Icness wrote:Just a thought...
Is there even a little bias against Thomas because the last two prominent tackles form Wisconsin (Gibson and Chris McIntosh) both absolutely flopped in the NFL? Or that every Wisconsin player the Lions have pretty much ever had and currently have (Calhoun, Fletcher, Alex Lewis, Gibson) all stunk?
A friend of mine brought that up when we were discussing Joe Thomas, and he wants nothing to do with Thomas because of those reasons without ever really having seen him play.
There may be a little bias coming from some of the fans because of past performances out of OL in the draft. Don't forget even though the Lions didn't draft him, but Gallery was also a surefire can't miss and so far he's shown nothing. So its not just the Lions that have been burnt, but OL players shouldn't go that high in the draft, and only a couple players names come to mind that would be worthy of being picked so highly, one being Orlando Pace, and the other being Steve Hutchinson, they've both been great OL.
But back to the point, I don't know how many people have watched Joe Thomas' career, but I have and I'm not impressed enough to pick him anywhere in the top 10. I know he will be drafted somewhere in there, and I'll be the first to admit I was wrong if he becomes a franchise LT, which is the only way he's worthy of a top 10 pick, let alone #2 overall. But I wouldn't be suprised to see just another decent college player with an outstanding combine, turn out to be nothing more than merely a good player, which you could get in later rounds. I'd rather draft Johnson or Russell or trade down and get some more draft picks and build up this defense and hope that Staley by some miracle slips to us in the 2nd round if we want just a good OL.