Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lions

[News Bot]

Dave Birkett
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.freep.com/article/20130608/SPORTS01/306080079/cortland-finnegan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.freep.com/article/20130608/S ... d-finnegan</a>

[wrapimg=left]http://cmsimg.freep.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=C4&Date=20130608&Category=SPORTS01&ArtNo=306080079&Ref=AR&MaxW=300&Border=0&Rams-CB-Cortland-Finnegan-thinks-success-horizon-Lions[/wrapimg]Cortland Finnegan got an up-close look at how good Calvin Johnson was last year, not that he needed any reminders.

Johnson caught six passes for 111 yards in a Week 1 win against the Rams, and Finnegan said at the Nate Burleson-Stephen Tulloch charity softball game today he wasn’t the least bit surprised Johnson went on to break Jerry Rice’s single-season receiving record.

“I know it didn’t surprise you guys,” he said. “You don’t have the name Megatron for any other reason other than you’re a bad man. So that’s where it’s at. They had a lot of good things going for them. Slot receivers, (Matthew) Stafford is amazing. They picked up some good stuff this year. So (Jim) Schwartz, he’s always going to put together a good team.”

Finnegan said he had some discussions with the Lions prior to signing a free-agent deal with the Rams last year, but the Lions “just couldn’t work (a deal) out being that they had a lot of high-profile guys.”

Finnegan played for Lions coach Jim Schwartz in Tennessee, where he was teammates with Tulloch, who brought him in as a ringer for Saturday’s game against Burleson’s team.

“Me and Tully got drafted together, we’ve known each other the entire time so it’s been a friendship and this goes beyond friendship,” Finnegan said. “This is charity, a chance to give back to the community and me support him.”

Though the Lions are coming off a 4-12 season in which they lost their final eight games, Finnegan said he expects a major turn around this year.

“If we don’t win it, I’ll take the Lions winning it next,” he said.

Jason Fox, Dominic Raiola, Kris Durham, Patrick Edwards, Tahir Whitehead, Ashlee Palmer, Cory Greenwood, Jason Jones, Willie Young, Ziggy Ansah, O.G. Nwagbuo, Bill Bentley and Glover Quin were among the Lions who joined Burleson and Tulloch at the game today.

Fox and Durham hit home runs to lead Burleson’s team to the home-run derby championship.

“It’s good to have guys show up because all the fans see them do is play football,” Burleson said. “But then when they get to interact with them and talk to them and sign autographs, it’s pretty awesome man. It’s a good thing.”

 

[biggame1190]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Nah. I see mediocrity for Detroit.

 

[PrometheusFaulk]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

They look to me like they still have some holes when trying to defend the pass and pass blocking. And with Ansah a rookie they may have some issues getting after the quarterback.

 

[Iron Lion]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

You all should listen to your corner. He knows what he's talking about.

 

[den-the-coach]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Reggie Bush will make a big difference much like Darren Sproles in N'awlins. Lions Vikings swap records this year because it's still Christian Ponder.

 

[A55VA6]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Their offense could be deadly. But their defense has work to do.

 

[CGI_Ram]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Their offense could be deadly. But their defense has work to do.

They don't have much at DT... :lmao:

 

[-X-]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Their offense could be deadly. But their defense has work to do.

They don't have much at DT... :lmao:

 

[Iron Lion]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

The Lions' problem wasn't defense. It was coaching and special teams.

Despite having Jason Hanson the 2012 Lions possibly fielded the worst special teams of all time.

Our "specialist" Stefan Logan constantly muffed punts, fumbled way too often on the occasions when he did catch the punt, allowed balls to go over his head and get downed at the 10 yard line (easily a 30-yard swing if you assume a 10-yard return), took fair catches when he did not need to, TOOK A KNEE AT THE 5 YARD LINE ON A KICKOFF, oh and he also had a very bad return average on kickoffs and punt returns.

And then our special teams kick coverage gave up 4 special teams TDs in two games, both of which were losses and would have otherwise been wins easily. Our punting was atrocious. Also Jason Hanson, despite being relatively sure on FGs, could not kick it deep on kickoffs due to his age and we had no kick off specialist. He would kick it to the 5 yard lines quite often, making it difficult on the bad coverage unit.

A team that has the 13th ranked D and 3rd ranked O should not be 4-12, they should be 12-4.

Regardless of how bad you still think the Lions D is, it definitely didn't get worse over the offseason. Ziggy will be a question mark until he plays so the DE unit may get worse but overall the secondary should improve a lot with a 2nd round CB and Glover Quinn added at safety. The subpar LB corps should be the same, having lost its worst player who will be replaced by an experiment.

So there.

 

[Memento]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Until Stafford gets a weapon aside from Megatron and a true left tackle (because I don't think Riley Reiff is going to be anything more than a solid right tackle), they're not going to any Super Bowl. Sorry, Cortland. Gotta disagree with you on that one.

 

[Iron Lion]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Until Stafford gets a weapon aside from Megatron and a true left tackle (because I don't think Riley Reiff is going to be anything more than a solid right tackle), they're not going to any Super Bowl. Sorry, Cortland. Gotta disagree with you on that one.

Burleson broke his leg, Broyles tore his ACL, and Titus Young... well you know that story. That's our #2,3,4 gone right there. We played the stretch with practice squad guys. Also our #1 RB had no runs over 20 and we were a bad running team.

Despite this we had the #3 offense. I think the offense will be fine, even if Riley our 1st round pick LT is a downgrade.

 

[Memento]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Until Stafford gets a weapon aside from Megatron and a true left tackle (because I don't think Riley Reiff is going to be anything more than a solid right tackle), they're not going to any Super Bowl. Sorry, Cortland. Gotta disagree with you on that one.

Burleson broke his leg, Broyles tore his ACL, and Titus Young... well you know that story. That's our #2,3,4 gone right there. We played the stretch with practice squad guys. Also our #1 RB had no runs over 20 and we were a bad running team.

Despite this we had the #3 offense. I think the offense will be fine, even if Riley our 1st round pick LT is a downgrade.

But when Megatron alone accounts for more than 50 percent of that offense...that's pretty fucking bad. I will say that your line should improve; Larry Warford was someone that I badly wanted the Rams to take, and I was shocked that he fell to you guys in the third. But you guys still play in a tough division; the Packers and Vikings made the playoffs for a reason, and the Bears aren't far behind. Unfortunately, I just can't see you getting more than third place in the NFC North, let alone making it to the playoffs, and - less likely still - the Super Bowl.

 

[Iron Lion]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Calvin didn't account for more than 50% of the offense... the most you can stretch it is to say he almost had 50% of the passing offense, which would be what you expect out of your superstar player if he is being asked to carry the load due to injuries. Either way, even if you're right, it's irrelevant for next year because Broyles and Burleson will be back.

The biggest problem on our o-line by far is the center, Raiola, AKA Rollover. We strongarmed him this offseason and he's playing for the vet min now... presumably he can be cut with no penalty with no penalty due to the new contract.

We are only returning 2/5 starters on the line, and Rollover is one of them, but if he goes then the line will only improve vastly.

 

[albefree69]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Iron Lion made a puzzling comment:
The biggest problem on our o-line by far is the center, Raiola, AKA Rollover. We strong armed him this off season and he's playing for the vet min now... presumably he can be cut with no penalty with no penalty due to the new contract.

We are only returning 2/5 starters on the line, and Rollover is one of them, but if he goes then the line will only improve vastly.

Despite this we had the #3 offense. I think the offense will be fine, even if Riley our 1st round pick LT is a downgrade.

At first blush, these statements don't appear to make any sense to me. You say you're only returning 2 starters. so lets talk about those two returning starters first.

You say Raiola sucks but you convinced him to play for the vet minimum. Getting him to play for that salary might help with your cap but what does that have to do with the quality, or lack of quality of his play? He still sucks and if he gets cut he will be replaced by someone who is presumably even suckier because he wasn't able to oust your self admitted suckiest O-line player last year. I didn't hear you saying you acquired a better player in the off season to replace him.

I'm certainly no expert on your roster but I believe that Reiff played RT for you last year and did a pretty good job especially for a rookie. I don't know who will replace Reiff but it appears it will again be a player from last years squad who wasn't as good as Reiff. So again we have a downgrade. Reiff himself, according to Memento and yourself might also be a downgrade at LT. BTW, I disagree with both of you that he'll be a downgrade but I won't get into that right now.

So lets quickly add up what we have so far. A downgrade at center or at best a retention of the status quo with your worst player staying. A downgrade at RT and a downgrade at LT. Doesn't sound very good so far does it?

Of the two remaining positions, one will be filled by Warford who I think will be a big upgrade. That still leaves one of your guard positions that you are filling internally. Again by a player who couldn't crack the starting lineup last year. Another presumed downgrade.

So lets total that up. 3 definite downgrades. +1 more downgrade or at best, the retention of your worst O-line player. 1 upgrade at one of your guard positions.

Despite your success on offense last year, it was done with an O-line that didn't play very well and has suffered a significant downgrade from last years group. I'm at a loss to understand why you don't think that will adversely affect both your offense and your chances to make the playoffs.

Let's just hope that Stafford doesn't get killed playing behind that O-line this year. I believe he's sfuffered an injury or two in the past.

 

[Memento]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

At first blush, these statements don't appear to make any sense to me. You say you're only returning 2 starters. so lets talk about those two returning starters first.

You say Raiola sucks but you convinced him to play for the vet minimum. Getting him to play for that salary might help with your cap but what does that have to do with the quality, or lack of quality of his play? He still sucks and if he gets cut he will be replaced by someone who is presumably even suckier because he wasn't able to oust your self admitted suckiest O-line player last year. I didn't hear you saying you acquired a better player in the off season to replace him.

I'm certainly no expert on your roster but I believe that Reiff played RT for you last year and did a pretty good job especially for a rookie. I don't know who will replace Reiff but it appears it will again be a player from last years squad who wasn't as good as Reiff. So again we have a downgrade. Reiff himself, according to Memento and yourself might also be a downgrade at LT. BTW, I disagree with both of you that he'll be a downgrade buy I won't get into that right now.

So lets quickly add up what we have so far. A downgrade at center or at best a retention of the status quo with your worst player staying. A downgrade at RT and a downgrade at LT. Doesn't sound very good so far does it?

Of the two remaining positions, one will be filled by Warford who I think will be a big upgrade. That still leaves one of your guard positions that you are filling internally. Again by a player who couldn't crack the starting lineup last year. Another presumed downgrade.

So lets total that up. 3 definite downgrades. +1 more downgrade or at best, the retention of your worst O-line player. 1 upgrade at one of your guard positions.

Despite your success on offense last year, it was done with an O-line that didn't play very well and has suffered a significant downgrade from last years group. I'm at a loss to understand why you don't think that will adversely affect both your offense and your chances to make the playoffs.

Let's just hope that Stafford doesn't get killed playing behind that O-line this year. I believe he's sfuffered an injury or two in the past.

I think that Reiff stays at right tackle, to be honest. He just doesn't have the skillset to where you can trust him on the blindside. Putting Reiff at right tackle with Warford (who is an underrated pass blocker) at right guard is a good start.

But I agree, and I thought that Jeff Backus was the only loss. That's a lot of significant downgrades from a line that wasn't exactly great last year.

 

[albefree69]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Memento questioned the advisability of putting Reiff on the left side:

I think that Reiff stays at right tackle, to be honest. He just doesn't have the skillset to where you can trust him on the blindside. Putting Reiff at right tackle with Warford (who is an underrated pass blocker) at right guard is a good start.

But I agree, and I thought that Jeff Backus was the only loss. That's a lot of significant downgrades from a line that wasn't exactly great last year.

He may not make the best LT but it sounds like he's the best they have. I know they drafted him to be their LT. I think you might be under rating him but either way, it doesn't appear to be a good situation for the Lions.

Not that I care. :lol:

 

[Iron Lion]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

At first blush, these statements don't appear to make any sense to me. You say you're only returning 2 starters. so lets talk about those two returning starters first.

You say Raiola sucks but you convinced him to play for the vet minimum. Getting him to play for that salary might help with your cap but what does that have to do with the quality, or lack of quality of his play? He still sucks and if he gets cut he will be replaced by someone who is presumably even suckier because he wasn't able to oust your self admitted suckiest O-line player last year. I didn't hear you saying you acquired a better player in the off season to replace him.

I'm certainly no expert on your roster but I believe that Reiff played RT for you last year and did a pretty good job especially for a rookie. I don't know who will replace Reiff but it appears it will again be a player from last years squad who wasn't as good as Reiff. So again we have a downgrade. Reiff himself, according to Memento and yourself might also be a downgrade at LT. BTW, I disagree with both of you that he'll be a downgrade but I won't get into that right now.

So lets quickly add up what we have so far. A downgrade at center or at best a retention of the status quo with your worst player staying. A downgrade at RT and a downgrade at LT. Doesn't sound very good so far does it?

Of the two remaining positions, one will be filled by Warford who I think will be a big upgrade. That still leaves one of your guard positions that you are filling internally. Again by a player who couldn't crack the starting lineup last year. Another presumed downgrade.

So lets total that up. 3 definite downgrades. +1 more downgrade or at best, the retention of your worst O-line player. 1 upgrade at one of your guard positions.

Despite your success on offense last year, it was done with an O-line that didn't play very well and has suffered a significant downgrade from last years group. I'm at a loss to understand why you don't think that will adversely affect both your offense and your chances to make the playoffs.

Let's just hope that Stafford doesn't get killed playing behind that O-line this year. I believe he's sfuffered an injury or two in the past.

LT LG C RG RT

Assuming Raiola keeps his job, the bolded positions are the ones that are returning starters.

You assume incorrectly that Reiff was our RT and then build off that assumption. Gosder Cherilous was our RT, whom we lost to the Colts in FA. Reiff was our jumbo TE and was not one of the 5 starters. He got one start when Backus (our LT last year who now is retired) was injured and he fared well against the Texans.

Overall Reiff is probably a better run blocker than Backus was but I have not seen enough of his pass blocking to conclude one way or another on that aspect of his game.

You assume also that Raiola's hypothetical replacement would not be as good. This is just not true for a long list of reasons that I won't get into unless you ask me to.


So lets total that up. 3 definite downgrades. +1 more downgrade or at best, the retention of your worst O-line player. 1 upgrade at one of your guard positions.

Actually it is 2 downgrades at the most and cannot possibly be more (unless Warford is a total bust).

LT is possibly an upgrade but since I don't know for sure how good Reiff will play, it is possibly a downgrade. He is a 1st rounder for what that's worth. I can give it to you if you want to say downgrade here.

LG and C are returning the same guys. C can only get better if Raiola is replaced.

RG is a major improvement as you noted.

RT is going to be a competition between a career backup and a guy that we got in the 4th round in 2010 whom we have been grooming the whole time. This will be an unknown at best, but we should call it a downgrade.

If red is downgrade, green is upgrade, and black is no change, here's what our line is

LT LG C RG RT

Although, keep in mind, LT could be an improvement quite easily. Overall I don't see the line being much worse than it was last year other than the fact that the chemistry has been disrupted (last year's line had played together for 3 years straight).

In any case, if you insist on labeling Reiff as a downgrade, which I have said that I would concede although frankly I am doubtful that this will be the case, we still only have 1 downgrade on the line. For the rest of the offsense, we only lost Titus Young and we gained Reggie Bush. Bush might be overrated but I do think that this offensive system can get the most out of his skillset.

In sum, for the offensive side of the ball it would be fair to say that we are at a -1 in gains/losses, and on the defensive side we are at +1 at least.

 

[albefree69]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

Iron Lion made some corrections:
You assume incorrectly that Reiff was our RT and then build off that assumption. Gosder Cherilous was our RT, whom we lost to the Colts in FA. Reiff was our jumbo TE and was not one of the 5 starters. He got one start when Backus (our LT last year who now is retired) was injured and he fared well against the Texans.

You assume also that Raiola's hypothetical replacement would not be as good. This is just not true for a long list of reasons that I won't get into unless you ask me to.

Actually it is 2 downgrades at the most and cannot possibly be more (unless Warford is a total bust).

LT is possibly an upgrade but since I don't know for sure how good Reiff will play, it is possibly a downgrade. He is a 1st rounder for what that's worth. I can give it to you if you want to say downgrade here.

LG and C are returning the same guys. C can only get better if Raiola is replaced.

RG is a major improvement as you noted.

RT is going to be a competition between a career backup and a guy that we got in the 4th round in 2010 whom we have been grooming the whole time. This will be an unknown at best, but we should call it a downgrade.

If red is downgrade, green is upgrade, and black is no change, here's what our line is

LT LG C RG RT

Although, keep in mind, LT could be an improvement quite easily. Overall I don't see the line being much worse than it was last year other than the fact that the chemistry has been disrupted (last year's line had played together for 3 years straight).

In any case, if you insist on labeling Reiff as a downgrade, which I have said that I would concede although frankly I am doubtful that this will be the case, we still only have 1 downgrade on the line. For the rest of the offsense, we only lost Titus Young and we gained Reggie Bush. Bush might be overrated but I do think that this offensive system can get the most out of his skillset.

In sum, for the offensive side of the ball it would be fair to say that we are at a -1 in gains/losses, and on the defensive side we are at +1 at least.

Thanks for correcting me about Reiff not being your starting RT. I did tell you I wasn't an expert on your line didn't I? :bg:

So correcting for my mistake about Reiff, I'll go along with your count that I quoted below.

In sum, for the offensive side of the ball it would be fair to say that we are at a -1 in gains/losses

The numbers might be a little better but the the fact that the O-line will most likely be inferior to last years didn't change. And they weren't very good last year.

BTW, I'm not insisting that Reiff is a downgrade, I'm only going along with what you and memento said about him. In fact, if you read what I actually said, I think both of you are underestimating him. I think he'll do fine at LT. That's why you drafted him so high right?

While your defense might have improved in the long run with the acquisition of Ansah, in the short run it has probably worsened with the loss of Avril and Ansah's anticipated learning curve. Plus even with your count, the O-line has been degraded. Like most of us here at the ROD, we sometimes let our excitement about our new players over ride our common sense. Many of us are overly optimistic about their teams chances at this time of the year.

I think your team still has a lot of missing pieces on both the offense and the defense. You need a whole hell of a lot of things to go right to even sniff a play off berth IMO. But I do see improvement in some areas.

Good luck in the coming year.

Unless you're playing us of course.

 

[LesBaker]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

You all should listen to your corner. He knows what he's talking about.

I've had a chance to ask one other Lions fan this and so I am going to take the opportunity to ask you as we'll.

Lets say Stafford isn't on the Lions roster and you had the number one overall pick in the 2010 draft......

Suh or Bradford?

 

[Iron Lion]

Re: Cortland Finnegan thinks success on horizon for ... Lion

albefree69 -

You are saying that the o-line has gotten worse, and that they were not even that great last year. I think this is an over-simplification. An offensive lineman could be great at pass blocking but terrible at run blocking. One is going backwards and one is going forwards... totally different dynamic. The Lions line last year was quite good at pass protection and quite bad at run blocking. This year's crop should be more well-rounded.

LesBaker -

This is a loaded question... I will answer all the variants I can think of.

If I knew the future (by which I mean the 2010 draft up to today), I'd have taken Suh over Bradford.

If I did not know the future, I'd have taken Bradford.

If I knew the future and could've taken anybody at that spot instead of just Suh or Bradford, I'd have taken JPP.