The Detroit Lions, at times, have a roster full of players you hate to love.
MaybeMaybe they produce great things on the field they produce great things on the field, but do things before or after the whistle that make you shake your head.
Maybe they’re absolutely exemplary model citizens and ambassadors to the team and the league, but they get whipped on the field.
Or maybe they’re solid and reliable but take a lot of undeserved fan criticism, and just as you go to defend them, they completely implode on the field.
Regardless of why, these guys are the ones that drive you crazy, because you want so badly to like them, but for one reason or another, they just do something that makes you want to boo them off the field.
And these nine are the worst offenders that you still like (or at least want to) on some level.
By a landslide, Jeff Backus is the most frustrating player on the team.
Backus hasn’t missed a game since he was drafted in 2001, he never complained in over a decade of consistent losing and he has mostly been solid despite a lifetime’s worth of coaching and scheme changes throughout his career.
He keeps quiet and does his job well most of the time, without any real expectation of recognition. He’s a model player, and I have thrown my support behind him many times.
And it seems like every time I do, something happens.
He lets Julius Peppers in on the blow-by to injure Matthew Stafford’s shoulder. Or he lets Jared Allen eat his lunch all day. Or he false starts on the goal line.
Backus is a very good player whose success is largely invisible, but every time he fails, it’s in the biggest way possible.
And it’s usually immediately after somebody sticks up for him.
With Riley Reiff preparing to take over the blind side, a part of me hopes we get to see Backus at guard, just to see if he would be as effective there as some have suggested.
Brandon Pettigrew is a phenomenal talent.
Some games, he single-handedly gives the Lions an intermediate passing game. He pulls in touchdowns, first downs and tough yardage over the middle, to say nothing of his impressive blocking prowess.
But then, Pettigrew parks in the middle of the field, turns around eight yards from the line of scrimmage…and lets 1st-and-10 bounce right off his hands.
Every time you want to give Pettigrew credit for a great season, you look at his franchise record-shattering 83 receptions and wonder what more could have been.
Granted, Pettigrew isn’t the most egregious drop artist in the NFL, especially as tight ends go. But like Backus, it seems his failures only come in big situations.
Admittedly, Pettigrew’s drops are becoming less of an issue as he grows with the team, but it still happens often enough to irk anybody trying to like him.
Jahvid Best
The frustration borne from Jahvid Best is perhaps more frustrating to the man himself than it is to the Lions or their fans.
Best is a good football player, he has the right mindset and all he wants to do is go out there and perform.
It’s his body that won’t cooperate.
Best spent his rookie season dealing with as many cases of turf toe as he had feet, and his sophomore season dealing with twice as many concussions as he has heads.
So Lions fans have spent the early part of both of Best’s pro seasons being wowed by his explosiveness and ability, and the latter part wishing the Lions could get him back healthy.
Now the question with Best is about how much more punishment he can take.
A guy who came into the league with a medical red flag for a severe concussion has suffered two more as a pro, so how many more is too many?
Louis Delmas
Louis Delmas was the top safety taken in the 2009 draft, the first overall pick in the second round, which is frustrating because he sometimes doesn’t look like the top safety on the team.
Sure, he’s fast, he hits hard and he makes his share of big plays.
But he’s also undisciplined with his assignments, prone to nagging injuries, inconsistent in pass coverage and has never heard of a wrap-up tackle.
For the first three years of his career, Lions fans have been expecting great things from Delmas and getting pretty good things with a few flaws. And Lions fans, in response, blame injuries, which might be fair, and might be a sad excuse.
Whatever the reason, Delmas has not emerged as the game-changing playmaker many expected and despite the fact that he’s a solid starter, he’s frustrating because he still hasn’t become the player many expected he could be.
And he can’t really blame a lack of supporting cast anymore.
Dominic Raiola
You want to like him and his bulldog demeanor. You respect his toughness, his durability, and his knowledge of the game.
Then you watch him get driven five yards into the backfield by a 330-pound nose tackle, and all you can do is wince and realize that guts and the right attitude can only take a guy so far for so long.
Like Backus, Dominic Raiola is a model citizen and a symbol of toughness and consistency. He speaks out (sometimes non-verbally) in defense of his guys when the team is bad, pushes his teammates when they’re good and seems as passionate in Week 17 of a hopeless season as he does in Week 1 of a new one.
He’s a leader among leaders, and has earned, through blood, sweat and the Millen era, his role on the team through this successful turnaround.
But man, I wish he would stop getting run over on the offensive line.
I don’t expect much to change in that department, especially at his age, I just wish Raiola had the size inside to be both a great leader and a great player.
Instead, he’s a player you really want to love, but also recognize that he has to go very soon.
DeAndre Levy
Enter 2009. Ernie Sims, the Lions’ star linebacker (what’s he up to these days?) goes down with an injury against the Minnesota Vikings.
In his place comes DeAndre Levy, a third-round pick out of Wisconsin, who promptly flies all over the field making plays.
Enter 2010. Levy takes over as middle linebacker, Ernie Sims is shipped off to Philadelphia to begin his fade into obscurity and Levy starts looking very flawed, missing tackles and having a difficult time shedding blocks.
In 2011, the Lions sign Stephen Tulloch, sliding Levy back to the outside, where he continues to play pretty average football.
In the Millen era, that might go down as a success story.
The Lions of today expect more.
Levy racks up a lot of tackles, posting 109 in 2011 (just two short of Tulloch’s team-leading mark). But Levy’s issue isn’t the tackles he makes, it’s the ones he whiffs on.
Furthermore, Levy is awfully lean in the “impact plays” department. He makes a lot of tackles after eight-yard gains, but you don’t see him make a lot of sticks at or behind the line of scrimmage.
He did have a game-winning fumble-sack on Joe Webb last season…but he also got away with a blatant facemask (see inset photo), and that play gave him his only sack AND his only forced fumble of the entire season.
Levy is average, and that’s okay. It’s just that he looked like more at first.
Gosder Cherilus
Is Gosder Cherilus a good or bad football player?
You’re probably hesitating right now, trying to come up with some sort of conditional answer that is neither “good,” nor “bad.” Something like, “He’s pretty good, but he’s inconsistent.”
That is exactly what makes him frustrating.
He has his moments, but you can’t really peg him one way or another.
Now the Lions have Riley Reiff on board, Cherilus’ situation becomes even more complex and frustrating.
Reiff is likely going to demand a starting role at tackle somewhere, and the spots up for grabs are Cherilus at right tackle and Backus at left.
Of the two, Cherilus is the most likely candidate to go.
But Cherilus’ salary is guaranteed, so the Lions gain nothing by cutting him.
He’s still a decent player, so benching him is a waste. And he’s built tall and lanky with long arms, so he’s probably not a good fit at guard.
So what, exactly, do the Lions do with Cherilus? Leave him in the starting lineup and let Reiff’s talents go to waste? Let him rot on the bench in a contract year? Or roll the dice and try him at guard to replace Stephen Peterman?
See? Frustrating. There’s no right answer in this situation, though admittedly the problem of the Lions having more effective tackles than they can use is a good one to have.
