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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.

4/27/2013

Lions' Jim Schwartz: Riley Reiff to start at left tackle


ALLEN PARK — After the Detroit Lions drafted guard Larry Warford (Kentucky) in the third round, the upcoming look for the offensive line became a little clearer.

  Of course, this could all change with a trade or free agent signing.

  Lions coach Jim Schwartz said Riley Reiff, who was the Lions’ first-round pick a year ago, will start at left tackle.

  “You know, that’s why we drafted him. Again, when (Jeff) Backus got hurt last year, that’s why we played him there. You never say never. You never know who is going to become available, what’s going to happen. But we drafted him as a left tackle,’’ Schwartz said. “We thought he could play right tackle, we think he can play guard. You know, Riley, if you gave him time, could probably play center too. He played tight end for us. He’s that kind of athlete. He’s a guy that can move around and do those things, but we drafted him as a left tackle. Probably, with the way things ended up here, we’ll probably start him off there. We have a lot of confidence in him. I mean, that’s why we drafted him last year. Last year, Riley was the second offensive lineman picked.”

  Riley will be able to lean on the experience of left guard Rob Sims.

   Warford will compete with Bill Nagy and Rodney Austin for the starting right guard position vacated when Stephen Peterman was released.

  Corey Hilliard and Jason Fox will compete to start at right tackle.

   There you have it.

  (Follow @PaulaPasche on Twitter. Order her book,  “100 Things Lions Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die’’ here. It’s also available at bookstores.)


2 Comments:

Blogger scp1957 said...

The assumption of seemingly nearly every analyst is that Reiff can't play LT, both because (a) he's a T-Rex and (b) he didn't "take away" the starting job from Backus last year. Yet, anyone who covers the team should be aware of the marked preference of both Schwartz and Linehan first to "marinate" the players at certain positions, especially OL and WR. Now, given that I assumed, from the moment that they drafted him, that Jeff would start unless the kid SEIZED the job from him--as if anyone could have confused the lad with Anthony Munoz or even Eric Fisher. SMH at what's either contrived panic or yet another nattering of nabobs.

10:30 PM 
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12:50 AM 

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