Why not Daunte Culpepper?

There were rumors circulating around about the Lions being interested in Daunte Culpepper.  Among other names around the weekend have been Chris Simms and Takeo Spikes.  However, Lions insider Tom Kowalski has reported on his blog at MLive.com the Lions are NOT interested in Culpepper…and why the Lions aren’t interested has me completely dumbfounded.

I’ve never been a Jon Kitna basher.  I’ve met him in real life.  I do think that out of the NFC North, he’s the best quarterback (if you include Brett Favre’s “retirement”).  I still think he has a decent arm, and I pin a lot of the Lions’ failures in the offense to a bad offensive line.  But if you believe Jim Colletto and Kippy Brown, they will institute more 3-step dropback passes, as opposed to Martz’s 5.  This will give Kitna the opportunity to throw the ball quicker out of the pocket before he gets flattened due to another missed block.  I do believe the arrival of Gosder Cherilus and the addition of blocking Tight Ends and Fullbacks will help add to Kitna’s protection.

Kitna was sacked over 50 times last year.  Sometimes, 3 to 4 per game.  The guy is tough.  He’s been able to get up from all those hits, for the most part.  But at some point, there’s going to be a time where he doesn’t get back up.  If only for a few plays, or a few quarters.  This is why the Lions desperately need to wake up and find an experienced backp Quarterback.

Sure Daunte’s beaten up, and I do believe Randy Moss was a big reason why Culpepper was as successful as he was with the Vikings.  But, compared to other previous veteran backups the Lions have signed in the past (Ty Detmer, Jeff Garcia…to name a few) he’d be a tremendous and serviceable backup to Kitna.  Who would you rather have if Kitna goes down?  An injury prone Daunte Culpepper, or an injury prone Drew Stanton who hasn’t even taken a snap in the NFL?