In a somewhat odd move, the Lions today signed running back Artose Pinner to a contract. Pinner played last year for the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons. In 2006, he played for the Minnesota Vikings. He played for the Detroit Lions in the 2003 - 2005 seasons.

I find this move very strange. Pinner didn’t do anything the last two seasons (except for his career day against the Lions in 2006). For the most part, he was also ineffective as a Detroit Lion. How many chances are we going to give this guy? Five pretty average to sub-par seasons and now we want him on the roster again?

What this tells me is that the Lions are still not sold on Tatum Bell and/or Brian Calhoun. Calhoun has struggled to stay healthy and Bell disappeared off the depth charts last season. This doesn’t have anything to do with Kevin Smith. He will make the roster and will be starting by October, if not sooner.

The one advantage the Pinner might bring to the mix is that as a backup running back during his previous stint with the Lions, he was active on special teams. Bell and Calhoun have not contributed in this manner, though if he is healthy, Calhoun might be able to.

Still, a strange move and another case of the Lions giving a retread another try. If nothing else, perhaps the cries of “Toooooooossee” will ring through Ford Field once again.

The Lions made a couple of more free agency moves yesterday. It was no surprise that they released Kalimba Edwards. The surprise of the day was that they released running back Kevin Jones. Both were once considered to be some of the key blocks around which the Lions would construct a winning team.

Kalimba was another experiment gone bad. He was a 2nd round pick (another high draft pick bust for Millen) in 2022 that never panned out for the Lions. He wasn’t a total failure and will likely end up somewhere. The problem was he never lived up to a second round pick and the wasn’t likely to live up to the money he was going to count against the cap this year. I have long speculate he would not return this season.

The release of Kevin Jones, however, was a complete surprise to me. I did not see this coming and suspect few folks did. Jones was a 1st round draft pick in 2006 and also didn’t quite live up to that hype, though the inability of the Lions offensive line to block well during his tenure cannot be forgotten. Jones has missed a lot of playing time this past two seasons with injuries. Though he claimed he would be ready for the season opener, I think the Lions would have been lucky to get a half of a season out of him in next year.

Jones was schedule to make $2.37M this upcoming season as a Lion. I suspect that with the injury, the amount of time he would play next year and the fact he would be a free agent the following season, caused Coach Rod to decide to make this surprise move.

The move really leaves us limited at running back for next year. Our lone back, no, I don’t count those other guys, is Tatum Bell. Tatum was so far down the depth chart last season, that one cannot logically assume he can be your back of the future. I have mentioned before that the Lions were likely to take a running back high in the draft. This pretty much confirms it. Still, I had expected Jones and Bell to share the load while the rookie was brought along slowly. Now, the new guy is likely to have to contribute immediately, unless Bell has a sudden re-emergence of his old self.

What will become of Jones? I have no doubt he will be given another shot with a different team, but it likely won’t be until he knee is better. Assuming his knee recovers, which is no sure thing given the extent of the injury, he may well go onto a nice career.

This move also pretty much assures us that we are stuck with Jon Kitna as QB for another year. I don’t see much chance of the Lions taking a QB early. We have too many other needs, including RB, OL, LB and CB. Some folks think CB is set with the free agency moves, but I am not convinced we wont take a mid round CB.