Jason Cole

If ever there was a final stamp of proof that the Detroit Lions need to fire President Matt Millen, the trade of quarterback Joey Harrington to the Dolphins is it. If owner William Ford really cared about building a champion with this team, he would take the first step by getting rid of Millen, who has spent the better part of six years gathering bad players and showing zero creativity. Best of all, he still doesn’t even know the rules of the league.

Or as one agent put it this week when asked if Millen knew what he was doing: “Man, where do I start on that one? I’ll just leave it at no.”

It’s not that Millen was only able to get a sixth-round pick for Harrington (the pick could increase to a fifth rounder if Harrington plays half the snaps this season, which probably won’t happen). Veteran players get sold short all the time, particularly when the player has a difficult, expensive contract to dump. Harrington, who has been mediocre at best, had a $4 million roster bonus due June 15.

Rather, it was the complete ineptitude Millen demonstrated throughout the trade process.

To start, Millen gave Harrington permission to seek a trade after the Lions already had signed Jon Kitna and Josh McCown. That’s not exactly a good position of leverage to start from.

In seeking a trade, Harrington had to find a team that was willing to work with him on his contract. That’s part of the point of allowing a player with a big contract to seek a trade. The team acquiring him has to know it can restructure the deal.

So Harrington and Miami, which needs Harrington because of lingering doubts about quarterback Daunte Culpepper’s ability to open the season, worked out a deal on a contract in early April.

It was up to the Dolphins and Lions to work out a trade. The Dolphins, who didn’t have a fifth- or a sixth-round pick this year, offered a seventh, which was a little too low. Millen, thinking he somehow had leverage now, asked for a fourth, which was way too high given the Dolphins’ situation.

The Dolphins countered by offering a sixth in 2007. Millen got the idea he should stand his ground. Millen, a guy who botched his first two head coaching hires (Marty Mornhinweg and Steve Mariucci) inexcusably forgot that Harrington had the leverage because of the contract.

So instead of getting creative and trying to coax a fifth rounder in 2007 out of the Dolphins, Millen kept demanding the fourth rounder. The Dolphins kept saying no and finally Harrington handed Millen his first public embarrassment on the matter when he issued a statement saying he wouldn’t play for any other team but the Dolphins.

That was nine days before the draft, but Millen kept standing firm on his foundation of talc. In the days leading up to the draft, Cleveland sniffed around on Harrington, and Millen thought he had a chance to get a better deal.

But again, Harrington had the leverage because he could simply say no to restructuring his contract with the Browns. That’s exactly what he did, leading to Millen’s second public embarrassment.

Millen publicly accused the Dolphins of violating the salary cap by working out a restructured contract with Harrington. The next day, the NFL Management Council said that the Dolphins didn’t violate anything. Again, the whole point to allowing Harrington to seek a trade was to work out the contract.

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In other words, not only did Millen show no ability to find a creative solution when he had no leverage, but he also proved publicly that he doesn’t know the rules.

All of this comes after Millen has led the Lions to a 21-59 record over his five seasons, none of which have ended in a winning record. Now, it can be considered a bit unfair to blame the results on one man.

But when that one man doesn’t even know the rules and demonstrates he doesn’t understand his job, it’s clearly time for him to go.

To put it another way, what is Ford paying Millen to do?

Culpepper situation
Having mentioned Culpepper, it’s worth noting that the Dolphins are increasingly optimistic about his chances to open the season as the starting quarterback. Culpepper recently received a strong evaluation from Dr. James Andrews, the renowned orthopedic surgeon who repaired the three torn ligaments in Culpepper’s right knee, coach Nick Saban said.

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The Dolphins were close to turning down the trade for Harrington altogether recently because of Culpepper’s progress. Miami was almost willing to wait until Harrington was cut in June before making a move for him. The problem is that Harrington would have missed all of the Dolphins offseason program if they had waited, putting him way behind.

One final note on the Dolphins quarterbacks: The team has completely reworked its depth chart over the past eight months. After opening last season with A.J. Feeley, Gus Frerotte and Sage Rosenfels, the team has traded for Culpepper, Harrington and third stringer Cleo Lemon.

The funny part is that in trading for Feeley and Rosenfels, former Dolphins general manager Rick Spielman and coach Dave Wannstedt gave up second- and seventh-round picks for two guys who had seven games of experience between them. To get the current three, the Dolphins gave up a second and two sixths. They got three quarterbacks with a combined three Pro Bowl appearances and 139 games of experience.

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