The King has been slain

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, June 01, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

Detroit Lions
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The King has been slain, leaving the Detroit Lions' brand-new, post-Harrington quarterback situation a bit easier to handle. The Lions yesterday announced the release of Shaun King, placing the quarterbacking duties squarely on Jon Kitna and Josh McCown while ending all speculation of playing time for the erratic former Buccaneer/Cardinal.

Even Detroit's King loyalists (c'mon, I can hear you breathing out there) have got to like the way the staff has been willing to break with the Lions' ignominious past. Last year, the Detroit roster featured that first-round pick gone horribly wrong, a.k.a. Joey "The Albatross" Harrington, and departing coach Steve Mariucci's metaphorical dying gasp, a.k.a. Jeff Garcia. Both are gone now. The Lions then picked up King in March, right around the same time team brass rounded up Kitna and McCown. Poor King was a Lion for just under two months, a bit of a surprise, considering coach Rod "Almighty" Marinelli's loyalty to former Bucs (e.g. Damian Gregory, Cleveland Pinkney).

King was a second round pick in 1999 and has mostly served scrub duty for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In his rookie year, the Buccaneers crushed all comers with their stifling D and labeled Tony Dungy a genius. When Trent Dilfer went down late in the year, King led the low-watt offense all the way to the NFC championship, essentially missing the Super Bowl by one Warner-Proehl connection. Despite leading the team to a 10-6 record in 2000, King was subsequently buried on the bench for years. Last year, King did the same in Arizona.

Number three on the depth charts is currently - surprise! - Dan Orlovsky, the guy who occupied the same position at season's end. Last year's fifth-round draft pick, Orlovsky made two appearances in 2006, a season in which he appeared twice for a total of seventeen attempts.

Joining the squad (at least for the time being) will be free-agent guard Ross Verba. Verba is a nine-year man in a career spent with Green Bay and Cleveland. After a season in which he was the starter, Verba didn't play in 2005 after publicly criticizing Browns management.

More roaringly good stuff on the Detroit Lions at Realfootball365!
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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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