NFC North: Theo Spight
Black and Blue all over: Pace likely finished
December, 17, 2009
12/17/09
7:25
AM ET
By
Kevin Seifert | ESPN.com
It’s all but official in Chicago: The Orlando Pace experiment is over.
Pace has returned to full health after rehabilitating a groin injury, but with three games left in a lost season, the Bears have no intention of reinserting him into the starting lineup. Instead, according to Vaughn McClure of the Chicago Tribune, the Bears will leave second-year player Chris Williams at left tackle and veteran backup Kevin Shaffer at right tackle.
This makes perfect sense for a number of reasons, and give some credit to the Bears for not being blinded by the money they paid Pace during the offseason. Williams is their left tackle for the long term, and he needs to use these games to continue developing at the position. Pace, 34, had a sub-par year and isn’t likely to return next season.
For his work this year, Pace will receive about $6 million in compensation. It was an expensive gambit, but at least the Bears aren’t extending its life to save face.
Continuing around the NFC North:
Pace has returned to full health after rehabilitating a groin injury, but with three games left in a lost season, the Bears have no intention of reinserting him into the starting lineup. Instead, according to Vaughn McClure of the Chicago Tribune, the Bears will leave second-year player Chris Williams at left tackle and veteran backup Kevin Shaffer at right tackle.
This makes perfect sense for a number of reasons, and give some credit to the Bears for not being blinded by the money they paid Pace during the offseason. Williams is their left tackle for the long term, and he needs to use these games to continue developing at the position. Pace, 34, had a sub-par year and isn’t likely to return next season.
For his work this year, Pace will receive about $6 million in compensation. It was an expensive gambit, but at least the Bears aren’t extending its life to save face.
Continuing around the NFC North:
- Bears offensive coordinator Ron Turner wasn’t surprised by comments attributed to receiver Devin Hester, writes Jeff Dickerson of ESPN Chicago.
- Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Press-Gazette profiles Packers coach Mike McCarthy, a Pittsburgh native who will return home for Sunday’s game against the Steelers.
- The Packers play a similar defense to the Steelers, writes Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- Minnesota linebacker Erin Henderson, suspended this week for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances, says he did nothing wrong. But in an interview with Sean Jensen of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Henderson doesn't totally spell out how it came to be that he tested positive and lost all appeals.
- In a sign of the current dysfunction in Minnesota stadium politics, the Vikings won’t be present and won’t endorse a new stadium design that will be proposed Thursday by the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission. Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune explains.
- Detroit players know a roster turnover is coming, even if coach Jim Schwartz declined to start the process this week. Nicholas J. Cotsonika of the Detroit Free Press has more.
- Terry Foster of the Detroit News speaks with Theo Spight, who sings the Lions fight song during games at Ford Field.
Posted by ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert
So the Lions are two games away from infamy. Exactly 120 minutes of football time separate them from a perfectly awful 0-16 season. It's one record no NFL team wants to reach, and we're here to help.
As part of ESPN.com's Thursday Hot Read on the topic, we hereby offer 16 suggestions for fixing the Lions:
1. Dispatch the denial. Stop counting the near-misses and lamenting the "few plays here and there." Admit you're broken in a fundamental way. With few exceptions, the NFL's competitive model puts most teams relatively close to one another. There's a reason you hear so much about "any given Sunday." For one team to start 0-14, and lose 21 of its past 22 games, indicates an overhaul -- not a tweak -- is necessary.
2. Start at the top. No one knows exactly how the Lions' ownership runs the team. But we got a glimpse this season when vice chairman Bill Ford Jr. publicly campaigned for the firing of president/general manager Matt Millen. Two days later, chairman William Clay Ford did the deed. All indications are that the elder Ford continues to wield final say, but it's time for Ford Jr. -- whose judgment on Millen far surpassed his father's -- to take over.
3. Put Rod Marinelli out of his misery. Marinelli might be a good football coach, but no one can lose so many games in a such a short period while maintaining credibility inside or outside the organization. I know, Marinelli hasn't been blessed with the NFL's best personnel. But it's hard to convince anyone you're moving forward with a coach who has lost 36 of 46 games over a three-year tenure.
4. Before hiring the next head coach, settle on a front-office structure that provides checks and balances to avoid a repeat of the unchallenged mistakes Millen routinely made. Most people assume that chief operating officer Tom Lewand will retain a prominent business role, which is fine. On the football side, however, the Lions need a general manager and coach tandem that understands each other's philosophies and will consider contradictory thoughts. The current model is in Atlanta, where general manager Thomas Dimitroff and coach Mike Smith are said to work exceptionally well together.
5. Thank interim general manager Martin Mayhew for his eye-opening work after replacing Millen. And then send him on his way. This is in no way a comment on Mayhew, who in other circumstances would make a fine general manager for the Lions. But remember our general premise: This is not an organization that needs tweaking. It needs to be rebuilt in a big-picture sense. You can't convince your fan base, free agents or even coaching candidates that you're making fundamental changes if Millen's top assistant replaces him -- no matter who it is.
6. Throw a bone to fans -- not a gimmick or a marketing slogan, but something that genuinely invites their interest. A 10 percent cut in ticket prices might be a start. Or, perhaps, a real barnstorming tour that allows fans to ask unedited questions of the Lions' football decision-makers over the course of the season. Transparency and honesty during the rebuilding process, while not comfortable, will help re-connect to a fan base that has lost faith in the team's ability to operate effectively.
So the Lions are two games away from infamy. Exactly 120 minutes of football time separate them from a perfectly awful 0-16 season. It's one record no NFL team wants to reach, and we're here to help.
|
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As part of ESPN.com's Thursday Hot Read on the topic, we hereby offer 16 suggestions for fixing the Lions:
1. Dispatch the denial. Stop counting the near-misses and lamenting the "few plays here and there." Admit you're broken in a fundamental way. With few exceptions, the NFL's competitive model puts most teams relatively close to one another. There's a reason you hear so much about "any given Sunday." For one team to start 0-14, and lose 21 of its past 22 games, indicates an overhaul -- not a tweak -- is necessary.
2. Start at the top. No one knows exactly how the Lions' ownership runs the team. But we got a glimpse this season when vice chairman Bill Ford Jr. publicly campaigned for the firing of president/general manager Matt Millen. Two days later, chairman William Clay Ford did the deed. All indications are that the elder Ford continues to wield final say, but it's time for Ford Jr. -- whose judgment on Millen far surpassed his father's -- to take over.
 |
|
| Leon Halip/US Presswire | |
| Rod Marinelli has a 10-36 record in his three seasons in Detroit. |
3. Put Rod Marinelli out of his misery. Marinelli might be a good football coach, but no one can lose so many games in a such a short period while maintaining credibility inside or outside the organization. I know, Marinelli hasn't been blessed with the NFL's best personnel. But it's hard to convince anyone you're moving forward with a coach who has lost 36 of 46 games over a three-year tenure.
4. Before hiring the next head coach, settle on a front-office structure that provides checks and balances to avoid a repeat of the unchallenged mistakes Millen routinely made. Most people assume that chief operating officer Tom Lewand will retain a prominent business role, which is fine. On the football side, however, the Lions need a general manager and coach tandem that understands each other's philosophies and will consider contradictory thoughts. The current model is in Atlanta, where general manager Thomas Dimitroff and coach Mike Smith are said to work exceptionally well together.
5. Thank interim general manager Martin Mayhew for his eye-opening work after replacing Millen. And then send him on his way. This is in no way a comment on Mayhew, who in other circumstances would make a fine general manager for the Lions. But remember our general premise: This is not an organization that needs tweaking. It needs to be rebuilt in a big-picture sense. You can't convince your fan base, free agents or even coaching candidates that you're making fundamental changes if Millen's top assistant replaces him -- no matter who it is.
6. Throw a bone to fans -- not a gimmick or a marketing slogan, but something that genuinely invites their interest. A 10 percent cut in ticket prices might be a start. Or, perhaps, a real barnstorming tour that allows fans to ask unedited questions of the Lions' football decision-makers over the course of the season. Transparency and honesty during the rebuilding process, while not comfortable, will help re-connect to a fan base that has lost faith in the team's ability to operate effectively.
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ABOUT THIS BLOG
Kevin Seifert
Seifert joined ESPN.com in 2008 after covering the Minnesota Vikings for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for eight years. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and children.
