Good bye, Calvin

If you've been living in a cave for the past 3 months, you probably still know that Calvin Johnson announced his retirement from the NFL this week. A lot of people are drawing comparisons between Calvin and Barry Sanders, and that's pretty natural.

• Both players were career Lions
• Both guys were EXTREMELY mild-mannered players who let their play on the field do the talking
• Both players retired with something left in the tank (Barry especially, still in his prime and just 1 season away from his best ever)
• Both players are in the conversation for best ever at their respective positions - Barry in the mix at RB with Walter Payton and Jim Brown, Calvin in the mix with Jerry Rice and Randy Moss
• And neither player had much (or any) post season success

That last point (combined with the 2nd point) leads many to conclude that playing for the Lions killed both players' desire to play professional football. I think that's likely the case with Barry, but not so much with Calvin. Barry had a bit more of a competitive edge and stronger leadership qualities. Calvin famously never made team speeches. After his historic 329-yd game against Dallas in 2013, Schwartz handed him the game ball and all the players chanted "SPEECH" as a joke. Calvin said something like "why start now" or "thanks", and that was that.

Anyway, I always got the impression that Barry took losing a little more personally than Calvin did. When the Lions lost to the Bucs in the 1998 playoffs, Barry said he cried for 3 months. Calvin seems to be more of a "punch the clock" type of guy, not taking the losses home with him. The biggest difference between the two players, however, is HOW each left the team. Barry announced his retirement by a fax to his hometown newspaper in late July of '99. It was a shock, and it left the team with absolutely no opportunity to replace him. Calvin, on the other hand, gave the Lions plenty of forewarning that his retirement was imminent, and retired prior to the opening of NFL free agency. The Lions got his presumptive replacement on day 1.


It would be very "Lions" to lose 2 of the greatest football players ever due to "Lionization" (the cumulative effect of losing and incompetence crushing your spirit), but that's not entirely the case. It is with Barry, and that story is one of the great career tragedies in football that doesn't involve an injury. But with Calvin, he just wanted to hang up the cleats while he still has all his fingers and can remember his own name. He might've wanted to stick it out if the Lions were building a contender, but he might have retired anyway. Calvin is just a different sort of dude.

Anyway, regardless of what the Lions were doing, you had to appreciate Calvin.




Calvin had more straight-line speed than jukes, but he could do some damage in the open field because he was built like a TE, but he could run past your #1 corner. He also came up with more jump balls in triple coverage than anyone I can remember. In fact, the Lions saw some pretty weird defenses that were designed purely to keep the ball out of his hands. I wish they had used him better, I wish he'd had better QBs, and I wish the Lions could've done a better job of keeping defenses honest by running it more effectively. Calvin managed to overcome all that to accomplish a lot of individual success.

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Now that Calvin is out the door, it does leave a rather large hole to fill on offense, but less of a hole than you might think. Calvin BARELY made the Pro Bowl this year, and I think that was largely based off of reputation, since there were between 2 and 4 other WRs that were better but didn't make the initial cut. A couple of injury-riddled seasons took their toll, and CJ went from a Jerry Rice-type season in 2012 to playing more like latter day Cris Carter the last 3 years, that is to say he was an exceptional possession receiver.


The Lions are replacing Calvin with former Bengals WR Marvin Jones. He was probably the best guy available once Alshon Jeffrey was franchise tagged by Chicago, and he's relatively affordable at $8M/yr. Jones has burner speed (along with some of that Golden Tate-like shiftiness), good hands, and has a reputation for making tough catches through the hits. He's also never fumbled in his NFL career. He turns 26 tomorrow (happy birthday!), so he should be just entering the prime years of his career.






The Lions also acquired a few solid depth guys looking to compete for PT - former NE S Tavon Wilson, special teams ace CB Johnson Bademosi, and DT Stefan Charles. None of these guys are world-beaters (although a good ST specialist can make a huge difference), but this is the kind of thing you need to do when the previous regime sucked at drafting. Like the post-Millen Lions, this team is depth deficient and needs to rebuild.

Detroit could still be looking to make a splash though. OT Russell Okung is in town today, and he's easily the biggest name on the market if you're looking to boost your line. He's been plagued by injuries throughout his career, so he would be a bit of a risk, but that should drive the price down as well. If Okung ends up elsewhere, I still expect the Lions to find a tackle, but probably not one who will be good enough to swing Reiff to the right side of the line.


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I'll get into the draft in a week or two. I missed the combine coverage because my son was born! Good reason, I know. His name is Cirdan (pronounced KEER-den... it's a Tolkien thing, because I'm a nerd) and he's a big dude so far - 10lbs 0.8oz, 21.65" at birth, currently 10lbs 6oz, 22". I don't know what his 40 time is yet, but I'll let you know once he becomes mobile. My daughter's  might not be terrible, if she could run that far without stopping to investigate some rocks or dirt or something.