Because the Lions had such an awful season they got the benefit of coaching in the Senior Bowl. The coaching staff will be put to work for a week to cobble together a team that hopefully won’t embarrass itself on national television. (Well, it’s the NFL Network, if that counts.)

Coach Jim Schwartz is excited. He’s been on two Senior Bowl coaching staffs and knows it can give him insight into certain players especially those who might fall to the middle rounds of the draft. He can see their workout habits, get a grasp of their skill level and mindset and then, ultimately, see how they respond under pressure. In the draft every morsel of knowledge is key.

Schwartz and his staff will be coaching the North on Jan. 30 at Mobile, Ala. Twenty-one of the current Lions — and four draft picks from last year — played in the Senior Bowl.
  — PAULA PASCHE