FanHouse JaredDeVries

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

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

Anthony Smith, Steelers
Didn't see that coming, did you? First, let me say that I don't have any real problems with Smith, a second-year safety used primarily as a backup until starter Ryan Clark went on injured reserve earlier this season, smacking his gums during the week. It's football; guys yell and scream and run into each other for a living.

The problem, however, is that Smith single-handedly torpedoed Pittsburgh's already-slim chances with what can kindly be described as "his play." Early in the second quarter with the Pats leading 7-3, Smith bit on a play-action pass that resulted in 63-yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss.

And on New England's first drive of the second half, they ran the same play that the Steelers used to break the Bengals' back in the 2005 wild-card game: wide receiver throwback, quarterback hits the deep post. But instead of Antwaan Randle El, Ben Roethlisberger and Cedrick Wilson, it was Moss, Tom Brady, and Jabar Gaffney. The guy responsible for not letting Gaffney get behind the defense? Yep, Mr. Smith.
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The Lion's have had some memorably spectacular collapses throughout the years, especially during Team President Matt Millen's checkered tenure. The mere fact the team is 21-64 during that tenure speaks volumes to their amazing ability to snatch defeat from the gaping maw of victory. However, few Lion's losses will ever be be remembered as being more tragic, or potentially catastrophic to their future, than this loss to Minnesota which came at a time when the team so badly needed to chalk up a victory.

Few team's have the ability to so methodically squander away a fourteen point fourth quarter lead. Few team's can feature so profound an inability to salt away a game and lose in a manner that consistently defied all odds. Fumbles, penalties, interceptions and general ineptitude formed the means in which the Lion's collapsed on Sunday. In my eyes, the fact that Jared DeVries improbably blocked a PAT attempt, preserving a meager 1 point lead late in the game, should have been enough of a tide-turning play for the Lion's to emerge victorious. Instead they continue on a losing course that shows no immediate signs of ceasing.

Most troubling for me, besides the rash of injuries to the team's starter's (Damien Woody, Fernando Bryant, Roy Williams, Kevin Jones, Shaun Cody, and Paris Lenon all missed significant playing time), was the Jekyll-like transformation of one of the team's few bright spots, QB Jon Kitna, into a stumbling, bumbling turnover-generating parody of himself late in the game. Through his obvious desperation and struggle to find victory, he effectively became a Lion's QB before our very eyes.

The Lion's are well on their way to finding themselves with another top 5 draft pick in the 2007 draft. In a best case scenario, the Lion's will finish 6-5 and move Matt Millen's career record as president to 27-69 in 96 games. This should be a strong enough body of evidence for the Ford's to be able to determine that they can ill afford to place the future of their franchise into such incapable hands any longer, I hope.