The Lions have completely revamped the cornerback position this offseason

In the NFL, there are no five-year rebuilding plans," Miller tells Casey Ford and Bill Blohm on ESPN 960's Sports Pen. "This has to be a significant jump up for this team this year. How does that translate into victories? I don't know. But you'll know know because they'll be in games, and they're not going to be behind 21-0 in the second quarter if things are going the way that they should.

It didn't take rookie Dez Bryant long to find a comfort zone with the Dallas Cowboys.

Or to raise an eyebrow or two amongst his teammates.

Bryant, the wide receiver and first-round pick who wowed fans at the Alamodome during the team's first training camp workouts over the weekend, refused to take part Sunday in the rookie ritual of carrying veterans' shoulder pads to the locker room.

"I'm not doing it," Bryant said. "I feel like I was drafted to play football, not carry another player's pads. I just feel like I'm here to play football. I'm here to try to help win a championship, not carry another man's pads. I'm not saying that out of disrespect."

The Lions have completely revamped the cornerback position this offseason, bringing in the likes of Dre' Bly, Jonathan Wade, Chris Houston and Amari Spievey. They have also tried to find a player willing to step it up and be a starter at safety alongside Louis Delmas. So far that search hasn't gone all that well, but that is part of the intrigue with the secondary, which is why it is my second most interesting position battle to watch during training camp.

Because there are so many question marks, I couldn't narrow down the battle for starting spots in the secondary down to a few players, let alone only two. At cornerback, for example, you have Bly, Wade, Houston and Spievey as the main competitors for the two starting spots. Eric King, Dante Wesley, Jack Williams, Aaron Berry and Jonathan Hefney are also in the mix, however. Are there favorites to win the starting job? Certainly (Bly and Houston). But everything is up in the air so much that it will be a battle worth watching for sure.

The only certainty with the secondary is that Louis Delmas will be a starter and perhaps one of the defense's best players. Who will start at safety with him? It's possible that it could be someone not even on the roster right now, as the Lions reportedly want to trade for Kansas City safety Jarrad Page. That says a lot about the safeties currently on the roster, as the coaches currently don't seem to have a ton of confidence in them.

The Lions' decision to not re-sign Larry Foote  meant that there would be one new face at starting linebacker next season. The move didn't come as a huge surprise given the emergence of DeAndre Levy, who has the faith of the Lions' defensive coaches and is now set to be the starting middle linebacker.

When the Lions decided to trade Ernie Sims, that was a surprise Calvin Johnson simply because it meant that Zack Follett was in line to take over his starting spot. There's no doubt that Follett showed a lot last year with his hard-hitting attitude, but that was mainly on special teams, not as a linebacker.

Although Follett is currently penciled in as one of the starters at linebacker, I'm not ready to say it is set in stone by just yet. The Lions have quite a few linebackers on the roster that appear to be nothing more than depth, but with an inexperienced player like Follett currently set to be the starter, it's definitely possible that someone like Landon Johnson, who was a starter for four years in Cincinnati, could step up and take over the spot. I do think Follett will eventually lock up the starting spot because he is probably the most ready player on the entire roster for a battle, but it will be interesting to watch the competition for this starting spot in the meantime.

When the Lions signed Kyle Vanden Bosch as soon as free agency began back Matthew Stafford in March, one of the starting spots at defensive end immediately became set in stone. That left only the other side of the defensive line open for the rest of the Lions' DEs, who will compete to be the only returning player on the starting D-line. Between KVB, Ndamukong Suh and Corey Williams, there are plenty of new faces on the defensive line, but Cliff Avril and Jason Hunter hope to be the sole familiar face in the bunch.

Earlier in the offseason, the Lions jerseys showed their faith in Jason Hunter by tendering him with a second-round pick, the highest tender given out to the team's restricted free agents. The move made sense considering Hunter did play pretty well a year ago, so he was rewarded in the form of his tender.

Cliff Avril has been in the league for only two seasons, but he has shown a lot of promise, especially last year. He made 11 starts in 2009 and had 5.5 sacks to go along with three forced fumbles. While there was a rumor in the offseason that the Lions football jerseys had traded him, that turned out not to be true, and now he is ready to go head to head with Hunter for the right to start on a defensive line that has the potential to be very good.