself the last 20 minutes.

The drip, drip of bad news keeps coming in Baltimore. Yesterday it was the news that left guard Edwin Mulitalo was lost for the season after tearing a tricep in his left arm. Now we here that early on Tuesday morning return man B.J. Sams was arrested for DUI for the second time in 14 months. From the Baltimore Sun:

Sams was stopped shortly before 2 a.m. on the outer loop of I-695 near Greenspring Avenue in Baltimore County, after his Chevrolet Tahoe had reportedly been swerving and nearly struck a vehicle on northbound Interstate 83, Maryland State Police said.

The concern here is that if Sams was placed in the NFL's substance abuse program, a second violation could result in a four game suspension. We'll have to wait and see, as participation in the program is strictly confidential, and the NFL is pretty good at keeping its mouth shut in cases like this -- until a suspension gets announced, that is.

Through the first four games on this undefeated season, a lot of folks have been comparing the Ravens to the team that won the Super Bowl at the close of the 2000 season. But while everyone thinks about the comparison in terms of the stifling defense, it's easy to forget that return man Jermaine Lewis was a pretty vital cog in the machine as well. With the way the Ravens offense has been misfiring so far this season, they can't afford to lose any yards -- least of all when the team's return man is ranked second overall in the league in kickoff return yardage.

The Baltimore Ravens got their first piece of bad news in the 2006 regular season as the team announced that it has lost starting left guard Edwin Mulitalo for the rest of the year with a torn tricep muscle in his left arm. A starter since the 2000 Super Bowl season, Mulitalo had started 92 of the team's last 100 games. Stepping in for Mulitalo will be second-year man Jason Brown, who has spent the majority of the season practicing to step in at center. Brown started one game last season -- coincidentally, it was against the Broncos who the Ravens will be playing Monday night in Denver.

Brown thinks he's ready:

"I feel very prepared," said the 6-foot-3, 320-pound Brown, who worked out in the team's training facility on a day when the players were given the option of staying home. "I've only played one full game in this league. I'm yet to be proven. ... Yet, I've gone through a lot of preparation. It's going to be a test, and I've prepared for it."

The Ravens better hope so. With Mulitalo gone, head coach Brian Billick says the team will be looking to add another lineman. While I'm sure the offensive line will rally in the wake of the loss of Mulitalo, this is nothing but bad news. The line wasn't exactly a rock of strength coming out of training camp, and it wasn't like this starting five was opening huge holes for starting running back Jamal Lewis. If the Ravens are going to win consistently, they need to start running the ball better, and I'm not sure how that's going to happen without Mulitalo in the lineup.