Culpepper, the Lions future?

A former WR for the Lions Mike Furrey, said that Culpepper will be the team’s starting QB next season. “I've spoken to a couple of my friends who are backups there and I know [the Lions] are going to name Daunte Culpepper as the starter,” Furrey said during a Sunday morning appearance on Sirius NFL Radio.

Ok, let me put my two cents on this. Are you freaking serious? I hope Furrey was kidding when he made that statement. I hope he would’ve laughed a little after he made that outrageous comment. When Culpepper came back to the NFL from retirement to the Lions, he was fat and out of shape. I know Culpepper is a big guy, but it looked like he was eating one too many burgers and hot dogs while he was in retirement. I vividly remember in the Thanksgiving game, Culpepper running outside of the pocket, and he was slow. He wasn’t very mobile at all. When he ran, he didn’t move like the old Culpepper like in Minnesota or Oakland. I understand that Culpepper and his old Offensive coordinator will be together again from the Vikings days (Scott Linehan), but I don’t think he will be the starting QB. During the past season, Dan Orlovsky had to start in for the injured Jon Kitna. Orlovsky played so much better than Culpepper did in many games even though he lost all of them. Orlovsky, gave the Lions more of a chance to win games than Culpepper would have in the entire season.

Going into this year’s draft, the Lions better draft a QB. They cannot and should not rely on Culpepper for their future. In my eyes, Culpeper is a backup with how he played last season. If it was up to me, my depth chart would be: 1) Rookie QB, 2) Orlovsky (will be a free agent), and then 3) Culpepper. For the past couple of drafts (with Matt Millen at GM), the Lions have made some bad draft choices in drafting WR’s Charles Rogers and Mike Williams who were first round draft picks no longer with the team anymore. Two years ago they drafted a WR in Calvin Johnson who is still with the team and will grow into a great WR soon with a good QB in place for the team. So with that being said, the Lions should draft a QB with their first round pick. They have to and if they don’t the fans will boo the heck out of them. There is a reason why Matt Millen ins’t there anymore. Let’s hope the new GM can make good draft decisions.