Sunday, February 22, 2009

NFL Combine and Lions

The NFL combine is such a weird thing to me. When you are evaluating talent why do you need them to go bench 225lb a bunch of times to see if they are good football players. Why agility drills and the 40 when this is without pads which really isn't going to transfer to real football speed. It is only compounded by special training regiments that are tailored to optimize these athletes to the tests. It is a flawed concept, but I think it has a couple things going for it. First off, it always help identify some flaws in players around professionalism. How they approach this media circus helps give teams a view into how they would approach life as a pro player. Did they come unprepared to the combine? How readily did they pick up the coaching for the Wonderlic or 40 yard dash? In addition the medical physical might be one of the most rigorous they will have.

This two players have been hurt by the combine. The top wide receiver prospect Michael Crabtree showed a stress fracture in his foot. This will probably hurt his stock when it shouldn't at all. If you look at how he played, he is a great wide receiver. The other player is Andre Smith who was one of the top OT prospects. For different reasons from Crabtree, this type of behavior I think is much more negative. Sure, he had a fantastic season where he was the type of roadgrader run blocking tackles in college football, but when he acts selfish and unprepared for his future, I just see a holdout and flop for a short NFL career. And to think this was one of the guys I wanted for the Lions, not so much now.

Now onto the Lions. My friend, Ish, insists we are going to pick a QB with our first overall pick. I insist that we are going to go defense as it seems like the intelligent thing to do. If I had my pick, it would go to probably B.J. Raji and then with the 20th pick, I would try to get a LB like James Laurinaitis or Ray Maualuga. I would also willing accept Alex Mack at center or maybe another offensive lineman with the 20th pick. Please don't screw this up, Lions.

3 comments:

ish said...

Again, I don't suggest that picking a QB is an *intelligent* thing to do. Merely that it is *the thing the Lions* will do.

The Really Sarcastic Weasel said...

The 2nd stupidest thing the Lions can do is pick a QB.

We all know what the stupidest pick would be.

I think something stupid is guaranteed.

Unknown said...

It is always articles like these that make me hopeful. It seems like this GM could be smart enough to not draft a QB or WR in the first round. Probably will be disappointed again, but it will be my fault for getting my hopes into the mediocrity level.