Offense 2012

RLMcB wrote: Making a huge assumption, first that there are no serious injuries to this group, but, here goes. Passing attempts 600-650, receptions 420- 470 total. Megatron 90, Burleson 70, Young 75, Broyles 40, Petigrew 75, Sheffler 15, Heller 5, K Smith 30, Best 25, Leshoure 10. I need to see the RB situation to clarify some before I stick my neck out on a prediction for them. However, I do expect them to have a total of about 1500 yards on the ground. I hope someone saves this and holds me to it.

RL...the Lions had 423 receptions last year in an offense that passed the ball far too many times because they had such a poor running attack. Even with that they still had 1500+ yards on the ground. If they get the same number of yards on the ground and add 25 receptions (almost another game's worth), using the same averages as last year that offense would be the third best offense in the league.

The bad news is that offense would be even more unbalanced than last year's offense.

RLMcB wrote: Ya know, Mike, I was somewhat aware of a couple numbers but I was feeling a bit lazy and didn't look up any, I did think about it, but I knew someone would. I also remembered they threw more than 600 times but not the exact number. I was also aware Stafford's completion percentage was in the low 60 percentile. I also was aware they had close to 100 yards on the ground per game, but, I didn't know the figure. I just figured they would surely equal last year's rushing yards and come close to duplicating their passing yards as well. I expect Stafford to improve his pass completion percentage this year, and I don't see any reason they can't improve on the ground also. Had I taken the time to look at all the stats, I would not have set the bar so low. I really believe they will do much better, in light of a full off season. The facts make it a meaningless post, sorry about that.

No post is meaningless my friend. It really does illustrate a key point and keeps me wondering what Mayhew's strategy really is when building a team. What kind of identity does he have in mind for the Lions. If you look at his personnel acquisitions over the past three years you just have to say that he is looking to build a team like the Packers last year. Not the Packers in general, mind you, but the Packers that were nearly unstoppable in the passing game but had no running game nor defense. Helped them to a pretty nice regular season but a quick exit in the playoffs.

Now maybe I misread his intentions and really he just is a little Millen like in that he thinks that because he came from the back 7 that he can find the diamonds that others see as coal and "coach them up" and that will suffice. He's tried to fix the running game but has done so strictly by way of RB and hasn't really added much at all to the OL.

Can the running game be better than last year? Quite possibly but then why add yet another WR to improve the passing game that was already one of the top in the league? Just so many contradictions and inconsistencies in this "plan". I certainly hope he knows more than it looks like he knows....