Jon Kitna said Wednesday the Lions wanted to replace him as their starting quarterback and used his back injury as a reason to make the change. "They decided they wanted to go in a different direction," Kitna told Mitch Albom in an interview on WJR-AM (760). "And I guess the thing for me is, that's fine. Let's just say that. "Was there reasonable cause to put me on IR?" Kitna asked. "Yeah, because they said there's a bulging disk. But the reality is, most guys have bulging disks. ... "I really feel like I could have played last Sunday at probably above 90% health-wise. I played the last two years most of the time probably 75 to 80% health-wise with different type of things."