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QB Jon Kitna, Detroit Lions

HT: 6-2, WT: 217, Born: 9-21-1972, College: Central Washington, Drafted: ---

2008 Projections

2007 Game Summaries

Week 1 - Kitna showed some decent mobility, avoiding a few sacks and rushing for 17 yards. More impressive is the way he spread the ball to eight different receivers, on his way to 289 yards and three passing touchdowns. Critics will point to the two interceptions, one in the end zone targeting Mike Furrey. Bottom line, the Lions won and Kitna was a major reason as to why.

Week 2 - Without going overboard, there aren't enough words to describe the heart shown by Jon Kitna in the latter stages of this game. Kitna, who had earlier been knocked from the game with a concussion, stood and cheered on the sidelines for the better part of two quarters as the Lions established a lead. But when turnovers and spotty play allowed Minnesota back into the game, Kitna convinced the coaching staff to let him go back in. He immediately sparked the offense and greatly improved the passing game as if he had never left. Kitna then helped get the team into position for a late game field goal try that went awry. After Minnesota's own kicker also missed a potential game-winner, Kitna took over possession in the overtime session and really proved his mettle to the Detroit fans. He threw a pass that was batted in the air at the line of scrimmage, and actually caught it when it got back to him. Rather than dropping to the ground, Kitna took off up the right side looking for the first down marker. He later took off on a scramble for six yards on a third down play. On both occasions, Kitna sought out the marker rather than sliding and protecting himself, and on both occasions the extra yardage he fought for proved crucial. On one of the plays in particular, he seemed to be doing his best John Elway impersonation as he was upended and spun around in mid-air as the tackle was made. It was a very inspired effort by a player who was thought to be finished for the day. If nothing else, it really solidified the fact that Kitna is clearly the leader of this offense as well as the one player who makes everything work. Of his 33 pass attempts, there was really only one bad one. Granted, the outcome was an interception in the end zone that could have been very costly, but he directed this offense with Kurt Warner or Marc Bulger-esque efficiency. The Lions came out with four receivers while running a no-huddle offense, and marched downfield as if there were no defenders. Aside from a handful of plays where he took some big hits, the offensive line generally gave him ample time to find his guys and hook up for some big gains.

Week 3 - Kitna and the Lions' passing offense got off to a quick start by hitting WR Roy Williams on 54 yard completion and WR Shaun McDonald on 21 yard pass, which help set up there first touchdown. Kitna would lead his team to its second touchdown late in the second quarter on an 80 yard drive. He would hit WR Shaun McDonald for an 11 yard reception for his first touchdown pass of the game. On the Lions' next possession, Kitna would get the ball to Williams again on a quick slant for a 91 yard touchdown, as Williams got behind the secondary and simply out ran the defenders. Because the Lions defense couldn't stop the Eagles, Kitna had to throw often in the first half. He finished with great numbers going 14 for 26 for 314 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.

The Lions found themselves down big early in the second half, but without Calvin Johnson, the Eagles were able to be a lot more effective in the second half in stopping the Lions' passing game. Kitna passed for another 132 yards in the second half, but was kept out of the end zone. He also had three turnovers, one interception and two fumbles, and was sacked eight times.

Week 4 - Kitna posted a quarterback rating of 137.3 for this game as he efficiently completed 84% of his 24 passes for 247 yards and two touchdowns. Although he was sacked six times and faced a ferocious Chicago pass rush he did not throw an interception. He stood in as the Bears unleashed a vicious pass rush, took the hit, and found his open receivers. He was sacked six times and lost one fumble.

Week 5 - Kitna took what the defense gave him, bumps and bruises on five sacks along with the short stuff. He completed 16 of 29 for an abysmal 3.65 yards per attempt. The five sacks came primarily due to failures by the offensive line. While there were a couple of drops, the Lions were playing from behind as they only had six plays total in the first quarter. The Washington Redskins defense seemed to confuse and frustrate Kitna, as he threw two interceptions and fumbled three times, losing two.

Week 7 - Once again, Kitna failed to put up eye-popping statistics for his fantasy owners. But what he did do for his real team was win another ballgame. One truly gets the sense that Kitna leads the team in every conceivable way. There he was again in this game, lunging for a first down and being spun around like a helicopter after a head-first dive. Another play that will go largely unnoticed in the stat sheet was on a simple handoff to Kevin Jones. Typically, a quarterback will hand the ball off to his running back and follow through by continuing to run away from the play. After Jones' run, the replay angle showed that Kitna handed the ball to Jones and immediately spun around back towards the line of scrimmage to seek out any potential tacklers. It's that kind of commitment to team that really typifies Kitna, and it shouldn't go unnoticed. As for the mediocre stat line, a lot of that has to do with the fact that Tampa Bay was on the field for far more time than the Lions were. The Buccaneers marched up and down the field very methodically, completing over 80% of its passes and rushing for five yards at a clip. Those sorts of numbers lend themselves to sustained drives, and it really prevented Detroit from putting much of anything together. One noticeable issue with Kitna was that he appeared too willing to take a sack at key moments. When he would take a deep drop, he often had a lot more time to throw and would usually find someone downfield. But when he is forced to step up in the pocket, you may as well call it a sack or an incomplete pass. Because far more often than not, that sort of play resulted in zero gain. Kitna was bailed out of a fumble early in the game that went for a touchdown the other way. The Lions challenged the original call, and replays confirmed that it was in fact, an incomplete forward pass.

Week 8 - Kitna went four for six in the first quarter for 45 yards and tried to go deep a couple of times. They did draw a long pass interference penalty, but struggled to make any big plays in the passing game early. Kitna only had 45 passing yards until putting together a long drive late in the second quarter and had 59 yards passing in an eight play 93 yard touchdown drive. The Lions passing game looked sluggish in the first half until putting together that long touchdown drive late in the second quarter. Kitna would lead Detroit into field goal range with about a minute left in the half. He finished the half with 11 for 15 for 143 yards passing.

Kitna would play a solid second half, but failed to throw a touchdown pass. He went 13 for 20 for 125 yards in the half, and had no turnovers. The Lions offense moved the ball, but only managed three points in the second half.

Week 9 - Kitna began the game second in the NFL with a 69.4 percent completion percentage. Although he completed just over 50 percent of his passes, he had an efficient game. Kitna threw two touchdown passes. They were his first touchdowns since week 4.

Kitna's orchestration of the offense kept the Broncos defense off balance, especially early in the game when Detroit opened a commanding lead. At one point, Kitna completed nine consecutive pass attempts.

Kitna's sneak pushed the pile up the middle for five yards on his lone rushing attempt and converted a third and four into a first down

Week 10 - Kitna's stats were aided by the team playing catch up for most of the game. He was harassed often by the Cardinal pass rush, with many of his passes thrown short over the middle. His two touchdown tosses were to Roy Williams and were seven yards each, He tossed them into the end zone and allowed Williams to jump high to retrieve them over the defender. Kitna was intercepted twice and fumbled three times losing two of them.

Week 11 - Kitna struggled in catch up mode today as he completed 28 of his 43 passes for 377 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions. Playing from behind and abandoning the run, Kitna was called upon to make the comeback and came up just short. He hit receiver Calvin Johnson on the Lions only scoring touchdown of the game and tried to go deep late in the game for the go ahead touchdown, however came up short and was intercepted by the Giants' James Butler.

Week 12 - Kitna salvaged what would have been a terrible game from a fantasy perspective with some late yardage and a touchdown. While that doesn't hide how poorly he played in the game, it does serve as a reminder of how explosive this passing offense is and how well Kitna can do for your fantasy team even if he's not lighting it up for the Lions in real life. He completed less than 50% of his passes for just over five yards per attempt, but he put up decent fantasy numbers simply by sheer volume. His favorite target by far was Calvin Johnson, who saw 15 of the 40 passes Kitna heaved up. And the two hooked up for the aforementioned late touchdown on a pass that Kitna really threaded between defenders for the six yard score. But that was really where all the positives end for Kitna, at least in this game. He overthrew Roy Williams on a deep ball that would have gone for 50+ yards, he misfired several passes downfield that resulted in incompletions, and has very little idea of pocket presence. He'll rush one throw into the ground when there isn't a single defender around him on one play, but then he'll hold onto the football about five minutes too long on the next. And Kitna, who is closing in on the world record for taking third down sacks, must do a better job of helping his team avoid the one big penalty/sack/loss of yardage/turnover that ends up killing far too many drives for this team. It's obvious that there is a lot of talent and a lot of explosiveness here, and they can move the ball 70 yards almost at will. But they get hit with one negative play per drive more than any team in the league, and those turn out to be absolute killers in the grand scheme of things. And those issues start under center with the quarterback.

Week 13 - Kitna started the game well, finding receivers in soft spot, and throwing on target. However, once the Vikings started to bring pressure, Kitna soon became rattled. He battled through the pressure, but suffered an interception due as a direct result of the pressure. Since the Lions did not bother running the ball, Kitna was able to put up decent yardage numbers purely on the number of chances he had.

Week 14 - Jon Kitna led an effective Lions passing attack by spreading the ball around to seven different receivers. Kitna took advantage of the Lions plan to keep the defense off balance by establishing the run early and involving the TE in the passing game. The combination of these two in the first quarter served to open up the passing attack in the final three quarters as Kitna began to involve his receivers more. Kitna was especially effective between the 20s, but was unable to connect on any of his three opportunities when they twice had the ball on the one yard line. The offensive did a good job of protecting Kitna as he was only under pressure once.

Week 15 - Kitna's 300 passing yards and two touchdowns look great until you keep looking across the stat column and see five interceptions. While one of the picks wasn't entirely his fault (a deflected pass off of a Calvin Johnson drop), the other four were most definitely Kitna's fault. Several of the passes were awful decisions and the pass should have never been made in the first place. The touchdown drives were just that, two isolated drives that helped to salvage his stats. Forty-nine of his yards came on a heave to Calvin Johnson that ended the first half. Johnson made a nice adjustment on the ball, but was tackled at the one yard line, just shy of the end zone. All in all, it wasn't a good performance from Kitna despite the big numbers. About the biggest positive that can be taken from Kitna's performance is that he wasn't sacked at all. But considering most fantasy leagues don't penalize for getting sacked, it's likely that several of his owners would trade a few of those interceptions for a handful of sacks. The Detroit offense looked so bewildered out there that by the end of the game, Kitna was seen staring blankly into space from the sideline. It pretty well typified not only this game, but the past month or so for the Lions in general.

Week 16 - Kitna is a strong and enthusiastic player, but lately he has not demonstrated the skill to take the Lions to the playoffs. He completed only nine of 16 pass attempts for just 115 yards. That just does not seem right for a team with Mike Martz as the offensive coordinator. He also threw one interception and had one fumble (recovered by Detroit). Kitna is missing his main receiver, Roy Williams, and he does not seem to be near the team leader he was early in the season.

Week 17 - On a chilly day at Lambeau Field, Kitna struggled to complete passes to his receivers. His 46% completion percentage was a season low and this was the sixth game of the year in which he had at least two interceptions. Despite his problems throwing the football, Kitna did lead the Lions on a 94 yard touchdown drive that he capped with a 30 yard scoring toss to WR Shaun McDonald. His numbers could have been better as he had a number of passes fall incomplete that hit their targets in the hands.