Stanley70

I like Jeremy Ruckert if he is there at the end of the third. He should be able to block and he has some untapped potential as a receiver since he played with the best receiver group in CFB.

He was the #1 recruit coming out of high school, has had an excellent career at Oregon, and he is in the conversation to be the first draft pick overall. So he has worked hard to get where he is today. I am sure the interview teams had with him will play a big role in his evaluation. I guess the trappings of fame and fortune could throw him off track, but you could say that about most guys about to be drafted.

Thibodeaux is a strong personality/arrogant type who could rub people the wrong way. He is very concerned with his "brand" as well. I would bet there are a few teams that wouldn't draft him. I think the commitment to football is overblown, in order for his brand to increase in value his play does as well. And he seems to be smart enough to realize that.

If you were to rank Tibs, Walker and Hutch in speed rush, power rush and run defense I think Hutch comes in second in all 3. Tibs will probably get the most sacks and Walker will be an elite run defender. But Walker may not be a double digit sack guy and Tibs may only be an average run defender. Hutchinson should be good at both, you just hope he doesn't top out at 9 or ten sacks.

If Levi busts at least it won't because we took a guy everyone else thought was a 4th or 5th rounder in the second. In fairness he was hurt last year from camp on and had missed the 2020 covid season. Hopefully he comes around this year.

I expect them to try pretty hard to drop down from either 32 or 34 for more picks. And then I think they will take another DT before the end of day 2 as well. I really have no idea if they are targeting a QB with one of the first rounders, it depends on if they fell in love with one i guess.

Rotoworld says Manning was removed due to an apparent upper body injury.

I still remember in the opening of every TWIB for a while they had a highlight of Brian Downing and Fred Lynn going for a fly ball in deep left center and both of them crashing into the wall at the same time.

it should be: These pretzels, are making me thirsty.

Well at least Cabrera won't ground into a double play here.

Goff's cap hits for 2022, 2023, and 2024 are all over 30 million. He can't be cut this year because the dead cap would be over 41 million due to them having to restructure last year to fill the team out (thanks Quinntricia). in 2023 the hit will be 10 M, less than that if they wait until after June 1st. So no matter whether think the Lions could win with him or not, he is way overpaid and will either get cut, traded or restructured. You could take Campbell's comments to mean you don't have to draft a QB at 1 or 2 to win also. So I believe a QB is definitely in play at 2 or 32. Personally I agree that you if you like a QB you make sure you get him, not wait until 32 and hope he is there.

The Lions have so many gaping holes on their defense right now it would be difficult to defend taking a flier on a QB at 32 IMO. Drafting a QB is always a risk though.

I would think the Lions pick at 32 would be a good trade down opportunity if someone wants to jump up and get a QB, and get 5 years of control.

Yea, most of the mocks are starting to swing towards Walker now for whatever that is worth. It will all come down to the Lions the visit with Thibodaux. KT was talking about his "brand" during one interview that might not go over well with a knee cap biter like Campbell. That along with the tape that is supposedly out there of him taking plays off and it might cause him to drop. It's could be just a smear campaign to get him to slide a bit also.

Fangraphs did a few articles where they did positional ranking for teams 1-30. They had the Tigers with the 18th ranked bullpen and 17th ranked rotation. The SP rankings looked a little low. If they over perform there, which seems plausible, they should be a 500 team, or better.

The Rays are betting that Meadows has regressed from his what he was despite being only 26 years old. And he isn't likely to be much value moving forward. Parades is unlikely to be better but they saved money and received a draft pick.

In 2021 fangraphs rated Parades as a 45 value prospect, role player. Now he's a better than Meadows. Here is their write up: If there’s one thing Paredes can do, it’s hit. Indeed, that’s the one thing he can do, and has been doing for a while. He’s a career .277 hitter in the minors and amassed a .291/.376/.425 line in 166 Double-A games leading up to 2020, which he spent at the alt site until he was given a month-long big league carafe at the end of the summer. Then Paredes went to Mexico, where he has spent each of the last three offseasons, and as usual was the best hitter in the entire Pacific League. He’s quite comfortable in the box, and shows balance throughout his swing and fantastic hand-eye coordination. Playing winter ball has helped Paredes keep his high-maintenance build in check and it’s better now than it was when he was in the low minors with the Cubs. He’s just not a very good athlete or defender and doesn’t have the thump typical of a corner infielder who can’t field well. There aren’t many contact-only third basemen in the game, and this, along with concerns about his athletic longevity, caused us to slide Paredes out of the back of the Top 100. He’s still a likely big league role player.

I am aware they have Lowe ready. It just seemed like a pretty big drop in value for Meadows who just a few years ago looked like one of the top young talents in the game. He had a 922 OPS and finished 14th in the MVP voting in 2019. And he's 26, not 34. TB dumped Adames last year right before he had a mini breakout, lets hope Meadows can get back to where he was.

Meadows has a huge platoon split the last few years, to the point where he will probably need to be sat against left handers. He pretty much only played left field or DH in TB also. I am not sure how viable he is in CF or RF. TB must have felt they could find someone who could replicate his value and decided carrying that contract wasn't a good value for them. Plus the received something for him. It's a good deal for the Tigers but Meadows looks similar to Badoo to me.

What i find interesting is that the Tigers offer got the deal done. They must really like Paredes, or place a high value on that comp pick.

Thats my fault because I'm used to talking politics with informed people that are knowledgeable about issues on both sides. Aside from being possibly the most FOS statement ever written, it reminds me of a line in the Blues Brothers. They ask the bartender what kind music they play and she says "both kinds. Country and Western."

The Tigers were clearly for many years underfunding the scouting and development staffs. Ownership probably deserves some of that blame. I don't know if they were diverting money from that side to free agents, but they were behind other teams. The less payroll a team has to work with the more pressure it puts on the development side, so moving forward the will have to get up to speed and pour resources into those areas or there will be more frequent rebuilds. It sounds like they starting to build those areas but proof will be when we see true development success's become more frequent than once every 5 years or so.

It's clear the Lions are building towards the future and will endure more growing pains in 2022. They aren't handing out multi year deals, they aren't restructuring contracts to borrow from future years to prop the 2022 team up, and they aren't trading any future draft picks. So 1 year deals like this, Hughes, etc. are pretty insignificant and harmless towards their ultimate goal of being a playoff team in 2023.

Agreed, plus the run a ton of two high, which Hamilton is not elite at. IMO the Lions will value him less than the edge guys, so i doubt they will take him at 2.

Does Detroit even use an "in the box" safety? I believe Glenn likes to play two deep safeties.