Lions Perfectly Imperfect, Finish 0-16

Who's there?

Owen.

Owen who?

Owen 16.

The old adage goes, "You can't win 'em all."

But the Detroit Lions would have liked to win at least one.

The Lions missed their last chance to avoid everlasting futility, and finished the season 0-16 with a 31-21 loss to the Green Bay Packers.

There's no one person to point the finger at for this season - except maybe Jon Kitna, who boldly and moronically guaranteed a playoff spot at the beginning of the season. Other than that, the blame falls

The offense ranks 27^th in the league, and the defense ranks 32^nd out of 32 teams.

Rod Marinelli is almost certainly out of his job.

He's probably also out of his mind. Who wouldn't be? Detroit hasn't won a game since the middle of last season. After starting off strong at 6-1, they slid to finish 7-9 on the season. Their rookies still don't know what an NFL win feels like. For the veterans, this season marks another season of abysmal futility.

After Mike Martz was fired in the 2008 off-season, the franchise felt it could get a true identity instead of constant downfield passing to pad stats. Kevin Smith enjoyed his share of success running the ball, but the passing game never got off the ground (no pun intended). Detroit's quarterbacks combined for 19 interceptions to just 18 touchdowns. One of the few bright spots on the season, last year's first round pick Calvin Johnson picked up 10 of those passing touchdowns.

With Matt Millen also fired, perhaps Bill Parcells' adage about buying the groceries could come into effect (and maybe they won't be shopping at 7-Eleven anymore).

So, where does one begin rebuilding a franchise?

After similarly (though not quite as epically) finishing 1-15 last season, the Dolphins started off by naming Bill Parcells their general manager of football operations. He was (and is) the decision-maker in terms of personnel and coaching staff. Since the Lions (thankfully) fired Matt Millen for ineptitude, there is an opening at this position. They could benefit from picking up someone like Scott Pioli from the New England Patriots, who has been key in building the Patriots through the draft over the course of the decade.

After hiring Parcells, the attention immediately shifted to the coaching staff when he named Tony Sparano the head coach before he made any significant changes to the roster. The Lions could go fishing in the pool of college coaches, but the wise decision would be to take a coach with some good NFL experience. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has been the hallmark of the New York Giants defense, and the Lions could benefit from his mixture of heavy pressure and containment packages. Likewise, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has proven his effectiveness by engineering the New England Patriots to a very successful season despite losing franchise quarterback Tom Brady. Likewise, Jerry Jones has claimed that his coaching staff is in place, but his coaching staff may not feel the same way. Look for offensive coordinator Jason Garrett to get a few contract offers, and one of the likely suitors may be Detroit.

Once they have the coach in place, they can begin to build a team based on the philosophy of whichever coach they find. For a look into the success of philosophy football, look no further than the New England Patriots, who have consistently built their team based on versatile role players who play consistent mistake-free football. The Dolphins turned it around by building a hard-nosed franchise dedicated to team-first football. One of the primary philosophies Parcells employed in building the Dolphins franchise of '08 was a strong build in the trenches, as evidenced by the first overall pick Jake Long. Detroit may be foaming at the mouth over the very thought of picking one of the great quarterbacks expected to come out of this draft, such as Graham Harrell, Colt McCoy, or possibly Tim Tebow, but can't be fooled by the flash and panache of college quarterbacks who are often overrated coming out of college.

The Detroit Lions need help at practically every position. Their secondary can't cover anyone, they can't generate a pass rush, their linebackers miss tackles, their offensive line can't block, and the list of problems goes on. They need to get a fundamentally sound group together; defensive linemen and linebackers who are sure tacklers, offensive linemen who are strong blockers, cornerbacks and safeties who are powerful in coverage but can break down and make open-field tackles in the running game.

Essentially, after finishing 0-16, there's nowhere to go except up.