Some think this years draft has the potential to be one of our best drafts in a long time. But… 2013 was a fantastic draft for the Lions.
This article claims it was the Lions best in the last 20 years? Do you agree? What was our second best then?
2020 definitely puts itself in the running on paper, but nobody from that class has played a snap yet, so it’s hard to call it our best draft.
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What article?
Yeah it might help if I attached the article. Fixed!
2013 was probably one of, if not the worst draft the NFL has seen in the past 20 years. Detroit definitely found some gems in that one. I’d agree it is our best.
#2 for me has to be 2009. Stafford is a star. Pettigrew was solid. Delmas was pretty good, WHEN he was healthy. Levy was a stud, but did too much wild shit outside of football, that it ruined his body. Sammie Lee was a good rotational piece for a 4th round pick. I always expected Aaron Brown to turn into something. He didn’t
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I won’t ever get over taking Pettigrew over Alex Mack, who is still playing BTW.
I agree that 2013 was incredible. Warford in rd. 3 was amazing. Slay beat the odds and became good!
2009 was really solid with Stafford and company.
The 2001 drat was really solid too with Backus, Raiola and DT Rodgers. If Millen could have kept that going his teams would have been MUCH more competitive. Damn were the rest of Millen’s drafts bad.
I hate to say it but past 2009, 2013 and 2001 we have to consider 2016 with Decker, Robinson Glasgow, Killibrew and Dahl as one of the Lions top 5 drafts as sad as that is.
In that light 2018 looks great too and that is also sad! Ragnow, Kerryon Johnson, Tracy Walker, Da’Shawn Hand, OT Crosby as well as Bawden.
Seen in that light 2020 has the potential to be the best Lions draft ever with Okudah, RB Swift, LBer Okwara, OG Jonah Jackson and company (run stuffer Penisini, WR Cephus).
I think an argument can be made that drafts 2018-2020 are the best three year drafts in Lions history IF 2020 pans out as we all hope. In 2019 the team added Hock, LBer Tavai, Safety Will Harris, DE Austin Bryant and CB Amari. IF Harris, Bryant and Amani show us their potential that could end up being a GREAT draft. 2018…Frank looks like a Pro Bowl center to me. RB Johnson looks like a legit rotational RB so not as much as wanted fro that pick but safety Tracy Walker looks like a legit player and IF DT Da’Shawn Hand can get it going that makes that a really solid 4 player draft with an okay depth guy in Crosby. That is solid.
The bar is so damn low though being the best of that bunch is easy. That says less about Quinn and more about everyone before Quinn.
The 2017 draft sucked.
When I read the thread title I instantly thought of ‘13. Hard to argue with the depth of talent that was acquired including quality rotation pieces like Devin Taylor.
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Well said @MyLions.
Trying to get a few positive yet interesting posts going and I thought that this maybe something worth getting excited about.
We criticize BQ because his drafts lack top shelf talent. Or at least I do … lol … but he has had some ok looking drafts (hopefully they pan out). This years draft however looks like it may have some top end talent. Some real difference makers. I figured that was worth being excited for.
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The tough thing is we had a lot of draft capital this year. It was a great draft in a vacuum, but I’ll give BQ a B- because he could have done more (including trading Slay earlier for a higher pick).
I remember after the draft folks were talking that PFF loved our draft, with the exception of Swift…which ironically is the player our fans liked the most.
I like our draft…I’ll like it even better if they perform and develop into players that take our team to the next level.
In arguably, one of the worst NFL Drafts of All-time (2013), the Detroit Lions had one of their “Best” drafts.
Mayhew nailed some mid/late round picks in his 8 years (7 Drafts) with the Lions as G.M.
2015 - (6th) Q.Diggs
2014 - (2nd) K.Van Noy, (4th) N.Lawson
2013 - (2nd) D.Slay, (3rd) L.Warford, (5th) S.Martin, (6th) T.Riddick
2012 - (5th) T.Whitehead
2011 - Umm…whoops! Got nothing for you…
2010 - (7th) W.Young –Kid played in 98 career NFL games.
2009 - (3rd) D.Levy, (4th) S.Lee Hill–played in 97 career NFL games
2013 was an historically bad NFL draft with a bunch of Lemons, but Mayhew somehow managed to make some pretty good Lemonade that year.
It’s gonna be interesting to watch what kind of impact Mayhew has over in Washington after being hired by the WFT in 2020. He’s the G.M. by title but is answering to (Two time Coach of the Year) Ron Rivera. This could (potentially) be a really powerful combination for the WFT.