Lions, Cardinals Talking Joe Thomas Trade?

A source in Indianapolis says there's talk at the NFL scouting combine of the Arizona Cardinals swapping first-round picks with the Detroit Lions in an effort to bring Wisconsin tackle Joe Thomas to Arizona.

The Lions own the second overall pick, and most mock drafts have them taking Thomas for themselves. The Cardinals have the fifth overall pick. According to the chart teams use in determining value of draft picks, to make it a fair trade, the Cardinals would probably have to throw in their second- and third-round picks in the deal.

It sounds like a trade that helps both teams. The Cardinals desperately need to get better on the offensive line, and Thomas is hands-down the best offensive line prospect. Meanwhile, trading down makes sense for the Lions -- the only time Matt Millen made a wise choice with his first-round pick was when he engineered a trade with the Cleveland Browns to move down a spot and then chose Roy Williams. If they traded down to the fifth spot, a likely pick for the Lions would be Arkansas defensive end Jamaal Anderson.
http://rams.aolsportsblog.com/2007/02/22/lions-cardinals-talking-joe-thomas-trade/

This is a perfect trade IMO.

We get a couple of extra first-day picks while still being able to draft Anderson, Adams or even Quinn.

I would cry tears of Joy if we pulled it off. To pick up 2 extra picks in the first 96 picks would be great. The only thing that could top it is if Detroit could flip the pick a second time to add more picks.

I Like that. No, I love it.
Detroit drafted Gary Coleman last year, so the Cardinals got Matt Leinhart. Now, give them the pick that they can use to draft an offensive lineman that will protect Leinhart and make him even better.
Sheer fucking GENIUS!

I SOOOOO hope that the Lions can pull this off. It would really help our team. They talk about Joe Thomas being a great OL but I always thought that if you have a top 5 pick, you need an impact player. That's what Detroit would take at #5.

A solid OT would be an impact player for us. It would help us keep our QB off is ass so much (big impact) and finally develop a running game (huge impact). As much as I'd love to see is pick up a great DE, I really don't know if we can pass up a dominant tackle. Our line is shit.

I just posted in the 'Lions Draft 2007' thread, IMO dont pass on Thomas.

I just posted in the 'Lions Draft 2007' thread, IMO dont pass on Thomas.

I'll pass on Thomas, draft Levi Brown, then get a LB, a CB, a DE, and an OG with our other 4 1st day picks.

Levi Brown and 2 other 1st day kids > Thomas. But that would probably be untrue with Millen.

oh god. typical lions. trade a franchise ot for what, what is levi brown? second tear? but we also get another guy who's 50/50 to be out of the nfl in 2 years? this will be my last straw as a lion fan if he does it.

i'll take a sure thing over quantity of unknown anyday, especially with a jackass like matt millen running things. god he's an asshole. if he does this trade, i might go back to detroit, rent a honda, and ghost ride it into ford field.

ps: zip goshboots can just co sign my name with all his posts. i cant the remember his last post i didnt completely agree with.

he's god

oh god. typical lions. trade a franchise ot for what, what is levi brown? second tear? but we also get another guy who's 50/50 to be out of the nfl in 2 years? this will be my last straw as a lion fan if he does it.

i'll take a sure thing over quantity of unknown anyday, especially with a jackass like matt millen running things. god he's an asshole. if he does this trade, i might go back to detroit, rent a honda, and ghost ride it into ford field.

ps: zip goshboots can just co sign my name with all his posts. i cant the remember his last post i didnt completely agree with.

Levi Brown is how Tony Hunt, one of the worst backs in the Big 10, was very successful this year.

Levi Brown is a consensus top 10 OT, and should be. Joe Thomas is a consensus top 5 OT, and should be.

Joe Thomas had the single most impressive game out of an OL I've seen vs. Michigan(he blocked 3 people every play), and I'll take the trade down.

Thomas = Excellent
Brown = very, very good

Thomas = many pro bowls
Brown = a couple

But give me the very, very good player, and also a Lamar Woodly and David Harris(mentioning people everyone knows, not that those are 'the people I want').

Levi Brown is not Top 10 material. I don't think he is even Top 20. And after the 40 time he put up at the combine (5.39), it wouldn't suprise me to see him fall out of the first round.

Wait what? He only ran a 5.39? That's pathetic.

That 40 is sad, but (at this point in time) I stand by my earlier comments.

The 40 is the worst way to measure a OL, it servers no purpose and is a waste of time. Only G's pull OT's don't, they might chip on end rounds or sweeps. Things that matter are a guy's stance, point of leverage, wing span, technique (inc. the understanding of reading the defense vs, the play called) and footwork, the rest is gravy.

I heard that queer Todd McShay say earlier this week that he expects Levi Brown to be the biggest mover at the combine due to his athleticism. McShay said that besides Joe Staley, Levi Brown might be the most athletic lineman in the draft class and one of the most athletic in the past 10 years...........oh yeah, he is also considered a road grader too.

Question for everyone.............If we pulled off this trade and had these 4 picks 2.2, 2.5, 3.2 and 3.5 is there anyone in the late part of the 1st round that you would package picks together to jump up and get (example: Kevin Jones)? Is there a guy there that when you're watching the draft you're thinking "how did he fall this far, we need to move up and get this cat?" OR Are the picks too valuable and there is probably no player worth moving up for?

fillycheese:
In your scenario, I'd say to stand pat. I don't think this is a draft with alot of impact players. In my opinion, when the top three picks seem to be two QB's that in one (Russell), you have a guy who all the sudden stormed to the top after a good bowl game against a shitty defense, and in Brady, a weak armed guy who isn't accurate on intermediate routs and had good receivers who bailed him out alot, and finally an offensive lineman, if you trade down to get more picks, stick with it.
If the Lions want to trade that #2 pick to get bodies, instead of trying to get an impact player, I don't see anyone worth packaging the extra picks for.

to me, i see nothing on our team worth keeping, or atleast very little. obviously, we could use a lot of good players, so 3 would be better than 1. but all these guys that suck, those are millen's guys. so why is this year's draft going to be any different? right. its not. take the cant miss prospect who should be good regardless. if we have ANY luck, he'll be the big piece that our next gm builds around. this trade just strikes me as one of those moves that every lion fan will be bitching/laughing about in 3 years should it happen.

http://www.nfl.com/draft/story/6330687

According to this value chart, we would need Arizonas 2nd and 3rd, plus a fifth or future 4th. I think we should definitely do the Arizona deal, to me having 5 picks in the first 96 selections would help this team more than only 3.

About the 40 stat for O lineman, better tests for speed are the 20 yard split of the 40 time, the shuttle run, and the cone drill. Who cares that Levi Brown is .3 seconds slower from 20-40 yards than Thomas, he will never run that far anyway.

You would have to be on crack to not think this is an incredible deal for us, even if it is just their 1st, 2nd and 3rd for our 1st. I love Joe Thomas too, but we aren't even going to start the guy at LT. As much as we need a franchise tackle, we could use a franchise player at a ton of position. We need starters at OT, OG, 2 DEs, MLB, and DB, not to mention another RB and maybe a S. With 6 first day picks we could go a huge way to fill those multiple needs.
Of course, the argument to this is that Thomas seems to be one of those players that Marinelli will love. A hard worker, blue collar kind of guy.

I would trade our first for Zona's 1,2,3 picks in a hearbeat. Then I would draft one of the DE's I guess and hope for Brown or Staley in the 2nd round to be our RT. You could grab Staley, Blaylock, Harris and Stanton with the 2nd and 3rd rounders. That would be amazing. My only concern would be CB, but you'd have DE, RT, RG, MLB and your future QB all set.

I'd sign Dillon or another RB as insurance for Jones, and try to move Edwards (though nobody will take him).

I'd rather have Thomas, but if the scenario WTFChris threw out there worked I'd be overjoyed as well. Brown will NOT drop to the 2nd round. He'll be a top-10 pick for sure.

If they pulled off this deal now and used some of their 4 5th round picks to move up a spot or two they could end up with 6 or 7 first day picks, zero 2nd day picks. I would be silly hyped about that. If you get 6 or 7 picks the first day, by sheer luck 3 of them would HAVE to be starters.

I sure hope Millen finally gets something right. Outside the Roy/Kevin draft he's been a disaster.

Although I didn't like it at the time, the Sims/Bullocks draft could be ok. A healthy and productive Calhoun would help, as would any sign of Jonathon Scott being a decent lineman.

Too bad we didn't use the Bullocks pick on McNiel like a lot of us wanted and the Calhoun pick on a safety (Bullocks might have been there still). Then our OT's would have been set already.

I have to think that this trade will be possible with the Cards. I am fairly certain that we are going to look defensive with the pick, and that their target is one of the two DE's, Willis, or Landry. My bet is on Adams. If we did this trade with Arizona, I would use the first on Adams, the second rounders on first Brandon Merriweather and second on Joe Staley. The thirds on Eric Wright or Josh Wilson or another CB, and the other on a MLB. With the rest of the picks, BPA with attention to punter and another safety, since you can often get good ones with those picks.

Didn't we sign Nick Harris to a 4-year deal last offseason? Why are we looking for a punter in the draft?

don't know the deal, but I think we did resign him.

I think punters that get 4 year deals pretty much expect to be cut at some point.

as long as they don't waste top picks on kickers, go for it. It's a waste to grab Janikowski, Nugent or another kicker like that early. Grab one late, or in FA.

Hey at least the good thing here is that we are guaranteed to fill holes in this draft since we have so many damn holes.

Hey at least the good thing here is that we are guaranteed to fill holes in this draft since we have so many damn holes.

Only place we could draft and fail that is, ummm, RB maybe?

Only place we could draft and fail that is, ummm, RB maybe?
Kicker. Jason Hanson isn't leaving any time soon.

Neither is Nick Harris, imo. He wasn't the best punter in the league last year but he was solid. Remember, two years ago he landed an extraordinary amount of his punts inside the 20 with only a few touchbacks. Its not like a kicker where he misses a few in a row and he completely loses it mentally. Punters don't have that problem nearly as much, and Harris was solid enough that it wouldn't have been an issue if they did.

center, WLB and DT would also be wasted picks (or at least only provide depth). otherwise you could draft anything really.

center, WLB and DT would also be wasted picks (or at least only provide depth). otherwise you could draft anything really.

Center? We need one.

DT? Move Redding back to DE.

WLB - yeah, forgot aobut that.

I say we use the #2 overall pick on the best longsnapper available. Who's with me?!

Zekyl:
Finally, someone has emerged as a threat to Matt Millen. I am not sure, though, that the best long snapper would be available at #2.
I say trade up to get the pick, and make sure you'll get the long snapper the Lions so desperately need.

I say we use the #2 pick to draft a new owner (who will fire Millen). That would be well worth it!!!!!!!!!!!

i like the idea of trading the pick for a really big ham sandwich. you know, something we can all enjoy.

mmmmmmmmmm..........sandwich

We'd better not fuck around and lose our chance at that immaculate long snapper. We should just offer Oakland our entire platoon of draft picks this year to move up that spot and get him. I think it makes us championship caliber. Just in case something happens him, though, we should sign the best longsnapper on the market to a A-Rodesque contract as a backup plan.

You guys are so funny. I almost think you're sarcastic! But I know you're truthful.

I just don't know. Since the rosters are limited to 53 players, I DO worry that the Lions will probably be limited to having only three long snappers. Not many teams carry more ling snappers than that, but the ones who do seem to be the ones who win championships.

But who do you cut to fit a 4th? Jeff Backus? Shaun Rogers? Ernie Sims? Decisions, decisions. We could always cut our kicker and punter and carry 5 long snappers.

But who do you cut to fit a 4th? Jeff Backus? Shaun Rogers? Ernie Sims? Decisions, decisions. We could always cut our kicker and punter and carry 5 long snappers.


Brilliant. Have the long snapper snap to a long snapper who turns around and snaps back at the line of scrimmage.