The Detroit Lions, the NFL's worst team the past five-plus seasons, are 0-5 and there doesn't seem to be much hope for this season or in the years to come for a franchise that has become the laughingstock of the league.
Detroit's short-term future looks bleak in part because injuries have ravaged its offensive line and at each position group on defence.
The winless Lions, who host Buffalo on Sunday, are off to their worst start since they were 0-12 in 2001 _ Matt Millen's first year in charge _ en route to a 2-14 record. Prospects for a turnaround next year and beyond don't seem favourable because of recent draft picks that have flopped.
When Millen, a Super Bowl-winning linebacker and TV analyst, became an NFL executive for the first time in 2001, he reshaped a fading, veteran team coming off a 9-7 season. Millen's first draft was solid, taking Shaun Rogers, Jeff Backus and Dominic Raiola, but his next two No. 1 picks failed so miserably that a franchise going on a half-century of futility might struggle to recover any time soon.
He took quarterback Joey Harrington third overall in 2002 and wide receiver Charles Rogers second overall the next year, and now both are gone. Harrington was traded last spring to Miami for a conditional pick and Rogers was cut last month.
Millen, the least-accessible executive leading a team in Detroit, did not respond to interview requests this week. But what he said three years ago about Harrington and Rogers helps explain the mess the franchise is in during his sixth season in charge.
``They have to be what they're supposed to be,'' Millen said in an interview with The Associated Press. ``They can't do it alone, but in order for us to get where we want to get, we can't look back and say we missed with those guys.''
Millen compounded his problem by drafting Mike Williams 10th overall last year, becoming the first team to take wide receivers three straight years since the NFL and AFL merged drafts in 1967. Williams barely gets on the field on a team desperate for playmakers.
Though it might've been too late to salvage his era in Detroit, Millen took a defensive player in the first round for the first time in April _ ending a string of six No. 1 picks on offence.
Rookie linebacker Ernie Sims has been the hard-hitting player new coach Rod Marinelli wants and is the kind of player one would envision playing for a Millen-led team.
Moves in free agency have also hurt Detroit's chances for success this year, in the past and possibly in the future. Players such as wide receivers Bill Schroeder, added in 2002, and Corey Bradford, signed in March to a US$7.4 million contract and cut last month, have shown Millen struggles in free agency as much as in the draft.
Millen might have found the right coach in Marinelli after getting rid of Gary Moeller, Marty Mornhinweg, Steve Mariucci and Dick Jauron.
The Vietnam veteran has taken a get-tough approach with his players, backing up his words with actions such as cutting Rogers and Bradford, along with essentially benching Williams.
``When (Marinelli) came in and was telling me that he's going to get guys out of here that he doesn't feel are giving effort and that he doesn't care how much money you make, I was like, `I'll believe it when I see it,''' kick returner Eddie Drummond recalled.
The Lions are seeing success _ just not within their own franchise.
After the Lions play Buffalo on Sunday, the atmosphere next door at Comerica Park could be much different because the Detroit Tigers might be hosting Oakland in a possible Game 5 of the American League championship series.
Cornerback Dre' Bly said the Tigers' turnaround, and the fans' reaction to it, has made him hungrier to help restore pride to a football franchise with only one playoff victory since winning the NFL title in 1957.
``Watching the fans here go crazy and go nuts after years of the Tigers struggling and finally getting to the playoffs and turning this around, that's what it's all about,'' Bly said. ``I truly believe this is the best sports town.''
``Fans have been patient and supported us, they're just waiting for a winner. They've been supportive of the Tigers, Pistons and Red Wings _ they're just waiting on us.''
By the looks of things, they probably will have to keep waiting.
