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One thing you can count on with the Detroit Lions is that they are never, ever boring. Follow the latest news including injuries, roster moves and more here daily from Oakland Press beat writer Paula Pasche. Plus you'll find regular commentary about the team.

1/27/2009

Lions staff rounding into place

The Lions haven't announced any assistant coach hires other than coordinators Gunther Cunningham and Scott Linehan, but several other assistants are in place.

A team source told me today that receivers coach Shawn Jefferson and running backs coach Sam Gash will be retained from last year's staff, presumably at their areas of expertise. Jim Colletto, demoted from offensive coordinator to offensive-line coach, will not be back. One name I've heard as his replacement is George Yarno, who was fired as an assistant offensive line coach in Tampa Bay earlier this year. Yarno coached at Idaho, where new offensive coordinator Scott Linehan played and coached (though at different times than Yarno), and worked on Nick Saban's staff at LSU. Jim Schwartz referenced Linehan's work under “a colleague of mine Nick Saban” when he announced his offensive coordinator's hiring.

Calls and/or emails to Jefferson, Gash and Yarno have not been returned.

Previously, reports indicated that the Lions hired former Tennessee assistant Matt Burke as linebackers coach and that ex-Broncos defensive coordinator Bob Slowik was expected to coach defensive backs in Detroit.

Update at 8:17 p.m.: A source has confirmed that Yarno has been hired as the Lions' new offensive line coach.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

1 down, 1 to go....PLEASE tell me kwan is gone too, dave.

8:38 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Agree. Kwan needs to be gone as well.

7:31 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

any audio/video of the town hall meetings?

what happened on day 2, dave?

9:40 AM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dave,
Any insight into the release of Furrey?
If I remember, he paced the entire NFC in receptions a few years back. Ahead of the entire NFC! granted that is partly Martz's responsibility, but 100+ catches isn't sneezable.

I imagine it would be hard for CJ to catch that many, and although I understand MF probably wouldn't catch that many again this year; he has done it... with Roy on the other side! An 0-16 team has no business releasing players it cannot replace.

It's the Lions, what else can we expect? Could we expect the Lions' become 'enamored' with Crabtree? Maybe the defense is better than we expect.

Although the offseason is the best part of being a Lions' fan, this one comes up feeling like a loss. Especially when he leads the NFC in receptions again.

12:58 PM 

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