Even sans Millen, Lions apparently run by crazy people

October 28, 1:23 PMDetroit Lions ExaminerChris Morgan

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Daunte Culpepper

In my post game review of the Lions game against the Washington Redskins, I spent a portion of it angrily pondering why the Lions gave Rudi Johnson more carries than Kevin Smith. The argument being, this season is a wash, and the Lions need to see what they have in their young players moving forward. Now, comes this news story. Yes, apparently the Lions have worked out Daunte Culpepper, and are in the process of negotiating a contract with him. This is, quite frankly, the literal opposite of what they need to be doing. Did Matt Millen don a false mustache to continue running the team? Are the people Millen left behind just as terrible at their job as he is? Did they become less rational through some sort of process of osmosis after spending so much time in the presence of the worst GM in the history if football? I just don't understand what they are doing in the front offices of the Lions.

Look, the team is 0-7 right now, with plenty of tough games left on the schedule, such as a Thanksgiving tilt with the currently undefeated Tennessee Titans which will leave us Lions fans wondering what we have to be thankful for. The only reasonable thing to do, what any team run by people with semi-functioning brains would do, is look at their young players, and plan for the future. Do we have anything in Dan Orlovsky or Drew Stanton? I don't know, and in fact nobody knows. Orlovsky has only a handful of starts under his belt, and did look better last week against the 'Skins, and Stanton has yet to get any snaps in meaningful action. However, they spent a second round pick on him, the least they could do is run him out there. That's what the Dolphins did with John Beck. It didn't work out, a new front office came in, and they drafted their own guy and traded for an established veteran to be the caretaker for the time being. The Lions are in much worse shape than the Dolphins were. They, after all, had Ronnie Brown, we have an unproven Kevin Smith and a proven to be washed up Rudi Johnson, so it is even more important for the Lions to try and find a young quarterback for the future. If we don't have anybody, then whomever takes over the team for next season will know they need to find a quarterback early in the draft, and the rebuilding process can finally take shape.

Bringing in Culpepper would invariably stunt any growth Orlovsky and/or Stanton would have this season. Sure, if they bring in Culpepper and his creaky old legs, it will further increase our chances of being the worst team in the league, but is it really worth it? Do the Lions front office want to disillusion their fans even further? Yes, Culpepper was a once great quarterback, but he couldn't do anything in Oakland, and has been out of football for a while now, and certainly can't be any better than he was then. Even if they just want to bring him in as a back up, why? What is the point? Bringing in Culpepper serves no purpose in the Lions plans for the future, and if they brought him in and started him, it would be the latest in a long line of absolutely, unabashedly moronic moves than have turned the Lions into the laughing stock they currently are.

Of course, this is not a done deal yet, and I may have just spent the last few paragraphs haranguing about nothing. However, if the Lions front office, by some serendipitous force, could see these words of fear and dismay, and change their mind, it would all be well worth it. Until I see the news headline that no deal is going to happen, though, I will sit at my computer, nervously wringing my hands as I obsessively refresh my web browser, hoping for good news to emerge. If the Lions end up signing Culpepper, there will be no words of vitriol to do it justice. It would be idiotic in every sense of the word, and tear open all our old wounds as Lions fans, and probably create some new ones. Sure, Orlovsky probably will never be a great quarterback, but I would much rather watch him or Stanton trot out onto the field and get under center that a washed up quarterback with the proverbial fork sticking out of him. At least with Orlovsky under center, it at least appears that the Lions front office are looking to the future, and have our best interests in mind. With Culpepper as the signal caller, that notion goes out the window, as does my last remaining thread of patience for the Lions brass. So, in closing, I get down on bended knee, hands clasped, to beg those in charge to reconsider what they are doing, not just for me, but for every Lions fan clinging to their last thread of hope for a brighter tomorrow. For the love of everything that is good and pure, do not sign Daunte Culpepper.