More Fairytale Pre-Season Predictions from Detroit

[jimmyp]

So last year it was Kitna and his 10 wins with 5000 passing yards. If I remember my WF.com weekly updates correctly he was on track for 5K after week 2, but then fell off the pace. The Lions 6-2 start falling to 7-9 is already well known.

A week or so again Kitna has said again that 10 wins is possible this season. It's possible hey. But the real crazy this season is Tatum Bell, who sees a 1,300 yard 15+ touchdown season as "reachable". This is the guy who in 4 years has eclipsed 1000 yards once, and his season best is 8 touchdowns, both came at Denver who is well known for getting excellent production out of mediocre backs.

So now to Detroit with its shaky o-line and its all-pro numbers? I think Tatum's gotten a hold of some of Travis Henry's stash.

[49ersfan]

10 wins is possible, when you consider MIN likes Tavares Jackson, which will kill their chances of doing anything, GB lost Farve, a key cog in their offense, and Chicago sucks. If they shore up their defense in the draft and get an RB, they could do things.

[animal52]

As I live in Detroit I've heard all of this stuff regularly in the last couple of weeks. I've simply written this off as simple preseason hopefulness that all players and teams engage in before things happen for real.

I don't think the Lions will win 10 games nor will Bell get 1300 yards and 15 TD's. The Lions have done much more subtraction by losing free agents than they have added. Not necessarily a bad thing. The draft offers hope but rookies take time to develop and cannot be counted on right away. The biggest changes will be going away from the Martz offense (more running) and better familiarity with the Tampa 2 defense.

Detroit is rebuilding right now with character players and through the draft. They are a couple of years away from being able to claim a 10 win season as an expectation.

But stranger things have happpened.....

[Blazedestin]

At first glance, I'm in agreement with 49ersfan. It looks possible.

Then we have to realize that these are the Detroit Lions. Any time they can find a way to lose, they will.

[PuppyPuncher]

Well if you're a lions fan you certainly don't want to be hearing:

"I plan on getting just above 2500 passing yards!"

"We're trying to give up 70 sacks this year!"

[RoxOnlyFan]

Ha, Tatum with 1500 yards?
he couldn't beat out Mike Bell for full-time carries in Denver but is expected to rack up 1500 yards when a job falls into his lap in Detroit?
hilarious.

[Blazedestin]

Well if you're a lions fan you certainly don't want to be hearing:

"I plan on getting just above 2500 passing yards!"

"We're trying to give up 70 sacks this year!"

Yeah, but most teams are keeping quiet about their expectations. I don't think any team goes into a season thinking, "We're going to suck. We're going to suck horribly. Our kids will be ashamed of us, our wives will divorce us because of this season." But most teams don't go broadcasting "WE WILL ROCK THIS SEASON. HOO-AH."

The only two times when a person made bold predictions that turned out to be true were Joe Namath and Plaxico Burress' predictions.

On the other hand, everyone thought they were crazy too.

[Joey_Potter]

But Kitna is a very good quarterback and a great leader. If they can keep him off his *ss and get a running game they could win 10 games.

[yem123]

Kitna is really quoted out of context on this... what he really said both times was that he would be disappointed if the Lions did not win 10 games, as a response to a question. Somewhat different then coming out and predicting a 10 win season.