not sure if im stepping on motown's toes, but deserves a thread. how did the lions do, overall?

Not public?

we werent going to fix all our problems this draft no matter what. thats why i hate reading complaints about how we drafted the worng position here or there. lets start out with getting quality players and then fill in the holes. thats how i see it, anyway.

from my extensive research, i think the lions did a pretty good job of doing that. obviously, stafford makes or breaks this draft for us, but i think we may have landed some other guys who are either very talented or maybe atleast have a chance at being players for us (deep in the draft guys).

i gave us a B. i think only one or two picks didnt look like great value (really, just one). i would have built a crazy d, but i understand why they chose offense. i think its our best draft in a while, which is saying almost nothing.

Not public?

huh?

The voting isn't public. Its just more fun to see who voted for what and then jump all over them for their vote. :)

we werent going to fix all our problems this draft no matter what. thats why i hate reading complaints about how we drafted the worng position here or there. lets start out with getting quality players and then fill in the holes. thats how i see it, anyway.

from my extensive research, i think the lions did a pretty good job of doing that. obviously, stafford makes or breaks this draft for us, but i think we may have landed some other guys who are either very talented or maybe atleast have a chance at being players for us (deep in the draft guys).

i gave us a B. i think only one or two picks didnt look like great value (really, just one). i would have built a crazy d, but i understand why they chose offense. i think its our best draft in a while, which is saying almost nothing.

I understand that thinking but disagree. I think that the Lion's Mgmt will make or break Stafford.

If we make sure the running game is poppin and the line can protect him and we have weapons (WRs), etc, Staff WILL succeed. Its up to the coaches now, to develop these young guys. They have to come with a scheme and put them in a position to succeed.

not sure if im stepping on motown's toes, but deserves a thread. how did the lions do, overall?
You're not stepping on my toes - I'm not even one of the NFL elite in here. I'm glad someone else created this thread.

I would have given it a higher grade, but the Lions didn't even stick with their plan. They stated that they wanted to take the best player available, and they did that with Stafford, Pettigrew and Delmas. When the second day rolled around, they started selecting a bunch of players that could have been selected later in the draft. It seemed like they were doing the old dart board technique.

I wasn't happy with any of the picks. If they would have picked 7 defensive players, I would have been fine with that. Also, the Lions realistically could have gotten 4 starters out of this draft, and they got maybe two. That's pathetic for an 0-16 team.

Not that I really care what Kiper thinks, but his grade:


Detroit Lions: GRADE: B-
(http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/clubhouse?team=det)Matthew Stafford (http://insider.espn.go.com/nfldraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2009&id=24681) was what this team needed, but fellow first-rounder Brandon Pettigrew (http://insider.espn.go.com/nfldraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2009&id=23982) was a reach at No. 21. Third-round pick DeAndre Levy was a little bit of a reach, but a good pick. Selecting Derrick Williams (http://insider.espn.go.com/nfldraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2009&id=24013) in the third round was a good move. The best late-round pick for this team was seventh-rounder Zach Follett (http://insider.espn.go.com/nfldraft/draft/tracker/player?draftyear=2009&id=23831) out of California. The Lions should've gotten a left tackle at some point since that is an obvious need right now, particularly with their current quarterback situation.

I gave it a C because it wasn't horrible but I really don't like it. Drafting the best player available because you have a lot of needs is nice and all, but you have to give some priority to needs. Picking a safety isn't going to protect other players. The trenches are the most important spot and they were ignored for far too much of the draft.

Then again, the last draft I hated produced the best player they have on defense.

Colin Cowheard made a good point this morning. He said that Houston has the most players playing actively on their roster in the last 3 years from their drafts. When is the last time you heard anything good about their drafts the day after? In fact most questioned the Mario Williams pick too.

If Levy or Follet can grab ahold of the MLB spot and run with it we'll be in good shape I think. They still need a good DT, OT and another CB though for this team to come close to competing (even if we have our MLB on the team now).

Kiper is a douche. The only reason we got a B is because we took his butt boy Stafford. I have no problem with Pettigrew or Delmas, but the Stafford pick actually did blow up our whole draft. If we had taken Curry, we would have had the cap space, and been able to hold off on taking another LB. I would have still done that trade with the 3-1 pick and then taken an OG/OT in the third. I think we would have been much better adding Curry, Delmas, and our DT to the defense, with Pettigrew and a G/OT. We also would have had to reach for Levy to play MLB at that point either. Hell we could have used the cap space saved from Curry to Stafford to add a quality OL or DT veteran as well.

Then again if Stafford becomes a franchise QB it won't matter. My biggest beef is with the middle of the draft. You need to get solid players there and I'm not sure we did.

No trench blocking or tackling addressed... all that was accomplished was assuring a top 5 pick for next year... we'll have most of the cap locked up on two players... this years 1st pick will get injured trying to run for safety... then he'll get Scott Mitchell "happy feet" while losing his confidence... of course this won't happen until Culpepper goes down with his annual ailments.
How strong of an arm do you need while throwing on your back?

Well, they did address the blocking slightly. Pettigrew will help there. It will be nice to have an every down TE. Instead we had TE's for run plays and TE's for pass plays. It made our offense less versitile, and probably more predictable.

He'll also be a safety valve for Stafford when he is pressured.

It happened?

I gave the Lions a C. They passed up some pretty good players that filled their needs. I would have liked them to take Oher at #20 and later in the draft I really wanted us to get a good who DL slipped like Sidbury. We got some good players but our lines are still a mess.

Taking DT Hill was huge. Filled a hole. And taking the OT, even though it was late, added a player on the offensive side too.

The TE late is unexplainable to me.

unless ryan succup was your dream pick, taking a TE didnt cost us anything. we can still go sign anyone we wanted.

^ Thats if we can get that player to show up here instead of 1 of the other clubs.

There had to be a LB out there.

I gave it a B. I'm good with most of it, but the Penn St WR and the TE.

That safety from South Carolina was thought by some to be a first rounder next year if he stayed. We drafted one safety, but we really don't have any great safeties on the team and he'd be worth a look (someone else already mentioned him).

I gave the draft a B, btw.

Was Mo the 'F' ?

Nope - I graded them a D. If they didn't pick up Delmas, it would have been an F.

Remember we did address D quite a bit this offseason. Not that it should figure into the grade here though.

Denny must have been the F

im guzzling the koolaid right now.

stafford looks like he could be a once in a generation type qb.

i wasnt sure pettigrew over oher was wise, but he looks like a beast.

delmas was def. rook of month.

derrick williams has talent (did you know he was the top recruit in his class?).

and ive seen levy on the field.

im thrilled with 4 of our picks from this draft right now, which almost equalls all the good picks millen made in eight years.

I graded the F... nothing so far has changed this... no O or D line... results will reveal the truth.

My least favorite pick then is still my least favorite so far... Pettigrew seems to have a case of the drops.