If the Lions are going to trade for Jay Cutler, there's a good chance it'll happen this week.

The NFL's annual meetings run today through Wednesday in Dana Point, Calif., and most of the league's important decision-makers will be in attendance. Lions general manager Martin Mayhew and team president Tom Lewand are there, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen is expected as well, and no one would be surprised if Cutler's agent Bus Cook had urgent business matters to tend to on the west coast.

The Lions are one of a reported 10 teams that have contacted the Broncos about acquiring Cutler, a Pro Bowl quarterback whose incessant whining has made him persona non grata in Denver. Neither Mayhew nor head coach Jim Schwartz would acknowledge any interest in Cutler last week, but the Lions' most glaring need is at quarterback and chances don't come around every day to acquire a 25-year-old proven commodity.

“Nothing planned out there,” Mayhew said in a conference call when asked about his agenda for the meetings. “I'll just go and see where we are. CBA wise, that's important, obviously. Get an update on that. Hopefully meet the new union chief. But nothing planned, nothing major planned right now.”

ESPN reaffirmed Sunday morning that the Broncos would need a starting quarterback, a first-round pick and “maybe something else” to get any deal done. That limits the number of realistic suitors, but the Lions have enough draft-pick ammunition to be in the mix. (As a side note, I'm still not convinced Cutler's going anywhere, and if he does, Cleveland with Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson and possibly a renegotiated Shaun Rogers is the favorite. The Lions probably would need to involve a third team.)

Two years ago, Detroit talked trade with Kansas City for quarterback Trent Green at the league meetings. The same year, Philadelphia worked out a deal with Buffalo for linebacker Takeo Spikes. If the Broncos are serious about moving Cutler, history tells us something could happen soon.

Now that a new coach and new GM are in place, it's almost time to close the book on the Matt Millen era in Detroit. But not without one more example of how even Millen's best luck backfired.

Last winter when the Lions were shopping Shaun Rogers, Millen agreed to trade the discontented defensive tackle to Cincinnati for third- and fifth-round picks. It was a fair deal considering some of the offseason's other moves: Kris Jenkins to the Jets for a three and a five, Corey Williams to the Browns for a second-rounder.

When that deal fell through at the last minute, Millen rekindled talks with Cleveland and shipped Rogers across Lake Erie for cornerback Leigh Bodden and a third-rounder. It seemed like a fortunate turn at the time for the Lions, at least in the context of having to move Rogers. They got a starter at their biggest position of need, a cornerback coming off a career-high six-interception season, and an extra draft choice to beef up the roster.

A year later, the Lions might be kicking themselves that first deal didn't go through. Bodden is coming off a mediocre season and due an $8.6-million roster bonus next month that, if declined, will make him a free agent. Andre Fluellen, drafted with Cleveland's pick, looks like an NFL contributor, though it remains to be seen how he'll fit in new coach Jim Schwartz's system. And the nuts and bolts of that trade may have caused the Lions to pass up Dominque Rodgers-Cromartie, a future star at cornerback who you can see in the Super Bowl next week.

Remember last February, when draft speculation centered around the Lions taking a cornerback with their first-round pick? Had Bodden not been acquired, that still would have been a possibility (unless you believe the Lions were comfortable with Brian Kelly, Travis Fisher, Keith Smith and Stanley Wilson as their corners). Instead, they didn't take a defensive back until the seventh round and went with right tackle Gosder Cherilus, after trading down two spots, at the top of the draft.

This isn't to bash Cherilus, who had some up-and-down moments as a rookie but should start for some time at right tackle. But Rodgers-Cromartie had four interceptions in 11 starts as a rookie and two more (plus seven break-ups) in three postseason games, when he's been one of the best defenders on the field each time he's played. (A kick returner in college, Rodgers-Cromartie would have been extra enticing on draft day for his position flexibility.)

With no Cherilus, George Foster would have started at right tackle last year and the Lions still would have finished 0-16. Then, with the No. 1 overall pick this April, there'd be little doubt what they should do – draft left tackle Andre Smith of Alabama, move Jeff Backus to right tackle and spend the rest of your picks putting a supporting cast around Rodgers-Cromartie, Ernie Sims and the one or two other keepers on defense.

Rod Marinelli is a hard man not to like, even as he walks out the door after the worst season any NFL team has ever seen.

Fired in a Monday morning meeting with new team president Tom Lewand and new general manager Martin Mayhew, Marinelli showed up to his regular 11:45 a.m. press conference because “it was scheduled.”

“I'm a routine guy,” Marinelli said. “You schedule it, I show up.”

He opened his press conference as always with the injury report – “Only injury today is me,” he said – and acknowledged a litany of failures that sent the Lions to the first 0-16 season in league history and a 10-38 record in his three years. Still, Marinelli said he had few regrets and wouldn't do anything differently if he got a head coaching job again.

“Honestly, I would go at this thing exactly the same way,” Marinelli said. “I'd want to make sure the No. 1 issue isn't always talent. It's the work, the attitude, the effort, all those things. And you got to have talent. I would never say it's not important. It is important. But when you get the blend of both, then you got something special. Then you win for a long time because your talent leads.”

The little talent Marinelli inherited never led, and the young talent he added never got the chance. Shaun Rogers was traded last offseason because he was lazy and liable to take months off. Roy Williams and “full speed” didn't exactly mix. And Calvin Johnson, as great a receiver as he is, could only do so much at a complimentary position and with a revolving door for a quarterback.

Marinelli said Monday he doesn't feel like a scapegoat for the organization, though no one would blame him if he did. Lewand (14 years) and Mayhew (eight) have been around longer and contributed to the losing culture in their own way, but each was promoted Monday amid the ashes the Matt Millen regime.

Rather, he took a practical approach to Monday's dismissal.

“You can't go 0-16 and expect to keep your job,” he said. “When you don't have the power to pull the trigger you're at the other end of the barrel, you understand."

Marinelli said he intends to coach again and expects to get another head gig one day.

“I just got to go back in and get my pick and shovel out again and start digging,” he said.

As for the Lions, he said he holds no grudges and has an optimistic outlook for the future.

“I really believe that the time to buy stock in the Lions is now, I really do,” Marinelli said. “This thing has hit bottom. I think there's a good base of talent here, of young players. Now I just think you just come in and you start adding to it. This is a good group of people, they know how to work, they know how to meet, they care, they'll develop some leadership. I think this thing's going to hit it on the rise.”

Jim Colletto and Joe Barry met with the media Friday for what could be their final time as Lions coordinators. NFL rules state that teams must make their coordinators available to the media every other week, and the assumption here is that, by moving Colletto and Barry's regularly-scheduled appearance up a week (they were supposed to talk next Friday), the Lions will shut them down the rest of the season.

Regardless, we had a chance to ask both men about this year's season, what went wrong, what building blocks are in place and what they think the future will hold. Both were fairly candid – a sampling in a minute – but I have to start by correcting one bit of revisionist history.

Asked what will bother him most about this year when he reflects on it, Colletto said, “Just all the different distractions from injuries and it's just the changes, we never got any continuity at all. And that's probably the thing that bothers me the most.”

He said the pieces were in place to make his simplified offense and the Lions' zone-blocking scheme successful “had we started off a little bit differently.”

“But then with all the changes, with Jon (Kitna) being hurt and that problem, then Dan (Orlovsky) plays and he gets hurt and then it just kept going and we just never got any continuity that you'd like to have,” Colletto said.

I don't dispute at all the impact the quarterback carousel has had on the Lions' struggles, but they have no one to blame for that but themselves. It was clear as far back as the spring that Kitna didn't buy fully into Colletto or the offense. His back injury four starts into the year was a convenient excuse to start anew under center. Orlovsky lasted four more starts before a thumb injury sidelined him for five games, but the Lions considered him a backup, nothing more, and planned to bench him and go with free-agent Daunte Culpepper a week before Orlovsky got hurt.

If Kitna had started all year – or for that matter Orlovsky or Culpepper – and the Lions had held on to Roy Williams, there's no doubt in my mind they'd have a win or two now. But fact is they decided what path they were going down, not injuries.

Maybe shelving Kitna and trading Williams had to be done to cleanse the locker room (just as trading Shaun Rogers did in February). Maybe firing Matt Millen in September caused the Lions to change paths midstream. Maybe, considering their feelings on Orlovsky, the Lions should have signed Culpepper a month earlier than they did.

But in the end, those are the decisions the Lions made and those are the decisions they have to live with, even it means 0-16.

A few more thoughts from Barry and Colletto:

• Colletto, on how important it is to avoid 0-16: “Well, I'd like it for the players. I've had enough successes and failures to last me forever, so that's more for them. I don't think that I want them to have to live with that. I've been fortunate enough to be a Super Bowl champion, too, so I guess I've been on both ends of the spectrum. But I'd like to see them have a chance. It's good for them, not for me.”

• Barry on what went wrong this season: “Well, we didn't play good enough, we didn't coach good enough. It's a two-way street. I've been brought up in this profession to always look at myself and when a team doesn't play well, when a player doesn't play well, it's my fault. So I didn't coach well enough. And that's disappointing.”

• Barry, on where progress has been made defensively: “There hasn't been any. If you look at the – in 23 months that I've been here. …That's the thing kind of leading into the original question, that's the thing that's probably most frustrating is I haven't done a good job because just look at the numbers. Bottom line.”

• Colletto, on why he should return as offensive coordinator: “I'm not going to answer that. I've done this a long time and we're all trying to do the best we can. Somebody else will answer that. This season is something you don't want to be real proud of, but somebody else has to make that decision and if I am, fine. And if not, I'll go off in the sunset somewhere.”