This is for those who didn’t like the picks cause they felt like they were reaches, based upon the groupthink of mock drafts. I personally couldn’t care less about that. I’ve been saying for months that 11/12-60 were all basically in the same tier, of course there’s gonna be some discrepancies.
However I think it’s totally legitimate to be disappointed because of positional value, if you prescribe to that theory of roster construction. That’s where my disappointment stems from. I believe Brad had them rated so much higher than other prospects that it trumped their positional value, and if they turn out to be Faulk and Urlacher 2.0, then they were definitely worth it. But for me that’s the level they’ll have to reach, fair or not.
On the positive(?) side: It was a weird draft. Clearly teams did not see a ton of elite talent in the first round, especially at DL. I believe the stuff coming out that both Gibbs and Campbell were going to be first-rounders, regardless of what online draft experts thought, and even that Gibbs was going to go as high as a couple picks after we took him. I also am going to review my own advice from yesterday afternoon: position value shouldn’t really matter. Do you really want Brad going off his board and taking a lesser player, just because the guy he’s given a higher grade to plays the “wrong” position?
On the negative side: I’m just still shocked about taking Gibbs at 12. And more than that, I feel like I have to throw everything I thought about what Holmes prioritizes out the window. In the last two drafts, I didn’t always agree with (or even know) the specific players that he took, but he seemed to have clear principles for how he drafted that I could get behind: prioritizing elite athleticism above all else, in every round. Using high picks on guys with elite measurables who you can’t get later. That stuff just seems smart. And then we… take a 5’9 RB at 12? Really? I guess I just don’t really get it.
On the whole today I’m just meh. I trust Brad’s judgment over my own, and over the litany of media losers who hand out draft grades based on how well professional GMs’ boards align with amateurs. That stuff is dumb. The players may well be outstanding, and Brad has earned the benefit of the doubt. But yeah, the whole thing was a bit of a letdown.
That’s the sense that I came away with. That after literally just 2 or 3 guys at the top, the Lions viewed the next 50 players as interchangeable. And Brad just had a couple guys he’d kind of fallen in love with and took them, everything else be damned.
If I’m being very generous, I could suggest that, because the Lions saw so little differentiation between prospects, it was really hard to predict which player would go where. So they just couldn’t play the kind of games they’d played the last couple years, trading up and down to get their guy. They had to just take the guys they wanted. (If I’m being very generous.)
Yeah… For the folks calling Witherspoon a midget, Gibbs is literally a midget by NFL standards. Even in his highlight reel–which is great, he looks ridiculously quick and explosive with great hands. But physically, he looks like a kid playing with adults, against other college kids.
Again I think there was a tier that could generally be described as 10-60 give or take a few picks, which on the one hand, definitely makes figuring out where to slot everyone more difficult, but on the other makes it fine to simply take the guy you want. The mock groupthink matters very little to front offices, they have their own means for figuring out where guys might go. And it sounds like they were right on Gibbs, he was gonna go 14 or 15. Can’t say for Campbell but again I really don’t care. He was in that tier somewhere.
Also… we could have sat at 6 and taken a true big fast saquon Barkley type runninback. Instead we took a guy that looks like a child and whoever we get at 34… looking at who is available… I’d go bijan every time
Draft history is littered with small fast failures at RB. Only a couple success stories. And none taken in the 1st half of the 1st round. If brad had Gibbs and Campbell as the bpas… then his board is wrong.
Eh, it’s not as bad at RB. He’s basically the same size as my favorite guy in the draft, Spears. He’s around the same size as Ekeler (5’8, 198 coming into the league), Jamaal Charles (5’11, 200), Marshall Faulk (5’10, 205), Barry (5’8, 200), McCaffrey (5’11, 202), Aaron Jones (5’9, 208), Raheem Mostert (5’10, 195), Elijah Mitchell (5’10, 200), Charlie Garner (5’10, 190), Brian Westbrook (5’8, 200), James Cook (5’11, 190), Jaylen Warren (5’8, 204), etc…
He’s definitely on the smaller side for a workhorse back, but he’s not an outlier. And he’s not as small as the 3rd down scatbacks and the like.
Kamara’s surprisingly 215 so I don’t know that we want him that thick, but I could see him playing in the 208 range. And he’s MUCH faster than Kamara, he only ran a 4.56 40. It’s why I’ve never loved that comp. If you want to go with a pass-catching back McCaffrey and Faulk have always made the most sense IMO.
I will say this. Last night I said before the draft Holmes has earned my patience with the last 2 years draft. I was so angry last night after drafting Gibbs I turned off the draft in frustration. When I woke up and had time I had to just tell myself over and over he has a plan.
I will use myself as an example but sure others did the same thing. I was so angry and back to that SOL and the sky is falling. Even though I told myself I trust them. I am much better today and back to trying to be reasonable even though lol that’s how I started. I don’t know if its just the being beat down for so many years as a Lions fan. Sorry long winded way of saying I am a hypocrite but back to making myself trust the process.
I would have been disappointed if I felt like any of these players would be bad. I don’t. I felt like they went an earlier than expected, but I am not scouting the team. If we only perennially overdraft but pick up players who don’t flame out, we still win.
Holmes has earned my trust. Certainly doesn’t change on draft day itself. That’s a terrible way to evaluate.
Eagles IMO had a great draft. Carter races again and kills someone. Bad draft. Just can’t evaluate it the day of.
