Guys were still months away from camp. And i must talk Lions football, so I bring up history. a subject where there are no right or wrong answers, but still worth hashing it out.
Alright, where does the DEN stand on two old time Lions from the Millen era?
Jeff Backus
Dominic Raiola.
i used to complain about them to high heaven! But they weren’t that bad were they? Cleary no comparison to present day Ragnow and Decker. But, fudge, they played over 10 years for us. And i remember when their replacements came in they got tooled.
Maybe just good enough…? Bottom half in the league of starting taclkles and centers?
Both were decent players who had good careers on horrible Lions teams. The poor guys sure did a lot of losing in their careers. Backus was solid at LT, not great, but solid. Raiola was a smart center, but wasn’t very big and sometimes got manhandled by large DT’s.
Both deserved a playoff win or 2, just like us poor fans.
Backus was an above average starting LT for the majority of his career. Raiola was pretty average most of his career but I would say he took a step up to solid his last 4-5 years.
Backus is what gives mediocrity a bad name. Just good enough to hang onto, not good enough to make a positive impact.
Raiola was an albatross. They loved his leadership, edge and smarts, but he’s the reason teams would switch to 3-4’s, to blow him off the line of scrimmage and into his QB’s lap.
That’s my harsh football judgement. There’s another part of me that would shake their hands and tell them I appreciate their lunch-bucket demeanor and years of grinding for a putrid, losing organization.
Backus started rough. Not a good first couple season. Seemed he got a little better each year, turning into a serviceable LT. My dislike for him probably clouds my memory, and he might have been a really good LT to end his career.
Raiola… all the coaching staffs loved him. Players liked him. I thought he was bad. Like real bad. Just frequently getting pushed back hard at the start of the play. But once again, I didn’t like him, so I overthought the bad plays, and was blind during the good plays.
What stands out to me is how much was invested into the OL afterwards, and I hate to say it but Quinn was all on it. Drafting Decker, Glasgow, Ragnow, etc… I feel like his biggest mistake was not resigning Glasgow which set the OL back a bit… he did start to lay a foundation and this regime finally has seemed to solidify it
Our Oline was a weakness for a decade with Dom in the middle. Tough and cerebral presnap, but ridiculously dumb penalties and could never ever land a clean block at the 2nd level. Coaches and players LOVED him. Always felt we couldn’t take it to the next level up front with Dom as the anchor.
Backus was underrated and under appreciated by the fans. Extremely tough. Played through all kinds of injuries. Lack of quality depth made a 50% Backus better than anything else we had. Got killed on speed rushes too often but our coaching staffs never gave him help.
Thank you for all who commented. I agree with nearly everything written.
several years ago I was watching the national pre-game shows. Rick Burleson was a commetator and he was asked who wins a cage match? He said:
most everyone would say Calvin cause he’s so damn good at everything. But not him.
N Suh - maybe but I don’t think it’s him.
Dom Railoa - maybe a surprise pick but here’s a guy who has manned the middle for XX years and is still fighting. It takes a lot to do that. Also, pound for pound he is incredibly strong.
Well, I don’t stand on them.
My favorite memory of Raiola was when he flipped off the crowd at Ford Field.
Backus is a helluva bass fisherman.
They both earned they’re retirement.
Dom gave us everything he had and I appreciate that but at the end of the day he almost singlehandedly killed our running game. He would also commit dumb penalties and make mistakes more often than a veteran should. Anyone remember the Titans game when he snapped the ball in overtime? That cost is the game. He could have been ok if we’d ever surrounded him with above average guards. What stood out to me most was the year he got hurt. We averaged more than 30 yards a game better rushing the football.
On a different team Dom could have been a star in terms of name recognition. His biggest sin was being drafted by the Lions and resigning with the Lions.
Backus played one of the hardest positions to fill. And did it at a level that 10+ teams every year were wishing they had a Jeff Backus. He played at a level that we could run our offense however we wanted to. The 10+ teams each year that wanted a Backus but didn’t have him had to compromise their entire playcalling scheme because of their Left Tackle.
I was going to post a response to this, but just read Peabodys. Both were good, durable players, who, while not elite, were plug and play starters for a decade. If you can get that kind of production out of any draft pick you’re doing pretty good.
I think Backus and Raiola were controversial figures on this board because they were like two of the only competent players on the team. Like, most Lions of that era, you didn’t have to actually think about. They were garbage. Backus and Railoa were good enough, but not quite all pro level, that fans could talk themselves into believing that if they were just a little better, the team’s (many) other problems would somehow go away.
Yeah, I don’t get it either. It was asinine reasoning then and it’s asinine reasoning now. But that was literally what plenty of people here seemed to think.
