For the Lions, it’s Calvin . . . that’s really an inditement on how poorly we have drafted outside of the 1st round (i.e. round 2 . . . where a lot of people feel is where you get your best value). Slay and Galloday were OK, but they didn’t stay on the team long enough to shift the scale (same with Diggs).
yeah …
but the dude is a Hall of Famer.
More fun to debate who the second best pick was.
I’ll start: Tahir Whitehead
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I’d actually say suh was the better pick for me. Calvin had a tendency to disappear in some games we really needed him to dominate. Whether you liked him or not suh made an impact every play. He dominated in the playoff game against the Cowboys. He would have taken it over if Dallas wasn’t allowed to hold even worse than Green Bay.
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I would like to point out that Jack Fox was a UDFA
Not.
Even.
Mentioned!!! Wowza!
the only thing stupider than KC getting him for free (no draft pick) is KC letting him go! WTH kinda bizzaro universe is this?
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Hard to argue against one of the best WR’s ever no matter who or where he was picked.
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Ditto
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It’s gotta be Stafford doesn’t it. I understand Calvin and Suh were both better at their respective positions, but QB is the most impactful position in all of sports. He was a top 10 guy for most of his career. He played 12 seasons with us and just won a Super Bowl with his new team.
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Stafford was the best pick!
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That has been our downfall for sure. The key to success is finding 3+ starters in every draft. The lions rarely found more than two starters in every draft…that is our downfall.
My concern is that (so far) Holmes appears to be going down the same road as the Lions prior GM’s. I know it’s too early to tell but at this moment Brown is the only legitimate starter past round 1. Holmes needs players like Levi, McNeill, and Barnes to become reliable starters this season before we can declare last years draft as a success.
Mayhew and Quinn seemed to find a starter in round one and a second starter almost every year in the latter rounds. Two starters in a draft just are not enough. Very few Lions drafts produced 3 starters.
But we’ve had some really solid picks in rounds 3 and later who are/were starter quality. Even a couple who made the probowl. Some were solid players derailed by injury too. Unfortunately most draft produced just one for us.
Worst part is we had several drafts where we found 1 or fewer starters.
Here are a few of our better 3rd round or later draft picks.
4th round Amon-Ra Brown
3rd round Jonah Jackson
5th round Amani Oruwariye
3rd round Tracy Walker
3rd round Kenny Golladay
5th round Jamal Agnew
3rd round Graham Glasgow
6th round Quandre Diggs
3rd round Travis Swanson
3rd round Larry Warford
5th round Sam Martin
6th round Theo Riddick
5th round Tahir Whitehead
7th round Willie Young
3rd round Deandre Levy
3rd Cliff Avril
Good teams hit on round 1 and 2 at a high rate or find hidden gems to make up for it. They routinely find 3 starters and a couple roll players in every draft.
Look at the last two drafts and ask yourself did Holmes do that? Who will be our 3 starters? …. If you can’t answer that you have to admit that things have not really changed…. Personally I think the jury is still out and this season should give us a more clear picture. But I can admit I have some concerns
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Calvin disappeared because through most of his career we really didn’t have any other offensive weapons to take any focus off. A couple seasons with Nate Burleson and like one healthy one with golden Tate. And we had terrible run games. So defenses focused entirely on him… and our other skill positions weren’t good enough to take the heat off.
It’s funny how people bring up how Calvin and Stafford “failed” In bigger moments… when a guy like suh doesn’t even play in our first playoff game because he did something so stupid and got himself suspended for our game against the saints. Considering we played well enough on offense but our defense didn’t get a stop til the 4th quarter… we could have used him. We also just needed to get a stop with the lead against Dallas… and had them at 3rd and long multiple times… (I know he got held a lot but that’s playoff football) and we failed again to get a stop.
Suh was a good player who brought an attitude. But I’m not even sure he was ever the best at his position in a season. Calvin was a hof player.
Agree that the jury is still out. Are you talking about three starters in year 1? Because I think we have three starters in year 2 from last year - ARSB, Penei and Alim.
This year, again year 1 will be a challenge, but barring injury, we’ll have Hutch and Jamo by year end. Jury till out on Paschal, the safety, and Rodriguez.
Good point.
I just changed my vote too.
Since Matt came into the league, how many players have been drafted that you’d rather start a team with?
I’d go
- Matt
- Suh
- CJ
He’s done a fantastic job with the cap
He’s landed some UDFAs (those count too).
I think he’s doing great.
Sewell, McNeil, Ra → actually picked. Then the DBs brought in out of the grocery store too. They most likely will get beaten out, but that is quality depth (not just depth on a shitty roster).
Love our Bald guy
This year - I can easily see more than 3
Kerby
Mitchell
Hutch
Pachal-not sure he starts long term, but I could see him as a big DE, with a floor of a great depth/rotational guy
Rodriguez could easily end up as a starter too.
Outside chance that J-Will becomes a starter too. LOL
So…when I ask myself, are there 3 starters? …Yuuuup
…Have things changed? …Yuuup!
If we are being honest the only people that consistently rated Stafford as a top 10 QB were Lions fans. Most “experts” had him somewhere in the 12-16 range depending on the year.
St. Brown in round 4 last year sure was a steal!
And like @BigNatty said… Fox wasn’t drafted!!! He’d go easily in the 1st round with a draft do over!! lol
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Guaranteed!
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I agree with you on all of that but I’d also say I saw Calvin make way to many plays throughout his career not to pull of a big one or two when we needed it most. How many times did we see him beat triple coverage for a touchdown in the regular season?
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Stafford has always been undervalued in the eyes on the media because of the success of this team. Most coaches, GMs and people inside the NFL had a much higher opinion of him.
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I would disagree that we didn’t find three starters. Sewell and Brown are surefire guys already and McNeil really stepped up down the stretch and was solid. Will he take that next step? Who knows, but I believe he has already proven to be a quality starter for us.
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I think Alim is going to have a big year!! Dude is powerful and surprisingly quick for his size. The new attacking scheme is going to help him. Ragnow was talking last year in training camp about how impressed he was with Alim as a rookie and an all pro center would know.