Lions Need Better Draft Preparation

[TSE]

Just rec'd this email from DetroitLions.com's eReport, but my confidence is waning since they can't even figure out what schools these guys go to...

Lions Host Draft Prospects

The Detroit Lions continued their draft preparation by hosting players throughout the week.

Visits confirmed by Detroitlions.com include: CB Prince Amukamara (Nebraska), DE Cameron Jordon (UCLA), LB Bruce Carter (North Carolina), C Mike Pouncey (Florida), DE Greg Romeus (Pittsburgh) and WR Torrey Smith (Maryland).

They even spelled his name wrong. I'm not buying the DVD set or the ticket packages they are offering at this time.

[ajaX82]

Obviously you have to do a better job of spell-checking and fact-checking but I would just chalk it up to a typo...nothing too harmful here

[kellmellus50]

Most of the time they draft someone who they don't bring in because they do not want other teams to know who there picking.

Lions earn B+ in 2010 draft behind solid picks
http://www.mlive.com/lions/index.ssf/20 ... t_beh.html

[Icness]

That email you got probably came from an intern that hasn't seen any of those guys play. I wouldn't worry about it.

I'll say it 1,000 times: pay NO attention to who gets brought in or works out for the Lions, or pretty much any other team. 90% of it is a shell game against the other teams, the other 10% is favors or outreaches to agents. I'll give you an example: last year Cleveland brought in Demaryius Thomas for a private workout even though they had no intention of drafting him. They did it so they could build favorable relations with his agent, who happened to represent two other Browns that were aiming for new deals. They brought in Earl Thomas, Eric Berry, and Nate Allen but never Joe Haden (they did visit him twice at his training facility though) and they drafted Haden...and apparently had him as their top target after Berry the whole time.

Last year the Lions brought Gerald McCoy in but they weren't nearly as interested in him as Killer and BVO led you to believe. McCoy had a new agent and Mayhew was trying to build a relationship with him, plus they were attempting to generate some trade buzz because they knew Tampa preferred McCoy over Suh. The Lions media coverage played along, but the Bucs didn't take the bait.

[TSE]

Then the General Manager or President needs to do a better job of hiring people that hire the interns. Either way, they are responsible and it's unacceptable. I take no pleasure in finding things to complain about, if it were me I'd rather be making posts this offseason complimenting the Lions on a job well done for being the best team in the league and winning the Super Bowl, but they made this bed, and they are accountable for it. I'm just tough to please and I won't accept anything less than an A+ job from the team that I love, and we aren't there, and that is inexcusable and sad imo.

I agree with Icness point of view too. In addition to those agent dynamics, it seems awfully convenient that we brought in a variety of different guys at a variety of positions that are all slated to go right around that 13th pick. Some team out there might see one of those guys as a top 10 pick and will possibly want to trade up for him. It would be interesting to see if we bring in Pitt WR Baldwin because it seems like an even split right now on whether he or Torrey Smith are going to be the next WR off the board after the big two.

What about Greg Romeus though? Who is his agent and how might that play into it? Cause after Cam Jordan there seems to be other DEs that would come before Romeus as well. He's from Pitt as is the WR Baldwin so I wonder if there is an agent connection there? I still like Ryan Kerrigan though as my favorite value DE in the draft.

[Piston Pete]

Some guys get their names spelled wrong on the back of their jersey on game day....I'm not worried about the spelling from some email blast weeks before the draft.

[TSE]

That's good, I would hope people aren't that obsessed to actually lose sleep over it! We have enough things in Detroit to worry about!