Even with a dangerous set of wide receivers and a promising young quarterback, mediocrity will be the team's lot in the first year of Life After Barry

Without much of a running game to go to, Batch may feel even more like a target than he did as a rookie.   Robert Tringali Jr./Sportschrome

While walking to lunch one day during training camp in Saginaw, Mich., Lions chief operating officer Chuck Schmidt got wistful about the Barry Sanders era, which, of course, ended coldly late last month when Sanders's agents phoned in his retirement in a conference call. "Despite how this happened," said Schmidt, "I'd really, somehow, like to thank Barry for all the great years, all the years of service to the team and to Detroit...." His voice trailed off. Then he resumed. "If I ever had the chance, if we could ever find him."

The Lions have no time for emotion now. Life After Barry begins on Sept. 12 in Seattle against one of the best defenses in the NFL, and Detroit must find ways to make up for the loss of Sanders, who accounted for 35% of the team's total yards in 1998. Detroit spent the month after Sanders's shocking announcement scouring the waiver wire for a replacement, but it's likely the man who starts in the Kingdome will be Sanders's understudy, Ron Rivers, with rookie fourth-round draft pick Sedrick Irvin waiting in the wings.

Whoever the Lions settle on will get plugged into the same change-of-pace attack that offensive coordinator Sylvester Croom devised during the off-season. "We didn't take a play out of the playbook when Barry retired," Croom says. "We were planning to do some different things anyway. We're going to push the ball up the field more. We'll play more four-wideout formations and also have lots of three-wide sets so we can get [third receiver] Germane Crowell on the field more. Don't be surprised to see us go one-back on first down. The difference is, we won't be concerned as much with getting one player 25 to 30 touches a game. You had to get Barry his volume, because you knew he was a home run threat. The problem was, we didn't hit too many home runs with Barry last year. [He had four touchdowns.] So we knew we'd be spreading the field more vertically even before Barry retired."

The Lions won't contend for anything in the NFC Central other than fourth place, but that doesn't mean they won't be exciting to watch. Wideouts Herman Moore and Johnnie Morton combined for 2,011 receiving yards on 151 catches last year while getting used to rookie triggerman Charlie Batch. Putting Crowell, who as a rookie in 1998 averaged a gaudy 18.6 yards per catch on 25 receptions, in the lineup will help when Moore and Morton are double-teamed. Without Sanders that should be on most passing downs. "Germane could really hold the power in this offense," says Moore, "because he could be the one guy running free."

Don't expect the plodding 5'8", 205-pound Rivers to be running free too often: He has carried 85 times for 427 yards during his four years in Detroit. Give him credit for honesty if not quickness. When asked what he takes from his time playing behind Sanders that will help him this season, Rivers laughs. "Nothing," he says. "Absolutely nothing. You know, I'd watch film with Barry, trying to see what he saw. But I can't do what he does. Who can?"

The 5'11", 217-pound Irvin is being groomed more as a change-of-pace back, so expect Detroit to see who's available after teams make their final cuts in early September before solidifying its depth chart at running back. Whoever lines up in the backfield won't take much pressure off Batch and his receivers. "We know how teams will probably play us," says Batch, who started 12 games as a rookie. "Instead of being aggressive against the run, teams will sit back and make us run. We've got to get teams to respect us by spraying it around and making lots of different things work."

While Sanders's shocking retirement has cast somewhat of a pall over the team, there is also the hope that the remarkable inconsistency of the offense over the years -- Sanders is the NFL's alltime leader in carries for negative yardage -- left with the future Hall of Famer. The number of second-and-12s, usually the result of Sanders's trying to make something happen and getting trapped behind the line, is sure to drop. That's a misplaced glass-is-half-full attitude if there ever was one, but as Moore says, "Now we won't live and die with the running game."

The Lions are talking a good game, which is easy to do in the preseason. But they'll find out soon enough that their new offensive philosophy and assortment of weapons won't make up for Sanders's absence.

-- Peter King

Fast Facts

1998 RECORD: 5-11 (4th in NFC Central)
     NFL rank (rush/pass/total): offense 10/19/14; defense 25/8/15

1999 SCHEDULE STRENGTH (rank): 10
     Opponents' 1998 winning percentage: .520; Games against playoff teams: 6

Player to Watch

While playing high school and college football in Southern California, Chris Claiborne always wanted to be the sack man. He was too good, though, as a high school middle linebacker to be allowed to run free, and he patrolled USC's middle for the past three seasons so well that the Trojans never thought of moving him. But because the Lions already have a strong middle linebacker in Stephen Boyd, Claiborne, the ninth pick in April's draft, will finally get his chance to rush the passer as a weak outside linebacker. "I'm confident," Claiborne says, "that I'm going to prove they made the right decision."

Other Info

1999 Team Schedule
Team Depth Chart