While Roethlisberger has been a “model citizen” in training camp so far, that will not change the fact that he will miss at least the first four games of the regular season. Byron Leftwich and Dennis Dixon will be leading the team before he returns, which means they will be seeing plenty of time in the preseason in preparation for the start of the regular season. They will be trying to break in new #2 receiver Mike Wallace, who played surprisingly well as a rookie last year, well enough to make them trade former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes to the New York Jets.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, they now know why so many people passed on rookie RB Jonathan Dwyer in the NFL draft despite the fact that he rushed for nearly 2,800 yards in his last two college seasons at Georgia Tech. Dwyer reported to training camp overweight and then suffered a hamstring injury that cost him almost a week of practice time. Dwyer fell all the way to the sixth round of the draft where Pittsburgh snagged him to back up Rashard Mendenhall, who may get even more work now because of the lack of quality depth in the offensive backfield.
Detroit does not face as the same uncertainty at the skill positions and has plenty to be excited about heading into the preseason. The Lions are coming off one of their best draft classes of all-time, starting with All-American DT Ndamukong Suh and RB Jahvid Best at the top. Both are first-rounders who are expected to be starters in the near future if not right away. Add them to last year’s overall #1 pick in QB Matthew Stafford, and Detroit fans can finally start to forget about the mess former General Manager Matt Millen left behind when he was fired early in 2008.
Stafford is already on a totally different level than former first-round bust Joey Harrington and also has a pair of outstanding receivers to throw to in Calvin Johnson and Nate Burleson. If Stafford can stay healthy and off the ground (he was sacked 24 times as a rookie), the Lions should be more competitive this season and a promising young team to watch in the future.
Second-year head coach Jim Schwartz led Detroit to a 3-1 record last preseason, which followed up former head coach Rod Marinelli’s perfect 4-0 mark the year before he arrived. That is more than three times the amount of wins the Lions earned over the last two regular seasons combined (two). Bettors should expect more continued success in the preseason from this team that appears hungry and ready to take wins any way they can get them right now. Check out Maddux Sports NFL pick packages for predictions on today’s slate of preseason games.
Lines quoted from this article were taken from Bodog and Bookmaker, both offering preseason NFL betting on all games.
