| ProFootballWeekly.com asked
contributing editor Joel Buchsbaum for his thoughts on some of the hottest topics in NFL. 
Lions sign CB Lyght
Todd Lyght, a starting cornerback in 1999 for the Rams during their Super Bowl run,
signed a two-year deal with the Lions. Lyght was a Pro Bowl player in ’99, and he was
one of a half-dozen defensive starters let go by St. Louis after the unit allowed a
league-high 471 points in 2000.
PFW: What are your thoughts on this signing?
Buchsbaum: He’s a very good pickup because he gives them an insurance policy until
— or if he can’t — Bryant Westbrook comes back. If Westbrook does come
back, Lyght can be an ideal third corner, nickel-type player. You have to figure he’s
got a little pride, and after being totally out of shape and awful last year and being
viewed as a quitter, he doesn’t want to go out this way especially playing in his
home area.
PFW: Why wouldn’t Lyght have gone somewhere he would’ve had a chance
to be a starter? Or is that not in the cards at this point in his career?
Buchsbaum: No one was offering him anything. Basically, if you look at the tapes of
him, he was just awful last year. He’s old and wanted a lot of money, and he priced
himself out of the market.
Sore knee hampers Batch
Lions QB Charlie Batch has cut back on his offseason workouts because of a sore knee.
Batch, who missed time with knee and rib injuries in 2000, is still partaking in his
weight training, but has stopped doing his quarterback drills.
PFW: What are you hearing about Batch’s latest injury?
Buchsbaum: It is bothering him, and it may need to be scoped.
PFW: At this point, he is becoming known as an injury-prone quarterback. Is it
just bad luck, does he play too big for his body, what is the problem here?
Buchsbaum: He’s a tough kid. He doesn’t really play too big for his body.
It’s just circumstances.
NFL releases 2001 schedule
PFW: The Ravens have four primetime games scheduled for 2001. You’ve
talked in the past that when a team wins a Super Bowl, it gets all these primetime games,
and that’s a negative. Can you talk about how that adversely affects a team?
Buchsbaum: Teams like to do everything in a set way. They become a little bit like
Pavlov’s dogs. They function much better when everything is the same, and it’s
much tougher when you play six-day weeks, eight-day weeks and when you’re playing at
night after sitting around all day instead of playing earlier in the day.
PFW: Seattle didn’t get a Monday-night game, and we’re not saying
they’re going to win the Super Bowl. But every year there’s a team that’s
much better than they were the previous year and they never appear on Monday Night
Football. Does Seattle strike you as a team that might fit into that category?
Buchsbaum: Yes.
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