sportspig.com

If you read Matt Millen’s bio at the Detroit Lions official site, I start to see why Ford would keep him around. Sure this was written by Matt Millen’s secretary or something, but it does show some of the positives he has done for the organization.

I have highlighted some of the good from Millen in the last five years…

“The 2003 draft has produced five starters (Rogers, Bailey, Redding, Davis and Holt) heading into the 2005 season.”

Shaun Rogers is one of the best in the game. Boss Bailey hasn’t stayed healthy. Cory Redding looks like he will be a solid player in this league for a long time.

“In April 2004, Millen orchestrated a draft-day trade that may go down as one of the best in team history.”

Both players have been injured, but when healthy have shown game-breaking ability.

“His recent drafts have been widely acclaimed among the best by national media. In fact, the Sporting News and ESPN.com rated his 2003 and 2004 drafts the very best in the NFL.”

How’s that doing a bad job?

“USA Today Sports Weekly rated the Lions’ off-season personnel moves (for this season) in the top five of all NFL teams.”

And once again injuries hurt Millen’s signings.

Sure there have been some bad, Charles Rogers & Joey Harrington come to mind, but the good has far outweighed the bad. I still think Harrington is going to be a good quarterback in this league, in the right system. Watch what would happen if say, Mike Martz got his hands on Joey.

Millen’s biggest problem is he hasn’t been able to find the right head coach. Granted that’s a big part of his job, but it’s not the only part. The Lions do need a disciplined, hard-ass, type of coach, who can get the attention of all of this young talent and focus it towards a common goal. They also need to win a few games to get some positive attitude in the locker room. If you look at the talent on the Lions it is there, but it does need some fine-tuning.

The bottom line is Ford likes that everyone is on the same page in the Lions front office and organization. It makes him happy. And so Millen stays.