Lions beat writer Tom Kowalski has posted some excerpts from 
An interesting note is that he names Lions left offensive tackle Jeff Backus as the best offensive left tackle in the NFC North. Now of course this is interesting since Backus often times endures tremendous criticism from Lions fans across the board.
Here are some excerpts from McGinn that Kowalski posted on Mlive.com…
“Last week, executives in personnel from each of the four NFC North Division teams were asked by the Journal Sentinel’s Bob McGinn to rank the top three players in the division at each position. They were not permitted to vote for their own players, and none of the comments that follow was made by a scout about a player on his own team. A first-place vote was worth three points, a second was worth two points and a third was worth one point. Asterisks denote unanimous selections.”
LEFT TACKLE: Jeff Backus* (Det), 9. Others: Chad Clifton (GB), 7; Bryant McKinnie (Minn), 5; Frank Omiyale (Chi), 3.
Comments: Backus, who tied with Clifton and McKinnie in ’09, won his first outright title since ’02 when Clifton was injured. “Backus played pretty good this year,” one scout said. “It surprised me.” Clifton has had six firsts plus seconds in two of the past three years. “He’s the same to me,” another scout said. “Just a steady player. Kind of like Backus. The thing that everyone forgets, this NFC North this year played the NFC East and the AFC East. Every week it was a good pass rusher. For our (tackles) to hold up is a credit to them.”
POSITION COACH: Kris Kocurek (Det, defensive line), 2; Kevin Greene (GB, outside linebackers) and Mike Tice (Chi, offensive line), 1.
EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR: Jerry Angelo (Chi, general manager) and Martin Mayhew (Det, general manager), 2. Angelo also won in 2001, ’05 and ’06. Mayhew is the Lions’ first winner since VP Ron Hughes shared the award in the old NFC Central with four others in 1999.
And this from McGinn’s overall assessment …
“General manager Martin Mayhew, who shared the scouts’ executive of the year award with Angelo, signed, claimed or traded for seven key veterans this year alone. Rookie Ndamukong Suh finished second to Aaron Rodgers in the scouts’ most valuable player vote.
Maybe the best indicator of the seismic shift in the Lions’ personnel is the number of players on the 22-man all-North team. Detroit had eight, two more than it had in the last five years (combined) using Matt Millen’s handiwork.
“Detroit is up and coming,” one of the scouts said. “They need to solidify the back end of their defense. But if (Matthew) Stafford can’t stay healthy … “
I do think Backus get’s blamed for more then his fair share in Detroit. He is a serviceable LT in the league and definitely not on the lower rung in terms of other players at his position. With that said though that doesn’t mean the Lions don’t upgrade the position or any position on the offensive line given the lines poor run blocking this past season.
Source: Mlive.com, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
