Where Jordon?

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, July 24, 2008  |  Comments( 5 )

Detroit Lions
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Detroit Lions training camp has been open for two days and thus far has been most notably characterized by a certain key absence. No, we’re not talking about 2LT Caleb Campbell, who surely recorded one of the shortest careers in recent NFL history after his recall into active military service.

(Incidentally, how’d you like head coach Rod Marinelli’s reaction to Campbell’s departure? “You have to salute and move on.” One wonders if the sergeant will be that philosophical when his own dismissal comes a year or two from now.)

Nor is that hole on the team Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Lito Sheppard, whom the Lions might be trying to get in a trade.

Nope. What’s missing most is one of the guys they need the most: second-round draft pick Jordon Dizon.

Dizon was one of the key pickups in a reasonably good Detroit draft, but that ultra-quickness Dizon has and with which Marinelli is morbidly obsessed has gone beyond making Dizon a mere possibility to join the team: Simply put, the Lions need this guy at practice now; after all, just like first-round selection Gosder Cherilus, Dizon enters 2008 essentially as a starter, sight unseen. Heck, Marinelli envisions Dizon capable enough to play the man at middle linebacker in Week 1.

If he signs at all, that is. (But take heart, Detroit fans: Just two days ago, local hero Matt Millen stated he was “optimistic” the team would sign Dizon “soon.”)

As of this writing, the Lions list 10 linebackers, including Campbell, on the extended roster. Leading the woeful are Paris Lenon and the incomparable Ernie Sims, but after that, it’s a pack of dudes named Buster Davis and Anthony Cannon. Gee, if Dizon holds out long enough, fans may yet see the minuscule Tyrone Pruitt (5-foot-11, 220 pounds), a roster addition seemingly based primarily on his status as former teammate of Cherilus with Boston College, get some time.

(That sound you just heard was the spontaneous collective shudder of millions of Lions backers.)

For a team that's crazy about good-attitude guys (The Millen/Marinelli dogma: “We want to lead the league in effort"), Dizon’s holdout may merely be the latest signal in throwing up flag after flag that he may in fact not be the guy for poor ol’ Detroit, despite the Lions’ shortlisting of him since the combine.

Resurrected for the news this week for the third time are tales of Dizon’s April drunken driving arrest. The Colorado bust reportedly took place just six days before the draft, and Lions management is taking great pains to reiterate this week that it simply had no idea of Dizon’s activities. If the brain trust had, surely there’s no way the team would have drafted for desperate need, right?

Though it is slightly early to take on a pessimistic attitude vis-à-vis any team’s chances in the actual season, hey, we’re talking Detroit Lions football. And it says here that the Lions need every competent warm body (and even a few incompetent ones out of necessity; these’ll mostly be starting on the offensive line) they can get to compete.

It may be an exaggeration to say that Dizon’s 2008 holdout will be as disastrous to the Lions as JaMarcus Russell’s was to the 2007 Oakland Raiders, but only slight. After all, how many of the league’s 32 teams have next to no clue about who the starting MLB/ILBs might be in Week 1? (At a rough estimation, reckon one; even the Baltimore Ravens can prop up Ray Lewis’ remains out there.)

Meanwhile, with every day that passes, Ernie Sims gets more tuckered out, while Dizon and Detroit get one step further from silencing critics who ask barbed questions along the lines of “Is Dizon going to be able to live up to his draft stock, or will he always be a limited player?”

Note to Millen: Sign the man now. At any price.

Unless, of course, you’re happy with the immortal Anthony Cannon ...

Training Camp: An entirely new kind of fantasy game!
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's ...
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