Who is someone you banged the drum for who didn’t end up being…well…good.
I can rattle off the times when I was banging the drum for a player who ended up great. But I’m quick to forget the swing and misses
Anyway, I was an Oher fan at 20 in 2009. I despised the Pettigrew pick.
To my credit I also liked Mack, Unger and Matthews there,
but I was an Oher fan. He ended up not being all that…despite a mildly entertaining movie
Patricia
I was wrong. Dead wrong.
I feel shame
I liked the hire too. I changed my mind after about a year. When he berated that reporter for being disrespectful for slouching when he himself shows up late for everything looking like a homeless person…
I felt that familiar ‘oh no…’ feeling. It’s the same feeling I got when Quinn brought a baseball bat to the draft and M&M zoomed away from practice on matching Harleys
I thought Hakeem Butler was going to be a stud wr. That’s quite a miss. I did however want us to draft devonte Adams in the first round so… it evens out.
I wanted Patricia here, but to be honest, by the time he was hired I was already so deeply soured on Quinn that the Patricia hire lost its luster.
As far as the original topic goes (Draft swing and miss), mine is Tomlinson.
Butler, like his Iowa State team mate Lazard, are great WR’s and were both first team Big 12. Green Bay brought Lazard in and tried to cut him and AR said no. Now, he’s not going anywhere. Butler is currently listed as a WR/TE for Philly. He ran a 4.48, I really don’t know why teams can’t figure out how to get him into their O. For me, Chuck Long.
Aaron Curry—Mayock’s safest player in the draft.
“I’m never wrong, just different levels of right.”
With that said:
Charles Rogers - Thought this kid was going to the HOF. He did have 2 TD’s in his professional debut…but we all know the epic downfall that followed.
My biggest “miss” was WR Brandon Coleman out of Rutgers. Thought he was going to be an all pro. He ended up with New Orleans, not sure if he’s still around.
I wanted Prince Amukamara in the worst way. Thought he would light it up. Not so much, though.
Yeah I wanted Curry over Stafford back in the day but I understood the need for a quarterback.
I believe my reasoning was so we could take what’s his name from Oklahoma the next year who turned out to be garbage too.
But for real though guys fuck Pitts 
Also wanted Jammer over Joey too but I think that’s a bit of a victory.
I wasn’t following all things NFL at the time Charles Rogers was drafted so I didn’t realize there were already character flags that SHOULD have been known my Millen… and perhaps my bias as a younger version of myself that wanted a home grown player to be a Lions star clouded my thoughts as well… but I didn’t hate the Rogers pick at that time. He had balls skills and plenty of speed.
Like you mentioned… his play in his 1st game showed he had the ability to be really good in the NFL.
I just didn’t realize he had the personal issues… and then the injuries didn’t help.
This is almost a tough one for 1st round picks… because most of the guys I wanted the Lions to draft did indeed turn out to be much better than what we drafted.
I’ll go with the 2008 draft.
Lions drafted Gosder Cherilus at #17 OA.
I thought they should have taken Jeff Otah (OT from Pitt), who went #19 OA to Panthers.
I was also curious about a small school RB who ran a crazy fast 40, but didn’t ever really see enough game film to want to draft Chris Johnson. I remember my Dad had seen him and thought it was a great pick.
Quick side note: Carolina traded its second-round (No. 43) and fourth-round (No. 109) picks in 2008 and its first-round pick in 2009 to the Philadelphia Eagles for the No. 19 pick, which it used on Otah.
Philly then traded #43 down to #47 pick (picked up pick #117 as a swap for #152)… and picked DT Trevor Laws at #47. Lucky for Philly… they also had their own 2nd rd pick (#49)… where they FINALLY selected Deshaun Jackson after passing him up twice!
Otah started at RT for 2 years. He ended up having knee issues, which never really went away.
He played in only 29 games in his career. Maybe he would have been good if not injured?
But the ironic part is that Duane Brown was drafted at #26 by the Texans.
He was not rated as a sure thing for the 1st round by the “gurus”, and I had not really seen a ton him.
I remember thinking the Texans were just desperate for a tackle and “reached” for him.
Got that one wrong… and am now thankful we can watch guys on on youtube!
Jarrad Davis
Sammy Watkins
Corey Davis
Ziggy Hood
man I still remember getting excited about him in that game. Joey to Charles, that first game sure made it look like they would develop well together.
Joey to Charles…as Lions fans our suffering is monumental
Darron Lee - I new the kid was a little raw but he had everything you wanted in a modern LBer. I was confident he’d be a stud. He never lived up to the hype.
LaQuon Treadwell
He easily has the biggest “spread” between what my expectations were and the reality of what he became in the NFL. I wasn’t banging the table for us to take him at the time, but I liked him alot.
Joey harrington. I thought he would be a solid qb for 10 yrs. well at least a ave nfl qb
Buster Davis, really thought he had some juice.
We should all have a lot of these lol.
For me:
Chris Claiborne
Ed Oliver
OJ Howard
Sam Bradford
Kellen Winslow Jr.
Rashaun Woods
Aaron Curry
Jonathan Cooper
Roy Williams (the safety)
Peter Warrick
Jameis Winston (still time though!)
Amobi Okoye
Michael Huff
Also Justin Blackmon but he was good, at least, he just loved his booze more than his profession. Like a lot of the people in my family!