Draft Talk

[Piston Pete]

"situational rusher and mentor" won't bring the $$$ he'd want.

Even if it somehow did, he might rather take less money and go to a winning team like the Jets, Pats, Ravens, or other....

[kellmellus50]

I wouldn't mind picking a WR in the mid-to-late rounds if we can get a sleeper or a guy who fell for no reason, but I agree that picking up a cheap FA might be the best way to go.

remember the Lions picked up WR Bryant johnson as a free agent and he was a bust

[Piston Pete]

Oh, so all FA WRs will be a bust because of how Bryant Johnson panned out.

If we used that logic with 1st round WRs like Mike Williams and Charles Rogers, we wouldn't have Megatron.

[Piston Pete]

Posted this in the Packers game thread, but will repeat it here.

A bigger back I would like to get to complement Best who we could get in the later rounds of the draft would be Bradford (USC).

1 - CB Patrick Peterson (LSU)
1b (trade back up into late 1st) - OLB Bruce Carter (UNC)
3 - WR Hankerson (Miami)
5 - Best o-lineman available
6 - RB Bradford (USC)

[Liqourish]

I like this mock, but Carter will go in the 1st round. He's arguably the best LB in the draft, even with all the turmoil at UNC this season. I'd love to get him, but I doubt he lasts that long.

I'm not sure about Hankerson in the 3rd.

[ajaX82]

I didnt know this but apparently Carter had ACL surgery recently. His stock will inevitable drop...we may actually get him in the second

Carter injured his left knee against North Carolina State on Nov. 20. The Tar Heels announced Tuesday that Carter underwent "ACL reconstruction surgery," which undoubtedly spins his draft stock arrow downward.


The decision on where to place Carter on the draft board won't be simple for most NFL talent evaluators because of the health factor. Scouts won't have a chance to evaluate Carter's physical progress post-surgery before the April 28-30 draft, but he'll be one of the most popular figures during detailed medical testing in Indianapolis at the Scouting Combine March 23-April 1. Even if he holds a late April pro day and even if he chooses to make a statement by running a timed 40-yard dash, he will not yet be the uber-athletic Carter, the one who was a sure-fire first-round pick before the injury. Carter (6-feet-3, 235 pounds) has a game built around speed and explosiveness.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/stor ... ect-carter

[Piston Pete]

Depending on how bad the injury was, maybe we target Von Miller instead?

[Liqourish]

I'd love to snatch up Carter in the 2nd. He has all the talent you can ask for from an OLB.

[TSE]

What's so great and so certain about Carter?

He only has 3.5 TFLs and 2.5 sacks this year with only 2 PDs. Only 57 tackles on the year and 1 INT and 1 FF. None of those numbers are good. Last year he had 65 tackles and only 1 sack with 7.5 TFLs and ZERO FFs and 2 PDs and 1 INT.

I don't know about you but I don't like drafting guys in the first or high 2nd round that don't have stats. There will be plenty of guys on the board that do have good stats that also look good on film and can be analyzed positively to the same degree as him, but I'd feel more secure in taking a statistically productive player from a batch of closely valued BPAs than the one guy who didn't get the stats out of that group.

Herzlich is another highly touted LB with an injury where everybody once said he'd be a certain 1st rounder. With 2 injury cases like that you never know how far a guy can drop. What if we can get one of those injury values in the 3rd round, then we can get 2 premium players with our first 2 picks and still take a risky gamble in the 3rd that could pay off like a higher pick. Or use our remaining picks to trade up from the 3rd and grab the last of the injury-value players that way.

Either way, as long as I'm in the draft room on draft day everything is sure to go well, but if I'm not there I think we are going to make many mistakes again like we have in every draft I've ever seen us participate in.

[ajaX82]

A thought for a middle round reciever is the kid from Troy who played tonight, Jerrel Jernigan. They raved about him all night and he seems like the kind of guy who could be a mid round steal. Though he could be off the table too early for our tastes

Just a thought though, seems like a perfect slot guy

[Piston Pete]

^^^Think he's being projected as a day 1 type prospect.....

[TSE]

A thought for a middle round reciever is the kid from Troy who played tonight, Jerrel Jernigan. They raved about him all night and he seems like the kind of guy who could be a mid round steal. Though he could be off the table too early for our tastes

Just a thought though, seems like a perfect slot guy

Yeah I mentioned him in my draft pick guessing thread. He's the fastest guy in the draft and we can't afford to spend our first 2 round picks on anything other then defense. And I dont' really want to spend the 3rd, i think we might just barely run out of premium logical players for us at that spot so I think we need to trade up from 3 and get one more high quality defensive player being the best S/CB/LB of which we didn't get with our first 2 picks. If round 3 comes and nobody looks good there then maybe he could fit in there depending on his final draft grade. I also would like to know the price of Raiola + what to upgrade to Wisniewski. Some team that needs a Center might like to take ours and a package for it.

Anybody know how likely Marcus Mcneil might be available for trade or as a FA?

[Icness]

To answer a few...

Jernigan is a 1st rounder most likely. I call him Percy Harvin Lite even though he's probably a little bigger. He's not quite as top-end fast but very similar otherwise. More durable too, which was--and remains--a big knock on Percy. He'd be perfect for the Lions but I doubt he falls to #40 (guessing the slot), and there's too much defensive need/talent at the Lions 1st round pick to look there. He killed my Bobcats in New Orleans

TSE--completely agree about being scared of lack of college production from Carter and others. In his case a lot of it is scheme related and being surrounded by a lot of talent, similar to Brian Cushing at USC, but I want to see more impact plays if I'm taking a guy that high. And now he's coming off ACL surgery that will keep him out of all off-season work. Not worth the risk there IMO even though I do think he will make a decent NFL starter. Let someone else wait until 2012 to see it.

Herzlich is a better story than football player these days. He lost more than a step unfortunately. The closing burst just isn't the same. He went from being like James Laurinaitis to being like what's left of Keith Brooking. He will be this year's Myron Rolle, a guy everyone loves and wants to take high because of his life story and attitude, but on the field he's just not up to NFL athletic standards. How's Rolle doing these days...
I would LOVE Von Miller in the first round. He learned how to play without his insane quickness and then he got it back. No question in my mind he can play WLB in this defense. If Peterson isn't there I would make him Plan B. I have a feeling Arizona might want him though.

Hankerson is iffy to me. He came from out of nowhere to most people only because he's been injured almost the entire time he's been at Miami. He is the kind of player that must be 100% in order to play well too. He's lso redundant with Calvin Johnson; I can't see them both on the field and he's not close to Megatron in ability (few are). Very good receiver but pretty risky plus he doesn't offer anything on special teams and the #4 WR must make a dent there to merit the roster spot, which is why Derrick Williams is sayonara.

Lions are in the mix to coach at the Senior Bowl once again, which would be great for both the Lions and those of us who attend the week in Mobile. Fingers crossed!

[ajaX82]

for reference, we are currently in line for the #9 pick. 6 teams are 5-10, but we have the second hardest strength of schedule


1. Panthers 2-13 .133 .576
2. Broncos 4-11 .267 .508
3. Bengals 4-11 .267 .580
4. Bills 4-11 .267 .582
5. Cardinals 5-10 .333 .456
6. 49ers 5-10 .333 .494
7. Cowboys 5-10 .333 .521
8. Texans 5-10 .333 .527
9. Lions 5-10 .333 .549
10. Browns 5-10 .333 .576

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/ ... der-top-10

Arizona and San Fran play in week 17, so at least 1 moves out of this.

[TSE]

Yeah it's too bad we caught all these wins all of a sudden to screw up our draft order! My way would have been better, which was to trade off a ton of players before the season even started, guys that didn't deserve or need to be here then that are still the same now. We could have picked up proceeds from those trades while also making it a tougher challenge to win in meaningless games at the end of the year for a double improvement to the long-term health of the team. In the event we win and make a playoff hunt then it's all the more sweeter by having it with guys that should be here that are logical to be here that we are proud to have here. Having a flimsy half-hearted weak playoff run with a bunch of soon to be castoffs is just not worth as much as you can't extrapolate that value to the future as much as you can with guys you intend to keep. Gaining confidence doesn't help the portion of the team that doesn't return, so you can't act like the 6 win goal is worth as much as you might think, you have to discount it once for a proportional penalty and a second time for the misconceived intangible value that comes with ending on a positive note. Thoughts of value are nice, but actual value is always worth more, and we need to figure that out and start managing the team in more of a professional fashion.

[ajaX82]

We will be picking at #13 in the draft

For sure no Peterson or Prince Amukamara. Truthfully we are now probably in OT territory or someone like Von Miller. Maybe even a DE.

Should be interesting

[Piston Pete]

I think there's a slim chance Prince falls to us at #13

Do we trade up to get either, or stand pat for a LBer or OT?

[kellmellus50]

Best move for the lions on draft day is to trade their 1st pick to tampa for LeGarrette Blount who topped 1,000 yards rushing.



http://bleacherreport.com/articles/5601 ... der-is-set

[cochiseuofm]

Best move for the lions on draft day is to trade their 1st pick to tampa for LeGarrette Blount who topped 1,000 yards rushing.



http://bleacherreport.com/articles/5601 ... der-is-set

No way Tampa Bay trades Blount for a mid-first round pick. And no way the Lions deal for a running back after just drafting Jahvid Best either. Lions need to keep improving their defense...Ryan Kerrigan or Von Miller is fine with me if Prince doesn't drop to 13 (he won't).

That mock draft is awful BTW.

[ElectricMayhem]

Best move for the lions on draft day is to trade their 1st pick to tampa for LeGarrette Blount who topped 1,000 yards rushing.



http://bleacherreport.com/articles/5601 ... der-is-set

This sounds like a dynamite deal for Tampa Bay. Maybe they should throw in Freeman as well?