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Well, the wait is over. Both of Detroit’s all-sports stations, as well as ESPN, are reporting that the Lions will name Rod Marinelli as their next head coach. Marinelli has been the Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Line Coach for the Tampa Bay Bucs since 2002.

I like this pick above the Grimm or Haslett options. I haven’t like either of those guys since Day One. Still, I’m not sold on the deal. This team needs an infusion of offensive know-how, something it has lacked since the days of Barry Sanders. I’m hoping one of the circulating rumors I’m hearing out there is true – Al Saunders as the Offensive Coordinator. That would set my mind at ease just a bit.

So, as Coach Marinelli gets ready to take over his new office in Allen Park, I thought he might want some help sorting out what needs to be fixed.

Coach, can I call you Rod? Good. Rod, here are some things that NEED to be fixed if you want to escape the fate of every other one of your predecessors – in no particular order.

-Get pressure on the QB.
This one should be right up your alley. According to the Bucs website, your D-lines have amassed 303.5 sacks in the nine years you’ve been coaching them – tops in the league. We have some talent waiting for you to show them how it’s done. Shaun Rogers could be a force in the league with you guiding him and getting in the trenches with him. Kalimba Edwards is a player that seems to have tons of potential, but just hasn’t been able to reach it. The young Shawn Cody is another one to keep your eye on, coach. After a great career at USC and an OK rookie year as a back-up, he needs you to help him get to the next level. This line needs to pressure the QB to take some pressure off of their DB’s and LB’s.

-Fix Charles Rogers.
Rod, I might be in the minority on this one, but I don’t want to see Rogers go. I think he could be the best WR this team has had since Herman Moore. He’s fast, he’s elusive, and he’s athletic. Unfortunately, he’s also immature and selfish. Figure this one out quick. Convince him things will change for him, as long as he plays by the rules. And then MAKE HIM follow those rules. They sky is the limit with this kid, Rod. Don’t kick him to the curb just yet.

-Take Charge.
Rod, this is YOUR locker room now. YOU make the rules. YOU set the guidelines. There were dozens upon dozens of reports last year about players being late, not paying attention in meetings, and a basic lack of harmony behind closed doors. Some of that is only natural when you get 52 competitors in the same room, but a lot of things went too far and got out of the control of our last coach. Put your foot down now. Let them know that THEY work for YOU.

-The O-Line is Offensive.
Blown blocking schemes, missed assignments and public berating of the QB. And that was just in one week. Rod, this might be your biggest challenge. Kevin Jones is a fine, young RB. But as talented as he is, he’s gonna need some help. Open some holes. Not to mention the fact that, no matter who your QB is, he’s gonna need time to throw. The O-Line might very well be the key to success with this team. Take your time with them.

-Keep Joey Harrington.
Yes, I said it. I am NOT a Joey guy. I haven’t liked him since 2003. I don’t think he’s the player to lead this team to its first Super Bowl. But he’s better than the other options. To get any of the good QB prospects that will be available, it’s going to cost us something. Either a player or a draft pick. I don’t think that’s a wise course of action for this team right now. Keep Harrington, keep Orlovsky, and bring in a middle-tier free agent that can be a an effective back-up, and just good enough to threaten Joey’s job should Harrington start to falter. And DO NOT use one of our first three picks in the draft on a QB. The last thing we need is another rookie ordained as “The One” to come in here and wilt under the pressure. Harrington might not be the popular choice, but he’s your best option right now.

-Don’t listen to Matt Millen.
He’s clueless. He’s 21-59, and has helped to make this organization the worst in the League since 2000. I do not question his passion for winning, and I know he’ll do all he can to help the team win. It’s just that his track record shows that he doesn’t make good decisions. I’m hoping hiring you was a first sign of improvement.

-Open up the offense.
Whoever you decide to hire as your OC, make sure he isn’t stuck in some archaic form of the WCO. I understand that nearly every offense uses some WCO elements. I’m just saying to think outside the box as you assemble your playbook. Let Joey call his own pays now and then. Throw deep on 1st and 10. And 2nd and 10. Shoot, you could even throw 11 yards and 3rd and 10. Add in some shovel passes and screens to Eddie Drummond. Even run a reverse of a flea-flicker once or twice. It could be fun, and I happen to know the fans will love it. Not to mention the players.

Rod, I hope you don’t mind me sharing my thoughts on this with you. I know you’re new in town, and it’s gonna take you some time to get settled in. That’s fine. Take some time. Just keep in mind that the fans of this team have been waiting for 49 years for another championship, and 14 years for a SECOND playoff win. That’s right – second win. We need you to be the guy. We need you to know what you’re doing. We need you to revive this organization. We need you to take them out of the gutter, and move them toward the upper echelon of the NFL.

It’s been too long. It has to happen now. If it doesn’t, your stay here won’t be very pleasant.

No pressure, though.

Welcome to Detroit.

All the buzz concerning the Lions’ search for a head coach over the last couple of days has been about two of my least favorite candidates.

Greg Eno at Out of Bounds yesterday proclaimed his love for Steelers’ Offensive Line Coach Russ Grimm. While I see Eno’s point, hiring a guy that’s never done anything but coach five 300-pound guys how to push the four 300-pound guys running towards them away scares me. Fine, we’ll likely have a great O-Line, but what happens after that? Not sure if everybody is aware, but the O-Line was just one of many problems the Lions faced last season. What about the QB? What about the lack of production from the WR’s? What about dropped passes? What about stopping the run? Can an O-Line coach take care of all of those problems?

According to Terry Foster, the rest of the NFL sees the Lions coaching search as a big joke. Terry wrote in his personl blog yesterday that he spoke with one of his sources from inside the NFL, and, as he put it “The entire NFL is laughing at the Detroit Lions over this coaching search,” he said. “They are looking at a lot of people. But they are looking at the wrong people.” Foster continued, “The knock on Grimm seems to be universal. He is clumsy and disorganized. He does not pay attention to detail. He’s been described as Shrek in a coaching shirt.”

Am I the only person that is worried by that?

Today, Mlive.com’s Lions weblog informs us that my other worst choice might actually be the leading candidate to take the reigns of the Lions next season. Jim Haslett, who was average at best during his time in the Big Easy, is a defensive-minded tough guy who was never able to get the full potential out of his players in New Orleans.

The last thing we need is a guy that can’t get his players to reach their potential. The Lions’ locker room is filled with potential. We need somebody that knows how to bring it out.

The best name on the market right now, in my mind, is still Gary Kubiak. While it’s very likely that Kubiak will end up in charge of the Houston Texans, the Lions and Matt Millen need to at least make a strong push for him. It seems to me that placing Grimm and Haslett at the top of your list indicates a willingness to settle. This team is not in a place where it can settle for a second-tier coach. The Lions need a quality coach that can open the offense and motivate the players. They need somebody that has won before and knows how to build that winning culture in the locker room.

Neither Haslett or Grimm fit that profile, and if the Lions pick either one of them anyway, it will verify my worst fears - The Detroit Lions have no clue.

More from Kevin Antcliff at kevinantcliff.com

The following piece originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Motor City Sports Magazine.

I really thought they could do it.

Sure, I was a naïve 19-year-old at the time, but I honestly believed that they could pull it off. They had won their last seven games after starting out 0-3, they boasted the second-best offense in the NFL, they held the number 14 defense and, perhaps more important than all of that, they had Barry Sanders.

They were the 1995 Detroit Lions, and they should have been in the Super Bowl.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll likely say it plenty more times throughout my life, but I am convinced that 1995 was Detroit’s one real shot at a modern-day NFL championship.

When you talk about those Lions, you’re talking about a team whose only offensive weakness was its running game. Before you call me crazy, let me explain. That year, the Lions handed the ball off to their backs a total of 333 times. On those carries, the Lions gained 1,574 yards. Barry alone gained 1,500 yards on 314 carries. He was the ONLY real option out of that backfield. No offense to Ron Rivers or Cory Schlesinger, but when Sanders was out of the game, so was the running threat.

Then there was the passing game. Herman Moore led the NFL in receptions that season with a then-record 123, and he racked up an impressive 1,686 yards and 14 touchdowns. Their second option, Brett Perriman, grabbed 108 balls for 1,488 yards and nine scores of his own. Perriman’s 108 receptions would have been enough to lead the league in many seasons, but in 1995 it wasn’t even good enough to lead his own team. Throw in the contribution of the promising, young Johnnie Morton, and you have a dangerous receiving unit, to say the least. And say what you will about Scott Mitchell, but in 1995 he was good. Actually, he was very good. Mitchell threw for 4,338 yards and 32 scores, both team records. He completed nearly 60 percent of his passes, and threw just 12 interceptions.

Detroit’s defense did its part, too. They played a “bend, but don’t break” style of football up until week 14 against Chicago, when they allowed only seven points in a 27-7 win. They finished the last four games of the season by giving up just 34 points, allowing Detroit to outscore their opponents 112-34 over that span.

Stats don’t really tell the entire story, however. The truth is, this team was playing some of the best football in the NFL over the last five weeks of the season. It was one of the few teams that the others hoped they would not have to face during the playoffs. The problem was that the players started believing the hype.

Lomas Brown, the Lions’ Pro Bowl Tackle, publicly guaranteed a victory in the first round of the playoffs. Other players could be heard making comments about how the rest of the league was afraid of them. This was a city that hadn’t had much football success since the 1950s, save one playoff win in 1992. They let the seven-game win streak and Pro Bowl selections cloud their vision, and they stopped doing what they had done over the course of the season’s last few weeks – playing like a team.

We all know how the story ended. The Lions waltzed into Philadelphia and were smashed into a fine, blue and silver powder. Just like that, the season was over.

That season was the last time the Lions fielded a team that really had any kind of chance to make some noise. Yes, they’ve been back to the playoffs, but they never were a threat to anybody. That lone win in 1992 is still the team’s only playoff win since the 1950s. As I’ve watched numerous failed seasons play out since 1995, I often wonder what would have happened if that team had stayed focused. What could it have accomplished when operating as a single, determined unit? What if the players didn’t let their experience with success go to their heads? What if they would have kept their mouths shut and proven themselves on the field? What if they could have kept the winning streak alive and had gotten past the Eagles, taken out the Packers and defeated the Cowboys?

What if?

Play the “what if” game for a second, and think back on how things might have changed for the Lions with a berth in the Super Bowl.

How different do you think this organization would be today if the Lions could have made it to, or even won Super Bowl XXX that year? What if the Lions had made it to the big game while Sanders was still in his prime? Would he have walked away so abruptly? Even if they had come up short, would the promise of a bright future have been enough to keep him a Detroit Lion? What if some of the free agents that had passed Detroit by in recent years (Demarcus Wiley, Simeon Rice and Troy Brown, just to name a few) knew they could be playing for a winning organization with a recent trip to the Super Bowl under their belt? Would they have been more apt to sign on the dotted line? During the yearly off-season free agent hunting period the Lions were regularly turned down by players like Olandis Gary and they considered it a victory to sign the likes of Bill Schroeder. What if they had played in the Super Bowl that year? How much of that would have changed?

What if, instead of Marty Mornhinweg being their brightest coaching candidate, the Lions had the ability to pick and choose their next head coach? Dick Vermiel? Bill Parcells? Bill Belichick? Any of them could have been tempted to take the reigns of a team that recently found itself in a Super Bowl.

What if gone were the 2-14 and 3-13s, and in their place were 8-8s or 9-7s? And what if those 10-6’s and 9-7’s were considered “down years” for one of the most successful organizations of the late ‘90s and early 2000s?

What if?

How much really would have changed had the Lions made it to the Super Bowl that year? Of course, we’ll never know. The sad thing is that it appeared they actually had the talent to pull it off. The 1995 Lions were primed to make a playoff run. They had the talent, they had the drive and they hit their stride at seemingly just the right moment. But, as Lions fans have grown accustomed to over the years, the team with all that talent couldn’t keep it together. Instead, that wreck of a finish in 1995 sent the Lions on a downward spiral that left them as little more than a punch line for Jay Leno.

It’s amazing what kind of effect one game — one moment — can have on the future. If that team had finished its run, made a statement and staked its claim as an elite franchise back in 1995, we might be writing about a completely different organization today. Yet, 10 years later, we’re all still waiting for the day that we get to hear those wonderful words, “The Detroit Lions are headed to their first Super Bowl!” Until the day somebody finally does utter that sentence, we’re all left to keep wondering “what if?”

I spent nine years of my life living in Denver, Colorado. For those of you who didn’t know this, you can’t possibly live in that town for more than six months without catching a case of Broncos Fever. The longer you stay, the worse it gets. That city is used to watching winning football. When you talk about the Broncos, you’re talking about a team that won back-to-back Super Bowls, and came up short in three others. You’re talking about an organization that sees 8-8 as a down year. The last time this team was really in the hunt for a high draft pick, I was starting Kindergarten.

I have lived in some part of Michigan for 16 years. I, first and foremost, am a Lions fan. I, like so many of you reading this, have lived through the 2-14 and the 3-13’s. I have lived through the draft busts and the coaching carousels. I have seen my share of quarterback controversies. To be a Lions fan through all of that, you must really love the game and the team. I do. But when you talk about the Lions, you talk about a team that has one playoff win in just under half a century. You’re talking about an organization that sees 7-9 as a step in the right direction. Seemingly every year, at around week 14, fans start looking ahead to the draft.

My brother was in town for Thanksgiving this year, and he sat down with my dad and I the Sunday before the Lions’ annual Thursday game to watch with us as Detroit took on Dallas. As we all sat there watching, my brother could not believe what was transpiring. He spent most of the game laughing, occasionally mixing in a few shakes of his head. It was during that game that I realized that if the Lions and Broncos changed cities for a season, the football fans in Denver would either riot or hang themselves by week eight. Even when the Broncos looked bad this season (or the last several, for that matter), you could still see a quality, competitive football team lingering. With the Lions, save the last two weeks, you were hard-pressed to find even a moment of good football this year (or five). More than once this year, as my wife and I would watch other teams play on Sunday afternoons, we’d see a QB hit his man in perfect stride, or we’d look on as on O-Line opened up a gaping whole for their back, and we’d ask aloud “why can’t Detroit do that??”

So what really is the difference between this team and others, specifically one with regular success, like the Broncos? While I do agree that Broncos’ owner Pat Bolen is a better decision-maker than Lions’ owner William Clay Ford, I don’t think ownership is really this team’s biggest problem. Like him or not, Ford has spent money on this team over the years, especially in the last five or so. Some of the game’s biggest free agent names have been choosing Detroit over the course of the last several free agent signing periods, including Dre’ Bly and Damien Woody, to name just two. If you recall, Steve Mariucci was highly sought after, as well. It looks like a bad move now, but how many of us got that rush of excitement when his hiring was announced?

Don’t worry, I’m not giving Ford a free pass. While I don’t think he’s the world’s worst owner, the truth is that his call to hire Matt “I’ve never done this job before and I plan to prove it” Millen was a major error that likely set this team back five years. But while Ford was the idiot that hired Millen, Millen is still this team’s biggest idiot. Yes, Millen has brought in talent, but not the talent at the positions that needed it the most. Sure, he brought in a big name to coach, but only after bumbling the firing of his original choice for the job. And that big name, if you recall, was supposed to be an offensive mastermind that would light things up and bring out the best in young Joey Harrington … using the west coast offense.

As the Lions now search for yet another new coach to be the savior of football in the Motor City, the Broncos are sitting home enjoying a first-round bye as reward for the second-best record in the AFC and a Division championship. While the Broncos are preparing for another run at the Super Bowl, the Lions are cleaning out their lockers and planning their vacations. And until Mr. Ford decides to attempt to rectify his previous mistake and show Mr. Millen the door, this scene will be repeating itself for years to come.

Consider yourselves lucky, Bronco fans. This could be you.

Kevin Antcliff is a freelance sportswriter and former Editor in Chief of Motor City Sports Magazine. You can read more from him at kevinantcliff.com

As I sat on my dad’s couch and watched the Bengals and Steelers face off Sunday afternoon, I couldn’t help but get pumped up right along with the fans in Cincinnati. The Bengalis spent most of the 1990s in the same position the Lions have been in over the last five years - losing seasons, draft busts, Quarterback controversies and coaching carousels. They were, in fact, the worst team in the NFL through most of the decade. And yet, there they were on Sunday, division champions and hosting a playoff game.

The game was a hopeful glimpse into the future for Lions fans, as the turnaround the Bengals have made is exactly what the Lions are pursuing right now.

While Cincinnati appears to have made several correct decisions on both sides of the ball, the best decision the franchise made was hiring Marvin Lewis. Lewis has done seemingly everything right since taking the reigns of the Bengals three years ago. The draft has gone well, free agency has been successful, the coaching staff blends well with each other, and the players have bought into the system. It all adds up to a team that is taking the first steps in creating that winning culture that so many teams in the NFL crave.

Now as Matt Millen undertakes the search for his third coach in his five years in Detroit, the example of the Cincinnati Bengals hovers in front of him as proof that it can be done. No more excuses can be accepted. Millen is 0-2 attempting to find a coach that can take what he has, add a few pieces and build a winner. Now his time is up.

The Lions are undoubtedly the worst franchise in football since the calendar turned, replacing the once-battered Bengals at the top of the heap. The Bengals found their man, and the team found themselves back in the playoffs. Sure, they lost, but just showing up to play put them at a level that the Lions would love to find themselves this time next year - “Respectability.”

Kevin Antcliff is a freelance sportswriter and former Editor in Chief of Motor City Sports Magazine. You can read more from him at kevinantcliff.com