MichiganCardinal

I remember in undergrad a few years ago I was a project partner in a stats class with this kid. He shook my hand to introduce himself and his hand completely engulfed my normal adult hand. He later dropped the class to focus on some sport. Harrison Phillips was the name. Based on Twitter today, he should have been a QB.

Against Utah, London had 16 catches for 162 yards and a TD. Against Notre Dame, he went 15/171/0. Neither of those secondaries will knock your socks off, but they're both very good teams. Washington State was the best ranked secondary he faced in 21 and he went 13/170/2. It would have been nice to see him up against the Washington secondary. It's also worth remembering that he had two noodle armed QBs throwing to him.

Campbell also had a report that the Lions would want more than a 2nd round pick if they were to trade Goff. If true, I would have to imagine this means they don’t intend to draft a franchise QB in April. What (probably little) value Goff has now would plummet if they did. It could also just be talk in attempt to boost Goff’s confidence more. I can’t imagine Holmes’ phone is exactly ringing off the hook with 2nd round offers for Goff.

Probably a little of both. He missed the last few games of the season with a broken ankle, but I have to imagine that’s mostly healed by now. He probably knew that he wouldn’t be one of the fastest 40s there, and when you’re a projected top 16 pick it’s a lot easier to fall than rise.

The logic follows though. Why start the clock on a QB, there is no WRs and no defense. Why start the clock on an offensive tackle (last year), they don't have a franchise QB to protect. Why start the clock on an edge rusher, you can't win if you don't score points and the secondary is still a mess. You're building a team, not every piece is going to be in place after this draft. They should be pretty close though, and if they're a long-term QB away, that would be great. We still have about two months before the draft. Things are going to change. As of right now, yes I'm a fan of London. I'm also a fan of Wilson, Williams, and Olave. That doesn't mean any of them are Calvin Johnson and Calvin Johnson should not be your expectation from a first round WR, or even a top five pick WR. On the defensive side, I'm a fan of Hutch, but I'm also a fan of Jermaine Johnson and Arnold Ebikitie. With the QBs, I don't like any of them as a franchise signal caller. It doesn't mean we shouldn't take players who can be weapons for that eventual franchise signal caller (and weapons in the here-and-now). We saw how much better Jared Goff got when we added Josh freaking Reynolds to the WR room. It's overly simplistic to say that's the only reason for Goff's improvement, but the correlation is there. There are plenty of reasons to add a top tier WR to the team.

So don’t draft anyone because it will inevitably mean you’re neglecting another position?

Great night at LCA. Splurged a bit to ensure I keep the Best Uncle Award and got some last-minute glass seats. My 10yo nephew is a hockey nut and was in paradise. I was expecting to see a game where we lost but could say “this is a game we win two years from now”. Certainly loved seeing us pull it out. Brought me back to the years we were spoiled. Only yick to my yum all night long was that Raymond made a beeline right to my nephew after being announced as the second star, lifted his stick that just scored the game winner over the glass, and it ricocheted JUST wrong off the glass so that the people behind us got it instead of us. SO close. Still a phenomenal memory of a night though.

I'm going to the game tonight with my nephew, so if it could just not be a blood bath, that'd be great. Less than 10 goals given up would be a good start.

I'm not as high on him. I think he's a 4th round pick or later, and would fit more as our #3 behind someone else and St. Brown, though I've also read that some pundits are falling in love with him. He's only 5'10", which though not necessarily a death sentence for a WR, makes it a lot harder to become a #1 guy. Guys like TY Hilton, Antonio Brown, Steve Smith, and DeSean Jackson have done it, but they each possess game-breaking speed (sub 4.40 40) that I don't think Moore has. I could be wrong, we'll find out soon enough. I think Moore's absolute ceiling is a Golden Tate type, a really good slot receiver who excels when he does not have to be the #1 guy. If that's who he becomes, I'd be all about a 3rd or 4th round pick for him. I think it would be much more likely that he and St. Brown end up being two guys for one role, and St. Brown is likely better. I like Wan'Dale Robinson more for that #3 WR role in the 3rd round, if he's still there. He's a guy you can put on the outside as your vertical speed threat. Jalen Tolbert would be in consideration if Robinson is gone, for the same reason.

Rod Wood mentioned Ford Field, the Fox Theater, Comerica, and LCA in a 2017 interview. In a more recent one, he only mentioned Ford Field to formally host the event, but stated that other venues could cooperate and host other events leading up to Draft Day. He said that the walkability of all the downtown venues was a large part of their pitch. He also mentioned tying Canada into their proposal, and making it a draw to expanding the NFL’s audience. I think the national picture that gets painted of Detroit is the biggest thing working against them. Cleveland and Philly have both hosted now though.

This would be neat. I would definitely attend.

Took me forever to find this. Well worth it.

At the end of the day I think it comes down to how Holmes and his scouting department see not only London/Wilson/Hutch/Thib, but also how they see the draft class as a whole, in efforts to maximize their value at each pick. To be overly simplistic for a second, if they grade Hutch at 93 and Johnson/Ebiketie at 88, but have Drake London at 91 and Pickens/Dotson at 80, it might make more sense to go London early and Johnson late, even if you think Hutch could develop into a better player than either. In a similar circumstance last year, the Bengals took Chase over Sewell. Most (at least in the media) had Sewell graded higher than Chase, but the Bengals needed both OT and WR help and thought they could wait to address the O-Line in the 2nd round. They ultimately picked up Jackson Carman out of Clemson, who himself had 1st Round grades. It worked out for them last year (even though Carman hasn't been that great so far and had to switch to Guard), until the Super Bowl, where their line cost them. If we pick up an elite WR at #2 (or early to mid 1st round) and a good edge rusher in the late 1st or early 2nd, I'm perfectly okay with that. I would expect for that 1st round WR to be really good though - clearly better than a Golladay or St. Brown.

I think it's all in the eyes of the beholder. If the Lions scouts have London graded as Mike Evans 2.0 as Campbell speculated, then yes, I suppose he likely is graded that much better than Burke and Bell. I don't really get your point about good WRs vs. Pro Bowl DEs in the 30s. Of course that's true, but it's also true that it is easier to find a good DE in the 30s than a Pro Bowl WR. Your #2 pick, whether a WR, DE, or otherwise, should be better long-term than your #32 pick... Maybe we disagree, but I do think there is some truth to the notion that there is more depth to the top tier of the EDGE class this year than the WR class. Jermaine Johnson, Drake Jackson, Arnold Ebiketie, and Travon Walker could each be there at #32 and/or #34, and I think each has the potential to develop into being the best EDGE rusher from this class. It's less likely they do than Hutch, Thib, Ojabo, or Karlaftis does, but it's still possible... Personally I don't think it's as likely that someone other than Garrett Wilson, Drake London, Chris Olave, or Jameson Williams turns into the best WR from this class. I'm not holding my breath on any of them being there at 32, unless we get real lucky with Williams.

Walt Cherepinsky of WalterFootball is Captain ClickBait. To his credit, he built his site and business by being brilliant about the future of internet searches and catalogs. When I was younger, if you searched "NFL mock draft" on Google, Yahoo, or Ask Jeeves (lol), this random site, WalterFootball.com, would appear, because he would get people to share his URL on their page in exchange for posting their mock draft or whatever on his site. He blasted his URL everywhere, got a lot of people to share his "product", and it basically tricked the search engine into improving his search results to the top of the list. Not ESPN or NFL.com or CBS. This random dude's site. He was way ahead of the search engine algorithm and made a lucrative career out of it. Today, he is still just a random computer nerd, who has racist tendencies and whose site has grown into being borderline unreadable because he sells every square inch of webspace. His information should not be taken to heart. That said, he does employ a very savvy team of insiders, in particular Charlie Campbell. Campbell has very little vested interest in clickbait, has an ear in multiple NFL circles, and historically hits a large percentage of his final mock draft picks. Campbell was actually the first to mock London to the Lions at #2, and he did so shortly after the Senior Bowl, which he attended. This is what he wrote about the Lions after the Senior Bowl: That last line about being open for trade offers was stated publicly by Holmes, but everything above that sounds like somebody within the Lions was talking. I tend to believe it though. That's not to say that the Lions are going to take London at #2, but it could mean they are in a similar position as we were a few years ago with Okudah where it did not make sense to take Okudah at #3, but it was claimed no one wanted to move up, so they just took Okudah. I don't believe the Quinn regime that there were just no possibilities to move down from the #3 pick in 2020 with the goal of still picking Okudah. It might not have been a perfect trade on the chart, but someone would have given up a little to move up. The same could be the case this year. I could see us "losing" a trade by dropping to somewhere around #6 - #13 and "only" getting a 2nd or 3rd round pick back, or even less... But then picking up one of London or Wilson at that first pick, and getting what they really wanted anyway.

My ideal situation (right now) for the draft is trading down in the first round, and picking up Drake London or Garrett Wilson somewhere in the 6-12 range, followed up with a speed threat in the 3rd round like Wan'Dale Robinson (if we are lucky enough to see him available). At that point between say London/St. Brown/Robinson, you're only looking for depth and role players behind them. Reynolds, Cephus, Raymond, Hodge, Kennedy, and I guess Benson would all have a chance at those roles in camp. Another St. Brown could compete for that 4th/5th spot, but I am not sure he would get it, which would likely become another Benson-like trade. I'd consider a mid-round pick for Ridley if we cannot get both London/Robinson (types), but definitely not if we can get both.

Upon further review I take back the foster/adopt line. Everything else stands as sage advise. 😉 😂

I don't think he's the best QB in the league. He's top five, possibly the most valuable, but he's not the best. I agree that no one player can win a Super Bowl (or even a playoff game for that matter - see Stafford). If I were a Green Bay supporter though, I would be so sick of this limbo, and this narrative that he'll make a decision when he makes a decision. He's had good teams. He's made one Super Bowl in his career. I don't think he's earned the "wait in awe" that he seems to be expecting like Lebron when he took his talents to South Beach. I can blame the media, but he's the one releasing this to the media. He's the one telling everyone about his cleanse on Pat McAfee. I'm not debating that a bunch of teams would love to have him, but I wouldn't want my team holding out our future, our front office, and everything we have because he doesn't know what he wants to do.

Dude thinks he is Lebron James yet he doesn’t win anything. I would be so sick of this circus if I were the Packers.

Don't have kids. Don't work with kids. Don't foster kids or adopt kids. Don't interact with kids. Don't look at kids. Kids do not actually exist. It's a great day here. 😇

I remember when mock drafts had him as a possible #1 overall pick. Little did they know.

I don't know, I think it just depends on your expectations for the pick. You can't expect your 6th round QB to ever become your starter (i.e., Brady), but that is also the case for most positions in the 6th and 7th rounds (special teams excluded). If you pick up EJ Perry and he turns into a serviceable backup QB in the NFL with a ten-year career, perhaps with some rare packages as a rotational athlete where both he and Goff/Whoever are on the field, I think that's a much better outcome than picking up a 6th Round depth lineman who ultimately doesn't make the team out of camp. And if Perry does turn into Kayaa, well it's really no different than if they had taken that 6th round tackle. Fun fact I learned today, Jeremiah Ledbetter and Pat O'Connor were the two players taken before and after Brad Kaaya in the 2017 NFL Draft, at 6.205 and 7.250, respectively. Both were out of Detroit by the start of the 2018 season. Both now have Super Bowl rings from time with the Buccaneers. Doesn't help my argument, but it was too good not to share.

Weak. I hope more is done behind the scenes that isn’t seen by the public. A Michigan-Wisconsin rematch in the B1G tourney is a real possibility, can Juwan keep his cool for that? The more time passed, the more I wanted to see him fired, or at least indefinitely suspended through the postseason.

EJ Perry, QB from Brown intrigues me as a late-round developmental pickup. Should be available in the 6th/7th round. Athletic as all get-out and tough as nails. Expected to run a 40 in the 4.5s, and the biggest concern is a propensity to make bad decisions (high number of picks). I would be interested to see what he could do with proper NFL coaching. I could see his ceiling as a Taysom Hill type, who can play QB but also be on the field with another QB as just a plain weapon. He's got the smarts to be a career backup too if that doesn't pan out, which is not a bad get from the 6th or 7th round.