Lions claim O'Connell; Stanton having surgery ... now what?
(Updated 6:30 p.m.) The Lions claimed quarterback Kevin O'Connell off waivers from New England today, waiving recently-claimed WR Glenn Holt to make room on the now 75-man roster.
Now the question is whether they're planning to keep O'Connell -- especially with Drew Stanton's status up in the air with pending knee surgery -- or if they're just going to flip him for a draft pick or player to another team. Either way, they're still clearly trying to "take advantage of being crappy," as Jim Schwartz put it.
Denver would seem to be the most likely trading partner, given coach Josh McDaniels' familiarity with the Patriots' '08 third-round pick, as well as the Broncos' injury concerns.
But according to a league source, the Broncos weren't the only other team to put in a waiver claim, only to get beat out by the Lions. Cleveland was next in line behind Detroit, and the New York Jets also put in a claim.
So maybe there is some trade value there, after all.
(UPDATED 8:15 p.m.) FYI, I've had a few people ask why the Lions can't just put Stanton on the PUP list. The reason is you can't put a player on PUP if they start training camp on the active roster. So the options with Stanton are to carry him injured on the active roster for however long the recovery period is -- we don't know the answer to that yet -- or to put him on IR.
Bollinger is here to play Thursday night -- you don't want Stafford playing the whole game -- and maybe beyond depending on what the Lions are planning to do with O'Connell. I do not think the plan is to trade Culpepper, as some have suggested, but obviously you can't rule anything out. But I also don't think this team can afford to carry four QBs into the regular season -- they've got too many needs at too many other positions, particularly on defense.
