Backus is back

By Os Davis  |   Wednesday, May 17, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Detroit Lions
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Good news and bad news from the same news story out of Detroit this week. The good news is that OT Jeff Backus has re-upped with the Lions. The bad news is the contract was for only one year.

In February, Backus' agent Pat Dye, Jr. stated that his client was not yet participating in contract negotiations but rather waiting to see if the silver-and-blue would assign him the "franchise player" label. Ultimately winning the waiting game, Backus was indeed named the Detroit Lions' franchise player and signed his deal for a $6.983 million base salary in 2006.

Key to the deal (and the catch for Detroit) was the stipulation that the contract be for a single year. Backus would like one more year on his already impressive résumé for further bargaining power. His leverage this year was simply that, with the exception of now-Cowboy Kyle Kosier, the free agent market at his position was much weaker than he is. Backus is now gambling on becoming one of the prizes available once the games are done in 2007.

And why not? Backus has earned a reputation as one of the most talented guys in the NFL on the offensive line. He's also an iron man, having now started in eighty games out of eighty since joining the team as a first-round draft pick in 2001 who had never missed a game in his four-year University of Michigan stint. Reportedly, Backus played the last eleven games with bone fragments in his ankle and got offseason surgery to clean it up.

No one - not Dye, GM Matt Millen and company, nor Backus himself - appears to be concerned about any physical problems on Backus' part, though. Instead, Lions brass was more concerned with getting the OT into camp now and working out. He will do so this week, and offensive line coach Larry Beightol is doubtlessly breathing a sigh of relief.

So, too, are optimistic Motor City fans. On the sunny upside of the deal is simply having Backus on board for 2006. Positive-minded speculation would have Coach Rod "Almighty" Marinelli winning the lineman over and the OT re-signing in 2007.

Pessimists overly accustomed to Detroit's, um, checkered history of the last, oh, fifty years figure that another sub-.500 season would give Backus a touch of Barry Sanders Syndrome. Mentally, the doom-and-gloomers are already envisioning Backus departing in his prime because he's sick of playing on an also-ran.

Surely we'll be seeing something of a repeat of this story come next offseason, with the significant difference that this year's good news/bad news story will be much more one-sided in 2007. Meanwhile, Lions fans should enjoy what they have for the next sixteen games.

At Realfootball365.com, more news on the Detroit Lions -- no lyin'.
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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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