At the press conference to officially introduce Julian Peterson as a Lion today, Jim Schwartz compared his new outside linebacker to Keith Bulluck, a player who starred under Schwartz in Tennessee.

“I've had the great fortune of being associated with a player like Keith Bulluck at Tennessee for the last nine years, and Keith and Julian came out in the same draft,” Schwartz said. “Very, very similar, guys that are tall, long-armed, multidimensional. And Keith never lived it down in Tennessee that I rated Julian a little bit ahead of him in the draft. Those guys are friends so every time Keith would make a play, he'd bring the ball over to me, score a touchdown, he'd say, 'Hey, let's see Peterson do that.'”

The Titans drafted Bulluck 30th overall in 2000, 14 spots after the 49ers took Peterson.

A Michigan State product, Peterson said he's happy to start anew in Detroit and expects to approach his 2006 (10) and 2007 (9 1/2) sack totals with the Seahawks.

He also said there was no truth to reports that he declined to take a pay cut in Seattle and would have been released.

“I didn't even get a discussion about that, all I did was get shipped,” Peterson said. “But I'm happy with the switch, it's no problem with me. I've talked to some of the players here and everybody has a good, positive aura here so I'm very excited to come here.”