FanHouse Tom Lewand

Last week, new Lions offensive coordinator Scott Linehan declared the quarterback competition wide open for 2009. He's still in the process of evaluating the talent currently on the roster, which may or may not mean Matt Stafford will be in the team's immediate plans.

But as Burke wrote at the time, "Just because Linehan mentioned Matty Ice doesn't necessarily mean that Detroit's going to draft a QB. On the other hand, when 1+1=All the quarterbacks currently on the roster stink, it's hard to ignore Linehan's assertion."

Monday is the first day NFL teams can officially release veterans, and mlive.com's Tom Kowalksi thinks that Daunte Culpepper might avoid that fate. For now, anyway.

TAMPA, Fla. -- In talking to a cross-section of the National Football League intelligentsia over the last couple of days, one thing is clear: Almost everyone believes the Detroit Lions are planning to select Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford with the first pick in the NFL draft.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to happen – remember when everyone thought the Texans would draft Reggie Bush? – but it does mean that other teams are getting prepared for the draft with the thought that the only way they can get Stafford is by trading up for the Lions' pick, something that few teams seem inclined to do.

Jim Schwartz, probably more than any other current NFL coach, uses advanced statistics to measure player performance. The former Georgetown economics major graduated third in his class, and he's a fan of Football Outsiders, basically the only site doing for football what Bill James did for baseball some 30 years ago.

Winning games comes down to more than running a few regressions and calling it a day; there's also the on-the-field stuff: blocking, throwing, tackling and, ultimately, coaching. Finding that balance is the key. And two days into the toughest gig in sports, Schwartz sounds like a man who knows what he's doing. Or at the very least, he's a fabulous salesman.

I don't know enough about Tom Lewand or Martin Mayhew to comment on whether Lions owner William Clay Ford was wise to promote from within the organization, but history suggests that no one would've complained if Ford blew up the whole operation and started over.

The franchise has just 40 wins this decade, which is slightly more impressive when you consider that the total includes the recently completed 0-for-'08 run. (Not really; it works out to 5 wins a season versus 4.4 wins a season. In the salary-cap era, that blows.) Perhaps predictably, Clay decided to, as they say, stay the course and give current team employees Lewand and Mayhew shiny new titles.

Not surprisingly, the 2009 Lions look very similar to the versions that preceded it. Which is to say: unimpressive and out of sorts. Via PFT, the first post-Rod Marinelli press conference provided plenty of unintentional hilarity. Because after all, laughter -- even if accidental -- is the best medicine. Or something.

Following up on the story that Detroit Lions executive vice president and chief operating officer Tom Lewand told a reporter "I will come after you," Lions vice president of administration Bill Keenist called me today to offer what he said was a clarification.

According to Keenist, Lewand was only telling Oakland Press reporter Pat Caputo that the Lions would use legal means to respond if a story libeled the team.

"There was no threat," Keenist said.

In his article, Caputo wrote:

Do I feel threatened by Lewand? No. Am I angry he said those things. No. They were said out of loyalty and emotion -- and I understand and respect that.

But it doesn't change my opinion. And I don't believe I'm exactly a club of one in this town when it comes to believing Lions leadership is inept and insensitive.

The words "I will come after you" still strike me as threatening, but I'm prepared to believe Keenist that Lewand wasn't making any kind of physical threat. I'm also inclined to think Caputo is being very reasonable, both when he says he respects Lewand's loyalty and emotion, and when he says he thinks Lions leadership is inept.

Pat Caputo is a reporter at the Oakland Press, a newspaper based in Pontiac, Michigan. When Caputo learned that a Detroit Lions fan who canceled his season tickets received a profane e-mail from a Lions employee, he decided to write a story about it.

And when Caputo contacted Lions executive vice president and chief operating officer Tom Lewand in preparation for writing the story, Lewand didn't take kindly to it. According to Caputo, he told Lewand (pictured with Lions President Matt Millen) that he planned to write a piece about the e-mail and about the larger issue of the Lions being a badly run franchise, and this was Lewand's response:

"If you write that, it will be factually incorrect and bordering on slander," Lewand said. "And I will come after you."

And that, in a nutshell, is why the Lions are the laughingstocks of the NFL. A reporter decides to write a completely legitimate story about something seriously stupid that a Lions employee did, and instead of focusing his energy on fixing the stupid thing his employee did, a Lions executive threatens the reporter. The football field on Sundays isn't the only place where the Lions are a mess.

UPDATE: Lions Say Team Wasn't Threatening Reporter

Upon the announcement of Bill Parcells' retirement as Cowboys head coach, along with the recent rumors that Parcells had his agent submit his name for the recently vacant New York Giants GM position, one has to wonder, could Parcells bring his leadership and expertise to the Lions organization in a front office capacity?

Parcells' name has been mentioned in the past as a candidate for the Lions head coaching position. Parcells, who is believed would appreciate the relative hands-off approach of the Fords in football decisions, is a football lifer who may be ready for a new challenge in the sport. Parcells is under contract with the Cowboys for one more year, but could likely be had in a new role for the right price. Parcells has a winning pedigree that is without question and would bring 30 years of NFL experience to the table.

Their are two immediate obstacles that I can foresee. One obstacle is that Parcells is an advocate of the 3-4 defense, which is incongruous with the current Cover-2 zone scheme that the Lions utilize, and is the defensive scheme utilized by both of the 2007 Super Bowl participants. The other obstacle is whether Parcells and Lions executive Tom Lewand could work in partnership as ably as Lewand has with Team President Matt Millen. In regards to Millen, who has been a miserable failure in his personnel decision making, the Lions would have to drastically reduce his input in personnel decisions and reduce his role within the organization. If the Fords are at all serious about changing their franchise's fortunes, they should at least investigate this possibility.