I really appreciate and am thankful for the Lions’ GM and coaching staff. They’ve built a great organization that wins far more than it loses. It’s an accomplishment that isn’t easily won as every team in the league strives to be the best it can be.
Unfortunately, you can’t control everything. Life happens. There are always some variables you just can’t predict – injuries are probably #1 on a list of such things. Then, there are things you can almost say will happen, but don’t know for sure, and it might take a lot to make a change.
Losing CB Terrion Arnold is such an incident. I don’t think everyone was confident that he was going to turn in a stellar year. There had just been too many hopes dashed over the past two years. Yet, it’s very expensive to try to land a free agent or to trade for a star CB, so I suppose we waited and hoped.
Injuries are relatively unforeseen, but a legal incident is even more so. No one could have predicted Arnold would be arrested on serious charges that might forever change his life. Speeding ticket maybe, maybe even some form of aggression stemming from personal frustrations, possibly. However, kidnapping, assault, perhaps even worse seemed far fetched to most of us.
Well, it’s happened. Now it’s another glitch in the program. What should be done? Do we have enough in house to overcome the incident? Or, do we need to look for help? This is a big moment I believe. I think this is this year’s, “yeah, we all knew this could or might be a problem.”
Can the team surprise us? Is there a solution that might turn this situation around? Is a player just waiting for the opportunity to shine, in house, or available from another team?