QB choice will be soon, secret
All indications are it will be Daunte Culpepper, though Drew Stanton played in Sunday’s 38-14 loss to Jacksonville and Dan Orlovsky
has not been placed on injured reserve.
Culpepper started against the Jaguars, despite only three days of practice after coming out of retirement. Marinelli said he thought Culpepper gave the Lions their best chance to win.
“Daunte Culpepper’s a talented football player,” Lions chief operating officer Tom Lewand said. “The idea behind anybody we sign is to come in and help our football team win games, period.”
Stanton came in for two plays in the first quarter and threw his first NFL pass for a 1-yard touchdown. But the Lions put in a goal-line package for him because Culpepper couldn’t learn everything in a short amount of time.
In the fourth quarter, Stanton went 5-for-7 for 93 yards while taking five sacks. But when he reentered the game, the Lions were trailing, 38-7, and the Jaguars were playing a prevent defense.
Asked if he would consider the situation when evaluating Stanton, Marinelli said: “That’s important. You bring up a great point. You’re behind, and your coverage is dictated. Everything’s a little bit more dictated, little bit more four-man rushes and some of those things. So you look at everything.”
Marinelli and offensive coordinator Jim Colletto have said recently Stanton is not ready to play because injuries have cost him too much practice time the past two years.
Orlovsky is scheduled to see a specialist early this week. He has two fractures and a torn ligament in his hand and might need surgery.
NOW WHAT? Lewand attended Marinelli’s postgame news conference.
“It’s not about sales jobs,” Lewand said. “It’s not about what’s popular. It’s about what’s right, and what’s right is winning football games. … Clearly our record isn’t there, and our focus is on getting it there — period, end of story.”
Asked what more the front office could do now, Lewand said: “We will always look at ways to try and improve ourselves to the extent that you can. Obviously, those opportunities are limited in the middle of the season, particularly in the second half of the season, when people have injuries. But we will always look to that, and we will never back down from that. This is about trying to improve immediately.”
The Lions think trying to win now is the best way to try to win in the future.
“That’s how you get yourselves better,” Lewand said. “That’s how you improve things. That’s how you evaluate your personnel. That’s how you get ready for the future. You start with the next game, and you win that next game.”