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Thread: 2007 Draft - Day 2

  1. #11
    i like that were being aggressive and moving around alot. that suggests we have some sort of a game plan, and are hopefully getting our targets.

    but with millen, you always have wonder if maybe we're outfoxing ourselves.

  2. #12
    Super Cogent Jethro34's Avatar
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    Looks like there will be some interesting UDFA's this year.

    The Lions typically bring in around 15 each year, give or take a few. Rarely do many make the team, but it always gives us one more thing to talk about for a few days after the draft.
    We had subs. It was crazy.

  3. #13
    Lions find a prize in Baldwin
    Team raves about tools, instincts of linebacker from Alabama A&M that everyone else missed.
    Mike O'Hara / The Detroit News


    ALLEN PARK -- The information highway for NFL draft prospects has no boundaries or speed limit. Nuggets of information, however useless, can go all the way back to junior high school.
    Height, weight, speed, strength, position switches, favorite dessert -- it is all available on game tapes, practice tapes, scouting profiles and Internet reports.
    True draft sleepers probably don't exist anymore. Johnny Baldwin, a linebacker from Alabama A&M drafted by the Lions in the fifth round, comes as close as anyone to being a draft sleeper.
    The early reports on Baldwin from their scouting department sparked the interest of the Lions' coaches. The more information they got on Baldwin, the more they liked him.
    Baldwin's athletic ability and instincts were evident in a three-day rookie mini-camp that ended Sunday morning.
    "He's definitely got the tools that can excite you as a coach," defensive coordinator Joe Barry said. "He's a 230-pound man who really can run. He doesn't know what the heck he's doing right now. You can take that as a coach.
    "That was a great find by our scouting department. I give all the credit to our scouting department. Silas McKinnie (a personnel scout) found him."
    Baldwin impressed the scouts at his pro-day workout on March 13. He ran the 40-yard dash and was timed in 4.60 and 4.59 seconds. He had a 38-inch vertical jump and a standing long jump of 10 feet, 4 inches.
    Only two game tapes were available when the Lions started scouting Baldwin, Barry said. They asked Alabama A&M to send more.
    "We ended up watching about seven games on the kid," Barry said.
    Baldwin played weak-side linebacker in college. The Lions have moved him to the middle, where Paris Lenon and Teddy Lehman return to compete for the starting job.
    Speed is at a premium on every level of coach Rod Marinelli's defense -- the front four, linebackers and the secondary. Baldwin's speed is his primary asset.
    "We never really make a big deal about how tall a guy is or how much a guy weighs," Barry said. "We're built on speed and quickness. You can't beat speed, bottom line."
    Alabama A&M competes in the Southwest Athletic Conference, made up of historically black colleges. Grambling, Jackson State and Southern are the conference's best-known schools.
    Robert Mathis, a starting defensive end on the Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts, played at Alabama A&M and was drafted in the fifth round in 2003. Baldwin was a redshirt freshman in 2002, when Mathis was a senior.
    The school had a reunion for Mathis after the Colts won the Super Bowl.
    "It was good to see him again," Baldwin said. "To see him go to the NFL, to see what he did and see him come back, it was great."
    Baldwin doesn't seem daunted by making the jump from a small school to the pros. The rookies got a cram course from their first meeting Thursday evening through the last of five practices Sunday morning.
    "It's exciting, but at the same time it's football," Baldwin said. "I've been learning a lot of stuff. I have a lot of stuff thrown at me. It isn't something I can't handle.
    "But it isn't easy to pick up, either -- just like it would be for anybody else who hasn't been in a pro system. It's a lot more complex. And they push you hard. It's a good thing. It's not something that should break you. It's not something that's going to break me."
    Phil Wenneck: The man purse. You actually gonna wear that or are you just fuckin' with me?
    Alan Garner: It's where I keep all my things. Get a lot of compliments on this. Plus it's not a purse, it's called a satchel. Indiana Jones wears one.

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