NFL detroit Lions

We're entering a dark period of the NFL life right now. Nothing is going on. Players and coaches are on vacation. With that we look at 10 quarterback situations worth looking at before training camps start in late July, because, well, it's always about the quarterback.

1. Detroit. Matthew Stafford vs. Daunte Culpepper.

The situation: It's the same old argument. Do you start the rookie or the veteran? The No. 1 pick of the draft is Stafford, but the vet with a chance to win a few games is Culpepper. Stafford is the future but you don't want to damage it. For every Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco there's a Ryan Leaf and Vince Young.

Solution: Start Culpepper and wait until 2010 for Stafford.

What possess a man to leave one team that finished third in its division for another that didn't win a game the previous year?

Well, we asked cornerback Phillip Buchanon the other day why he left the Bucs, who finished third in the NFC South, for the Lions, and his answer was simple.

"I did want to stay in Florida," Buchanon said. "Tampa was going in a different direction and I truly feel like I'm still a starter, and Detroit was one of the teams that was actually there. There were a few other teams, but Tampa was taking their time and I didn't want to wait. You either want me or you don't."

Multiple sources are reporting that Jacksonville has agreed to send wide receiver Dennis Northcutt to Detroit in exchange for safety Gerald Alexander.

The Jaguars were rumored to be shopping Northcutt recently -- a notion confirmed by Northcutt's agent (who, incidentally, is also Alexander's agent). The 31-year-old receiver is scheduled to make $2.75 million in 2009. But it was the presence of rookies Jarret Dillard, Mike Thomas and Tiquan Underwood, along with the free-agent signing of Torry Holt, that made Northcutt expendable for Jacksonville.

In fact, despite his 44 catches for 545 yards last season, the Jags were prepared to release Northcutt if a trade partner could not be found.

The Detroit Lions, who haven't won a football game since 2007, just wrapped up their final minicamp of the offseason. There's a lot that's new about them, including offensive coordinator Scott Linehan, who was good enough to return FanHouse's phone call on Thursday afternoon and answer some questions about the way the team looks to him so far.

Linehan, the former head coach of the St. Louis Rams, addressed the quarterback competition between top draft pick Matthew Stafford and veteran Daunte Culpepper, had very high praise for rookie tight end Brandon Pettigrew and called himself a longtime admirer of new Lions head coach Jim Schwartz. He also spoke of the challenge of coming in as part of a new coaching staff on a team that only has to win one game to call 2009 an improvement over 2008.

Ford Field was, as you might expect given Detroit's super awesome 2008 season, not exactly a happy place to be.

Things boiled over in Week 13 when center Dominic Raiola took offense with a particularly unruly heckler and gave him the finger -- then refused to apologize, instead stating that he wished he was allowed to challenge detractors to fights.

Here's hoping that things improve in the Motor City soon, because the Lions and Raiola have agreed to a four-year deal that will keep him in Detroit through the 2013 season.

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Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford admits that maybe in hindsight hiring Matt Millen as general manager wasn't the best call he's ever made.

"He really didn't have much experience as far as being a general manager goes. He knows the game, obviously, and knew talent. Maybe he was a little precipitous on some of his judgments -- I'm second-guessing him -- but it didn't work out. He understood completely. There was no bitterness or rancor on his part. He said, 'No, I can see why you're doing it and I don't blame you.'

When you go a whole season without winning a game, it's hard to fault people who don't want to watch you play anymore. So rather than grumble about losing season ticketholders, the Detroit Lions are doing something about it. The team sent e-mails to about 6,000 former season ticketholders a few weeks ago, inviting them to attend Wednesday's minicamp session. A few of them took the team up on it and attended workouts.

"I think it's important for them just to reconnect with the team," new coach Jim Schwartz said. "There have been a lot of changes since they had season tickets. I want them to see the direction that we're taking. I think if you watch practice, you can see sort of the philosophies that we're going to have and you see a lot of different faces and you need to get reacquainted with your team. There's so much turnover."

There are whole lot of people who deserve blame for the Lions' ineptness.

It starts with owner William Clay Ford--teams that are bad this long never have a competent owner. If filters down to former GM Matt Millen, who left a swath of destruction as a GM that may never be topped. But apparently you have to point the finger at the Lions training staff as well, if Peter King's most recent Monday Morning Quarterback can be believed.

Coaches try all sorts of odd motivational tactics, especially when faced with a task like the one in front of new Lions boss Jim Schwartz.

Turning around a team that was 0-16 in 2008 is likely to leave any coach open to any idea. For Schwartz, banging home a message that his players have to continue to get better, no matter their "status" on the team, is very important. It's the only chance Schwartz has to deliver a much-improved product on the football field this fall. The delivery of that message starts in earnest on Monday as the Lions open a three-day minicamp.

We found out just a couple of days ago that Matt Millen would join the NFL Network's Thursday Night Football broadcasts in 2009. And to that news, I, like most people, am fairly indifferent. Millen's no John Madden, but he's a decent enough football analyst, so that might work out fine.

Millen isn't -- and doesn't deserve to be -- forever banned from football circles simply because of his 31-97 record as Detroit's general manager

What he does deserve, though, is his, (pun-intended) Lions' share of the blame. So what I can't get on board with is Millen playing the role of the victim as he did in an interview with SI's Don Banks.