^^^ Ooops, may have been a little hasty with my previous observation ... anyone notice which two teams participated in SuperBowl XLVIII?

... sometimes I feel just like Nostradamus on these boards,

Also, it apparently only works during the regular season & not the playoffs. .

, yeah, I'm not advocating the large scale legalization of marijuana, but as a long suffering Lions' fan, if you had told me the team would have went on an 8-0 tear after voting for it, I'd of been on board.

Best #2 back in the NFL for 2012/2013. Way to tough it out, Joquie.

... and after all the hub-bub ... nothing. No 'beer summit' at the White House, no follow-up story on Lomas & Mitchell reconciling. My worst suspicions have been confirmed.

UPDATE:

Well, it hasn't exactly been "Bell-Sanity", but after Wk #14 and a 4-9 Lions record, a 5.4yds per carry rushing/9.7yds per reception average AND NO INJURIES, Joquie Bell has provide the Lions with something they haven't seen in a long time, a halfway decent, durable running back to compliment Matthew Stafford. Consistently noted as one of the pleasant surprises (not to this blogger, eh?) of the season.

Keep up the good work, JB!

Since this posting & to his credit, Suh has put together several game performances in keeping with his rookie season. Unfortunately, the Lions still lost and I think this may reflect the crux of the matter. Suh is an individual and might have a hard time performing at a high-level as the member of a team ... just an observation.

UPDATE: The first regular season touchdown of the Detroit Lions 2012 season was scored by none other then #35, Joquie Bell ... .

UDATE: (on the defense)

It was brought to my attention that the Lions defense led the league last season in pick-sixes with 5 and something about doing well in the 'turnovers gained by defense' & 'QB sacks' departments and that they were actually a pretty good fantasy pick ... IDK, I admittedly don't fully understand the whole fantasy-football concept, but if that's all they're going to rate the defense by, maybe they're worth a look for your defense, but you'll probably have to pick up a different defense for the playoffs, eh? ... IDK, it's still living dangerously if you ask me ... they make a lot of mental mistakes.

Ok, well you've accomplished something no Detroit fan has been able to do these past few seasons and that's to get me to reconsider my view of Kevin Smith and maybe cut him some slack ... that's "maybe", I'm still in the "reconsidering" phase, .

And that's the key with Kevin Smith, staying healthy, but even then, he's not going to put up big numbers ... in part of course, because the Lions are a 'pass-first' offense and in part because he's just not that talented a runner. I'd take him as a bench player and start him against the teams like Carolina (last season) that were weak defending the run & where the Lions obviously would attempt to exploit that ... but for the most part, I see Detroit trying to get the running game going by giving him the ball a lot before realizing he just ain't gonna' get it done and going to the pass.

I'd be interested in hearing from people who have had Kevin Smith on their FF teams in the past and how it worked out for them, good or bad.

The key there I think is Johnson ... Stafford would have decent numbers either way, but throwing to Calvin is like having the winning 'multiplier' in the Mega Millions ... it just increases your winnings. Johnson has been around the league a few seasons and teams have had time to work up a way to stop him ... you can't, you can only, hopefully, minimize the damage he's going to do.

Picking from the Lions roster for your FF team is not for the faint of heart, but there are a few gems there ... give Pettigrew, Scheffler & Hanson a good look and don't rule out Burleson, Young & Broyles ... Detroit is going to come out throwing once again this season. Running back is a crapshoot, I'm hoping Joquie Bell is able to help & the 'Leshoure expirement' pans out, but I wouldn't touch a Detroit RB if I was drafting for FF.