Once a week during the offseason I'll try to answer your burning Lions questions.

Do the Lions really want to re-sign center Dominic Raiola?
It sure appears that way. I don't know that it's top priority in mid-February with free agency two weeks ago and draft preparation ongoing, but president Tom Lewand indicated at the team's town-hall meeting last month that extending Raiola's current contract is a priority. The full quote:

“I think (having about $35-million in cap space) enables us to do the kinds of things we're going to want to do from a personnel standpoint both in free agency and in the draft. Obviously with the No. 1 pick and two No. 1s, five in the top 80-plus, we've got to have that flexibility. But I also think it's important when you start talking about the guys that are currently on our roster, whether they're going to be free agents like the guys coming up this year like a Jason Hanson or guys who are in the last year of their contracts like a Dominic Raiola. Part of what we want to do as we're looking at building this the right way and for the long term is keeping those guys who are our own players, who've had success. Ideally we've drafted them and they've grown up within the system and they can kind of be the cornerstones of our team as opposed to trying to get enamored by the potential quick fixes that are out there.”

Raiola will be a free agent next February. I know he catches plenty of flack from fans and didn't help himself with his one-finger salute last year, but he was a Pro Bowl alternate two years ago and he did start 104 straight games before his November thumb injury. He's worth keeping around (though a poor 2009 or the drafting of someone like Cal's Alex Mack could change that).

What are the chances the Lions re-sign Leigh Bodden as a free agent?
I'd say slim to none are about right. You never want to rule anything out, but the sides are ready to part ways. Bodden wasn't happy with the way he was treated in Detroit and he'll find suitors on the open market. And the Lions, no doubt, have their sights set on other free agents.

The one thing I do find curious, general manager Martin Mayhew said Thursday that Bodden's release was “100 percent” cap related. If that's the case, then Lewand or someone should have to answer for the contract that put the Lions in the situation of cutting their best (albeit disgruntled) cornerback. Bodden signed an extension last summer after his trade from Cleveland that called for a whopping $8.6-million bonus to be due later this month. Sure he underperformed last year, but if Mayhew is to be believed the Lions would have kept Bodden of not for that lump-sum payment. And now, they have one more hole to fill.

I've written this already, but here's Mayhew's response when I asked him, in light of his comments, if he regretted how the Lions structured Bodden's contract: “There's a lot that went into that deal and what a lot of people don't know is Leigh wasn't really happy with his contract in Cleveland when he got here. And so we restructured it, and who knows what would have happened if we hadn't done it. So I'm happy that we did it, happy that we know kind of where we are with him and there's some good players out there who can play that position.”

What, if any, other changes to the front office are coming?
OK, so this is slimmed-down version of the three-part question I got from Myth. I think the Lions are pretty happy with the way things are structured now. They obviously don't believe the problems that led to last year's 0-16 season were systemic. Mayhew, Lewand, most of the scouting department and several assistant coaches all kept their jobs. A scout or two still could be let go after the draft, but I haven't had any indication that will happen.

I think Mayhew with Shack Harris as his sounding board is a nice 1-2 punch up top. As for Cedric Saunders, there were rumblings he was headed back to Tampa Bay to join the front office down there before the Lions extended his deal. He won't be an NFL general manager next year, but he's well thought of in Detroit (and elsewhere) and on track to be a player in personnel decisions for some organization in the near future.

Are the Lions interested in Derek Anderson?
You could insert Chris Simms or Byron Leftwich or a number of other free-agents for Anderson, but regardless my answer is the same: Ask me again after the combine. First order of business for the Lions is figuring out what they're going to do with their own quarterback situation. I don't believe anything's been decided there, though my best guess at this point remains they bring back Daunte Culpepper, release (or trade) Jon Kitna, don't re-sign Dan Orlovsky and draft a quarterback high in April's draft, with Culpepper playing the bridge to the future.

As the Lions' new senior personnel executive, James Harris' role is all-encompassing. General manager Martin Mayhew remains in charge of all football-related decisions, but Harris will help organize the team's scouting departments, he'll have input when it comes to draft-day decisions, and next year he'll be directly responsible for scouting a handful of schools (presumably those close to his home in Florida, where he'll work part of the time).

His biggest job, however, is to be a sounding board of sorts for Mayhew, a first-time GM who's smart enough to surround himself with an experienced hand he can lean on in tough times.

“He's going to be a good mentor for me,” Mayhew said. “A lot has been made about the experience factor. This is an experienced guy, he's got 20 years in it. He's very well-respected in the National Football League. He has a good eye. You ask any scout and they'll tell you James has a really good eye. So I think it's important to have a guy like that.”

Already, Mayhew said Harris sat in on the team's free-agency planning meetings this week and will be involved in discussions on what to do with quarterbacks Daunte Culpepper and Jon Kitna. Both men are due roster bonuses in the coming weeks – $2.5 million for Culpepper, $500,000 for Kitna – and Mayhew said Thursday what to do with the quarterbacks is “the biggest personnel decision that we have to make this offseason.”

• Harris didn't get into specifics about what led to his departure from Jacksonville, but he acknowledged “none of us was really expecting the way it happened.” The Jaguars, popular Super Bowl picks in the preseason, finished a disappointing 5-11.

• He also said he considered sitting out this season, which jives with what I heard early in the search process, that he wasn't in any rush to take a subordinate role. “That was my first thought was I would just sit out, take a look at it, consider retiring, walk away from the game,” said Harris, who interviewed for the general-manager job in Cleveland. “I talked to Martin. It started getting interesting to me. At first it was not something I really wanted to do and then I started thinking about it and getting an opportunity to work with a guy like Martin and this organization started appealing to me and we talked and I'm here today.”

• Mayhew was asked if he'd be OK if Harris voiced strong opposition to his decisions as they related to, say, the No. 1 overall pick. “There were any number of yes men available, and we didn't pick any of those guys,” he said.

• Mayhew also said Harris' arrival doesn't affect the jobs of anyone else in the front office. Sheldon White remains director of pro personnel, Scott McEwen is director of college scouting, and vice president of football operations Cedric Saunders will continue to play a bigger role in both scouting and personnel. If there are any more changes upstairs, I wouldn't expect them until after the draft.

• Final note for the night on the cuts earlier this week of Leigh Bodden, Dwight Smith, Dan Campbell, Mike Furrey and Edwin Mulitalo. Mayhew said “every decision that was made was about winning football games and for different reasons, some age, some injury-related, some cap-related. But each one of them was about winning football games. Nothing else there.”

Sorry, I'm chiming in a little late here on the news of the day, John Niyo's report that the Lions will be releasing cornerback Leigh Bodden next week, but I'm pulling double (triple?) duty up here in East Lansing with football signing day and a Michigan State basketball game to cover.

Anyway, Bodden seemed to be goner when team president Tom Lewand mentioned at a town-hall meeting last week that the Lions expected to be some $35 million under the salary cap when free agency opened later this month - they're $26-$28 million under right now. Bodden had a subpar season (one interception), was due an $8.6-million roster bonus and had some choice words for the since-departed coaching staff after the season, not exactly the confluence of events that leads to long-term stability.

Still, while his pending release – Monday is the first day teams can cut players – comes as no surprise, it does leave the Lions with one more hole to fill this offseason. Their current cornerback quartet of Keith Smith, Travis Fisher, Ramzee Robinson and Dexter Wynn frightens no one, and the truth of the matter is there isn't a must-have upgrade on the open market. Oakland's Nnamdi Asomugha, the best corner in the NFL, will no doubt be franchised, and Houston's Dunta Robinson, the (distant) second-best corner available in free agency, is barely a year removed from a gruesome knee-and-hamstring injury and likely will re-sign with the Texans.

With all due respect to Buffalo's Jabari Greer, who returned both his interceptions for touchdowns last year, the only other true impact free-agent corner available is a man new Lions coach Jim Schwartz knows well – former Titan and Cowboy Pacman Jones. Jones is one of the best pure talents in the NFL, even if he's coming off a suspect season and is occasionally a suspect in the police blotter.

I'm not suggesting Schwartz and Jones will reunite in Detroit – the Lions are far more likely to sign ex-Titans Chris Carr, who I mentioned in my blog yesterday for his return prowess, or Eric King, a better cover corner than Carr who broke his forearm last season – but it's an intriguing possibility. Schwartz knows well how talented Jones is and he knows well how that sort of player can impact a game (both positively and negatively).

Jones may be a bit more of a free-lancer than the disciplined Schwartz likes on the field, but if the new Lions coach thinks he can control the sixth overall pick in the 2005 draft off it – and if owner William Clay Ford signs off – maybe adding Pacman is an option worth exploring.

One other note today, semi courtesy of FoxSports.com, Cedric Saunders will remain with the Lions despite rumors he was headed to Tampa Bay to join his good friend Raheem Morris. FoxSports reported that Saunders was promoted to vice-president of football operations, an elevation that actually took place in September when Matt Millen was fired. Saunders will, the website reported, have a more prominent role in personnel evaluation going forward. That's a good move as he's considered a bright up-and-comer.