Yeah and if there’s a blowout, like Philly-Tampa, you can always tune into the other game.
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What does LaPorta have to do with this? We could have drafted him instead of Jack and then still had Barnes, not to mention we wouldn’t have needed to draft Broderick Martin, so what could we have done with that pick?
So we could have had Carter
Swift
LaPorta
Barnes starting,
along with the 3rd rounder we could have drafted instead of Martin.
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If they wanted him, they stay put and take him at 6. Too many red flags for the FO. There was always the chance we were looking at the next Aaron Donald. It’s not an easy decision to pass on a player that played like he did sometimes.
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That’s the point, the question is whether we made a huge mistake. I think we did. Saying he wasn’t even on their board means nothing more than we didn’t draft him when we could have. Righ now I would definitey choose
Carter
Swift
LaPorta
Barnes as he is
3rd round Martin pick
and Branch
I think it was a big miss and when you have possibly Aaron Donald talent then the risk you accept would be much higher than normal.
You guys will change your tune when Carter immolates a bus full of nuns while going 600 mph at 10 ft altitude with Laremy Tunsil’s bong gas mask on in his Taliban surplus F-35
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Never a chance Campbell wanted this guy.
A guy like Jim Caldwell would take a chance like this. Campbell won’t.
Not saying it is a bad thing–just that he isn’t the type of guy Campbell ever wants to work with.
Aaron Donald’s talent can be attributed to how hard he trains all year long. I don’t think we missed out on the next Aaron Donald.
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I didn’t even like their pick of CB. I thought Christian Gonzalez was better than Devon Witherspoon. Dan needs to learn that personality isn’t as important as he thinks it is.
Yeah am not sure why this is so hard for our fans to understand this about Holmes and MCDC.
They are never and I mean never going to draft a guy that is a known unmotivated player. Never going to happen.
They are sticking to their clear plan which is grabbing dudes who love the game. They know these are the ones that work hard no matter what.
I get it. I wanted Carter bad. And when he fell I was like BOOM. But if Holmes says no I say OK
These guys have been hitting damn near 100% so we should be careful to doubt or criticize
Sadly this fan base has been abused and beaten for years. It is understandable that we doubt what we are seeing trying to find where it will all go to shit.
But this is real my friends. And I am here for it
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So, this Swift thing… you first have to acknowledge we tried and failed to get this out of him.
Barnes is a similar situation, except that he was at least trying while here and accepted the challenge when Campbell was drafted.
This is the problem with living in a make-believe world of what we would have done if we weren’t watching football from our couches each weekend. We can put all these coulda-wouldas together and lose touch with reality.
Carter was an option for some teams. He was a better option for some teams (Eagles with all of their other 'dawgs) than others. What’s done is done and we have no idea the ceiling our picks are destined to hit.
By the way, scratch LaPorta off your list, unless you’re advocating picking him at 18, in which case you should be permabanned.
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He may be better. He is looking like a generational talent right now. He may mess up and destroy his career, but that risk was worth his possibilities.
Fruit fly generations aren’t really applicable to football.
Or when lions win a Super Bowl ?
In fact by the logic
Isn’t taking Carter mean Philly has to win the Super Bowl for it to be the right pick ? Talk about pressure since they lost it last year when they couldn’t convert 3rd and short…
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LaPorta could have been drafted at 1, and He is living up to being drafted that high. Didn’t we take Hock earlier than that?
And It’s the team’s job to know if Barnes was looking good. You know that Barnes showed no inkling he was progressing until after Jack was drafted?
LaPorta is setting records for the most catches by a TE after 3 games. So this board would have blown a gasket had we drafted him at 18, but his talent definitely shows he would not have been a bad pick at 18.
I don’t see how taking a TE at 18 is any more of a reach than an off-ball LB. They obviously preferred the off-ball LB. I think Branch is the guy who probably should go at 18, not knowing our extreme luck of getting him where we did.
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Interesting on that note that Jack was playing on the ball a fair bit yesterday, including rushing the passer.
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You nailed it. Many a TE has gone before pick 18, and LaPorta is showing he would have easily been worth that pick. And also, with Carter we could have packaged that 3rd round Martin pick with maybe next year picks and moved up into the late 2nd round and got someone that could be helping this team right now.
I would much rather have Carter and swift than Gibbs and Jack. I like both and am pulling for them to have great careers, but I would make that trade right now in a heartbeat.
If you had suggested we draft a TE in the 1st, you would have been run out of here. We drafted one in the 2nd, though. He’s a star, was a target AND was strategically taken in the 2nd. Should we have taken ARSB in the 1st or the 4th? See, you’re kinda chasing your tail here. They got who they wanted where they wanted them. They did not get Carter because they didn’t want the baggage.
And, yes, Barnes said when the pick was made (Campbell) he committed to earning the spot. Part of his growth is a natural progression, part of it is desperation, knowing a 1st round pick was drafted to play a spot on the roster that he had been playing.
You can love on Carter all you want. I don’t blame you, he’s exactly what this team needed, talent-wise. But this current coulda-shoulda where you’re grabbing guys early, passing on other guys and blah blah blah… man. It’s a little much.
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There are a lot of teams that might end up regretting passing on Carter. I’m not saying they didn’t have a pretty good reason. The red flags were real. But he was also clearly, IMO, the highest ceiling player in the draft. He’s like prime Suh good when he’s not gassed. He just happened to line up with the Lions biggest need and the Lions chose to target a scatback instead. It’s hard to swallow (that’s what she said).
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We are not talking about what this board would have thought. The question is, was LaPorta worth the 18th pick. He was. There are also other TE that were drafted after LaPorta who are doing well. The entire point of the thread is, Carter and Swift vs Gibbs and whatever we wanted to do with the 18th pick.
I would take Carter then and now and would have been fine keeping Swift. The Lions needed a TE and LaPorta was there at 18. We got rid of Hock who we drafted at, what, 8? Clearly LaPorta would have been a great pick there, but the centtral question is, Carter and Swift over Gibbs and either the 18th or 34th. Carter and Swift all day. The risk was easily worth the possible payoff.
Sending him to play with other guys from Georgia could be the worst thing for him. Those are guys who were around that crappy organization like he was. Carter would be around grown men making a living playing ball, not college kids. He would have had as good or even better chance anywhere else.