Draft Lions done

Alright... The draft is over and I proved once again that I have no idea who the team would pick. Maybe I will tally up how I did later, but it was bad enough that it can wait indefinitely. On to how the Lions did...

Most the draftniks think the Lions did a terrific job. The players they got are generally highly regarded. The main thing is that they did not really address any of their team weaknesses. Mayhew has been talking about building up your strengths similar to what the Colts did when they went with Manning and continued to draft offensive weapons and protection. I am still a little boggled that they continue to ignore the fact they have a 33 year old, undersized center, one of the guard positions continues to rotate and rotating the right tackle position. Backus is getting older too on top of it. Couple that with guys at CB and OLB that didn't even make the training camp cuts for other teams. That said with all of that, they did go 6-10...

So onto what the Lions did for a draft:

1) Nick Fairley, DT, Round 1, Pick 13: projected as one of the top 3 DT in the draft who has flashes of brilliance but inconsistent play brought on by inconsistent effort. There is not a lot of data here as he only started 2 seasons and only his second season did he produce any results. I don't like this because at the same time, you could have had one of the top-3 OT at that time or one of the top-3 CB at the time. All those had first round grades.

2) Titus Young, WR, Round 2, Pick 12: A WR?! The basic analysis on this guy is that he is a poor man's DeSean Jackson. Under 6ft, with 4.3-4.4 speed. No reports on his hands, but the main use it seems would be the bubble screen and then stretching the field to push the safety's back. Not so sure on round two with a WR. At this point they could have had the 2nd best OG in the draft. If you want short speed, there were lots of guys that would fit that bill.

3) Trade alert: Lions trade a boat load of picks to move back into the second round with the Seattle Seahawks. Basically we trade all of our picks in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh round for the Seahawks second, fifth, and seventh. Lions management is filled with retards.

4) Mikel Leshoure, RB, Round 2, Pick 25: 2nd best RB in the draft, but the draft was very deep with good RB. Great pick if it were not for the trade. There was no reason to move up to get one though as there were plenty. Leshoure is a big beefy power back. Seems to have good hands. Single cut type back.

5) Doug Hogue, OLB, Round 5, Pick 26: More of an athlete than a plug in OLB. Was a RB, but converted to LB his Junior season. Did well with the conversion. This is more of a special teams pick, but could be a starter in a couple of years. In the 5th, this is a pretty solid pick. However we could have had Greg Jones, LB MSU who could have started near about immediately but has low upside...

6) Johnny Culbreath, OL, Round 7, Pick 6: Have no idea. Seriously. The guy is good sized but I have never watch South Carolina State play...

Just disappointed overall. They picked good players but it feels like stafford will get killed again and we will get burned in the air again.

Bears drafted well taking a T then DT in the first two rounds. Both should contribute immediately. Packers drafted well by focusing on all the points of need and doing them in rounds that make sense, and they got good players at the points of time they were picking. The Vikings are just pants on head retarded. They took a QB way too early in Christian Ponder. They took a TE next when they could have grabbed one later. Just weird.

The basic feeling I got from the draft was that there were fewer super star type players, but more guys in that mid range. Looking at most player grades, you usually have 3-5 who grade out in mid to upper 90s, but the highest this year was a 86. This is across several boards. The patriots did another superb job grabbing good people and getting picks next year. Sigh.