We were dead before the ship even sank
Such is the state of the Detroit Lions: they were in position to draft the player widely hailed as the best player in the draft and arguably the best talent at receiver to enter the draft in a decade. The word from several sources was that the Lions would use their excellent position in the draft to swing a deal to land numerous draft picks to restock a team that still hasn’t been restocked from the past 6 drafts of very high draft picks because, well, Matt Millen just isn’t very good at his job.
The problem of course was that Millen couldn’t trade with himself. The Detroit Lions are the only franchise in NFL history to select a wide receiver with their first pick in three straight drafts. They are also the only NFL franchise to draft a receiver first in 4 out of 5 drafts. And that in a nutshell is why the Lions didn’t have many suitors for the draft pick. No other team apparently values receivers as highly as Matt Millen does. If Millen could have traded with himself I have no doubt he could have pulled off a pretty good deal for the Lions.
With that being said, I think the Lions are headed in the right direction. No, not in terms of being competitive. They are going to be bad on defense once again as they have no pash rush whatsoever and are extrememly thin at cornerback. That is a recipe for disaster for a defense that doesn’t blitz but is dependant on pressuring the QB as a key to making the Tampa cover two defense so effective.
My guess is if Matt Millen could have gotten what he wanted in a trade [keeping in mind that even when Millen gets what he wants it seldom works], the Lions would have used their earlier picks to solidify their defense. But since no one values receivers as highly as Millen does they were forced to draft Calvin Johnson. So what the Lions will have is an entertaining offense. And if you are going to be bad, you might as well be entertaining. I suspect Johnson will be closer to Roy Williams in terms of production than either Charles Rogers or Mike Williams - a #10 draft pick two drafts ago who was packaged with Josh McCown for a 4th round pick.
So the Lions will have a very good offense for the next couple seasons but likely will not be able to stop anyone on defense. While it’s not a recipe for success I do think the offense will be a lot of fun to watch. They are going to get shut down by good defenses like Chicago’s but they should be able to tear up middling or poor defenses. Then the Lions will have another problem to deal with at the receiver position - trying to resign Roy Williams after his contract expires following the 2008-09 season. But they can always draft another receiver with the top pick in an upcoming draft to offset the loss of Williams.
Other Lions coverage:
Al over at TWFE goes back inside Matt Millen’s brain
Scott at Quo Vadimus liveblogged the NFL Draft
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