Brandon Pettigrew

A lot of people were upset with this pick from the Lions in the 2009 draft at #20 overall. A Tight End when people wanted that offensive tackle still sitting there in Michael Oher who is the popular pick because every loves his attitude and determination. A great story of coming up hard and willing himself to be good enough to get to the NFL rather than be robbing Outer Banks homes, or some other silly troubles.

I wasn't particularly upset at all actually. I rather liked the pick. The guy was by far the best TE int he draft and we haven't had a real TE in decades. Waht I liked most about him wasn't that he was an offensive catching threat, but that he is a superb blocker in both the run and pass game. He becomes more or less a dual threat for the team. A guy that can move the chains as a safety valve because he does have those skills too, but more importantly a guy that can move defenders out of the way in the run game as well (Pettigrew started 45 of 47 games at Oklahoma State, recording 216 knockdowns with 30 touchdown-resulting blocks).

I could talk about Pettigrew all day, but the draft report at CBS.com for him is superb. I found the "Game Analysis" sections particularly interesting as it gives a brief recap of his performance in every game he played.

We Get Excited About Larry Foote in Detroit

Yes...the Detroit Lions faithful are so desperate for a real middle linebacker that we are excited about getting Larry Foote at the end of his career. He was released by the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburg Steelers yesterday, and was heard actually saying that he would like to play for the Lions.

Foote is from the Detroit area and played some ball for the Wolverines. Compared to Paris Lenon I think I could be an upgrade at MLB so this is a good move for us if he comes cheap. It would give us a starting LB corps of Ernie Sims, Larry Foote, and Julian Peterson (acquired via trade this year). Not too shabby considering what we've had in the past. Too bad out D-Line is still garbage, but the football gods were not kind to us by giving us the golden DE, or DT in our draft at #1. Raji is a 3-4 player BTW in case you are thinking we could have taken him. We run a 4-3 ;).

So...we get overly excited for a guy closer to collecting social security than making a pro bowl, but we should be I guess. Someone that actually says they want to play here? Now you have to wonder about his sanity.

Who Says Stafford Isn't Accurate?

Here's one for the Stafford lovers to rub in the faces of the Stafford haters. Potential #1 Overall pick in this year's NFL Draft for the Detroit Lions, Matthew Stafford appeared on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (You should really take the best appetite suppressant before watching this awful show) last week and took part in a bit of an exhibition.

Stafford was required to throw a football at flying plates. See for yourself how well he did :).

Stafford Football Skeet Shooting

Welcome to Detroit Matt ;).

Detroit Tigers Rick Porcello Get 1st Career MLB Win

Our next big time prospect earned his keep today against the Seattle Mariners as he won his first Major League game. Porcello pitched a very efficient 7 innings, only throwing 86 pitches, 56 of which were strikes, before he was taken out of the game enjoying a 5-1 lead. Porcello allowed just 1 earned run on 5 hits ann no walks. He struck out 3 as the Tigers won 8-2 and took the series 2-1 on the first of the west coast road trip.

The other pitching prospect up in the bigs for the Tigers Ryan Perry also saw action in relief. He had a bit of a shaky outing, however. Although he was not int he game when his run scored he made a crucial defensive error that allowed the inning to continue and was pulled right after. He had given up 1 hit, but had 2 outs. He got Ichiro to gorund out to 1st, but took his sweet time getting over to cover the bag and Ichiro beat him there prolonging the inning.

Another big game from Ramon Santiago. Santiago got the first RBI of the game on single in the 2nd. He added another RBI on a FC in the 4th. He was able to break the game open in the 8th with a 3 run double off the wall. HE finished 5 RBIs and has been on a tear since replacing the injured starting SS Adam Everett. He should have been starting since the season opened while Everett was enjoying stint with some other scrub team.