Detroit Lions head Coach Jim Schwartz commented about an injury scare to third round pick, offensive guard Larry Warford by saying: “He bounced up and we’ll get him looked at. I don’t think it’s his shoulder, we’ll see. It wasn’t serious enough to keep him in, he stayed around. He caught an elbow and it hurt, so we’ll see. We will err on the side of caution when it comes to just about every injury or any situation we have right now.” One can only hope that that it’s not a serious injury because offensive line was an issue after starting left tackle Jeff Backus retired after last season.
Moving onto some playmakers, in the sixth round, the Lions selected wide receiver Corey Fuller who seems to be a project after Coach Schwartz said the following: “Yeah, I mean we liked the fact that he had size and he had speed. He really only had one year of production at Virginia Tech, but he averaged about eighteen yards a catch last year. You saw that yesterday, he caught a couple deep balls. He’s got a lot to work on just like all these guys and he doesn’t have a lot of football background because he spent two years triple jumping and long jumping,” This sounds like the Lions may plan on holding him on their practice squad for a season and get him into a conditioning camp to help him learn how to run more effectively via route running to create muscle memory.
Schwartz was asked about a few undrafted offensive prospects including tight end Joseph Fauria and Steven Miller, on the monster tight end Fauria “Good hands and just a giant wing span, the same things he did at UCLA. He made a lot of catches, had a lot of touchdown catches. I think from the practice today you could see a lot of that carry over. A lot of times he was covered, but he was still open just because he’s so long and he has such a big catching radius. He has very soft hands for a big guy.” Onto Miller “Yeah, you know that’s what he is, he’s a returner, he’s a running back, probably not going to use him as a receiver as much, but he’s got some explosive speed.”
Coach Schwartz talks about second year wide receiver Patrick Edwards “His availability to practice and to put one good practice on top of another one and be out there and available is an important thing for him. He’s a lot stronger right now than he was last year. He’s not real tall. He’s 5-9, but very strong now. He runs much better routes and has a much better understanding of the offense. He’s another guy that’s in the mix returning kicks and punts. But just that availability to be out there all the time, to be consistent from practice to practice is going to be his challenge.” Lions may have a diamond in the rough who might seemingly come out of “nowhere” if he can stay healthy. Quarterback Matthew Stafford might have a solid compliment to Calvin Johnson while Nate Burleson recovers from a broken leg.
All and all, the Detroit Lions have a lot of offensive fire power and if they can use it properly, they could charge into the 2013 season and make teams take note of them.
