Proving that the better teams are better throughout the draft and free agency, while also proving that the sucky teams suck throughout the draft and free agency.
Itās not that a good team needs a top 10 pick. Itās more that a bad-to-mediocre team is less likely to screw the pooch in the top 10. Then, of course, there are teams that prove even top-10 picks can be botched. 
How about presuming that we donāt have a moron making the pick this time?
I get it, some of you believe you win at all costs. No matter what. Thatās fine. I think differently.
Right now, we both got what we wanted. They played hard yesterday and still lost. Best possible pick available to them.
We can all at least agree, I hope, that we pray they get it right, canāt we?
we pray they get it right over the past 30 years, so why notā¦again?
Not sure how to take your post Wolf.
They are the team we follow.
There is zero evidence to support that.
yes but years and years ago, I thought HIGH draft picks was the way to go like you-now. The realist in me says the draft is a damn lottery and you have to hit or get lucky to land the game changing players weather you draft high or low. our experiments drafting high got us nowhereā¦again, I blame that on ownership moreā¦but Iām saying that selecting high in the draft? isnāt a guarantee
of anything.
top playmakers are there but you still got to be lucky enough to capture them in the draft.
Top 10 picks since/including Stafford
2009 1OA Stafford
2010 2OA Suh
2013 5OA Ansah
2014 10 OA Ebron. The gold medal for misses
2019 8OA Hockenson
2020 3OA Okudah
Honestly, if you fix the miss with Ebron, the rest look ok or need time to tell. Definite reaches in places. Definite, locked onto a player and refused to consider anyone/anything else (Okudah).
Furthermore, sometimes top-10 is required even to reach players with a 1st round grade.
Basically, good teams are good because theyāre good at drafting and free agency. Bad teams are bad no matter how much help they get.
Can you find talent anywhere in the draft, of course YES.
Is it easier to find talent when picking sooner, it damn well should be. Is it easier to move around the draft board if you are holding more collateral, yes.
Would you rather be the team trading up to get someone (giving up capital) or the team going backwards getting extra capital? Just because the team sucks at using said capital doesnāt change the facts of itās importance.
early-high or later on, the draft is as hard as a lottery pick. The Lions never have their chit together bro, as our owners seem fit to hire people that can barely tie their shoes , let alone operate a NFL football team; and they sure as hell canāt draft. YES they get lucky here and there over time but whiff far more often than not when picking for The team. many times? they donāt get it right and we just keep losing.
This team is in desperate NEED of beast players/talent. not glass made players that go out and stay out nursing Boo Booās . you hire chimps to draft and your team is left devoid of talent and wins.
but yeah āonce in a whileā they manage to get solid playersā¦but not nearly often enough.
We know, look at us saying take THIS guy and then the GM picks some WTF prospect and plays thee āsmahrtest guyā card. or they donāt realize HEY you just lost Aaron Donald or sum chitā¦ and chose Ebron instead.
I would rather be the team that wins more football games.
Every year people put too much stock in the first 5 or so picks and players that are scheduled to go there. Letās look at the 2014 draft because people have analyzed it to death already. Iām not even going to bring up Aaron Donald. Letās look at WR. That draft was considered WR heavy, but the real difference makers were seen as Sammy Watkins at the top followed by Mike Evans behind himā¦then a drop off. Thatās how fans saw itā¦like they do every year. Thatās also how the Buffalo Bills saw it, which is why they gave up so much to move up to take Watkins. We all know that Odell Beckham was a perfectly fine choice. But the Packers snagged Devante Adams at the back of the 2nd round, and the Jags and Dolphins grabbed Allen Robinson and Jarvis Landry with the final few picks of the 2nd round. Thatās not an outlier. Thatās how the draft works. There is talent beyond the first 5 to 10 picks every year. This year will be no different. But every year fans feel like the world is going to come to an end if we donāt pick in the top 5 or 10.
I admit I have NO idea who our GM will be orā¦what the guy IS good at, I can only hope itās not a Bob Quinn clone OR worseā¦this hire is crucial for further success of the team.
I wonāt know what heās done, what OA experience he has, was it a good hire or an awful oneā¦nothing.
when HE names a HC? same dealā¦Iām nervous as a cat in a dog pound. AND, I have no idea what will happen.
I wanna live long enough to see the Lions win a Super Bowl.
If losing a meaningless game at the end of a season helps them acquire a better group of talent in future years to get them there, Iām all for it. In two years, winning yesterday will mean absolutely nothing. NOTHING.
The next regime will not give a damn if they win or lost. The current staff for the most part, will be long gone from Detroit. It only matters to the fans.
You canāt trade out of 2OA if you donāt have the pick. You canāt pick from the 10 OA player to 15 OA if your picking 16 OA, without giving up capital to get to those picks.
Same as myself. Hope for the best. As a fan of the Detroit Lions, itās all we have. For as long as we are fans.
WR is an interesting choice. An article I was just reading showed top-10 WR picks have a slightly lower hit rate than 1st round WRs overall. So, coveting a WR in the top 10 is a teamās 1st mistake (right behind coveting a 1st round TE).
There is a higher likelihood of success in general the higher you pick. If you want my proof, look at any of the draft pick trade value charts that NFL teams follow. To no surprise, the #1 overall pick yields the highest return.
Picking high doesnāt make a bad team good. Thatās the real lesson. Itās not that thereās less value in a top-10 pick. The fact is, depending on the hands theyāre placed in, each pick can be of higher or lesser value, be it #1 overall or Mr Irrelevant.
For me, itās more about having the ammo to trade down.
The Lions need more picks. They can get more for #7 than they could for #14, for example.
I made a post earlier about a higher draft pick only being worthwhile if your GM/Coaching staff know what to do with said player.
You mention āthe same teams are always picking up topā. This isnāt entirely true, but letās presume it is. There are 3 reasons for that imo.
Kyle Van Noy was the example I used earlier. KVN was a good pickā¦for an organization that ran a 3-4. It doesnāt matter if the Lions had a better pick or not if thatās what they are going to do with their picks.
Aaron Donald is evidence that plenty of good players are available outside of the top 10. Being in the top 10 does NOT guarantee that the player will be successful.
Hopefully, the new GM/Coaching staff knows wtf they are doing and the higher pick this year will be beneficial to them in terms of landing a higher caliber player or being able to get more for trading down.
Personally, Iām already hoping they trade down. The Lions have a lot of work to do.
Regarding people wanting the Lions to W yesterday vs. Lā¦
Fans should always want their team to tank if BOTH of the following are true
So, I would argue that the Lions were in a better position to ātankā last year than this year. The difference between #11 and #7 doesnāt really, truly make a difference. Itās all about what the team does with the player they get in that case. I get why a lot of fans would rather have the W yesterday and am not all that passionate either way on yesterdays result. #7 will be better for trade value, but I just as easily could have enjoyed the W and the #11 pick.
The difference between #3 and #2 last year, however, was monumental. In that case, every fan should have been cheering for Lās.
there is a SET number of games your team has to play hopefully your QB is healthy -enough to play in ALL of them. To me? there is no āgarbage time/meaningless games.ā your team is expected to play-period.
In the offseason we CANNOT WAIT for football to start. When it does? Itās a bitch-fest. WE are angry because we have MORE games, OR that OUR QB ādaresā to finish out the season when heās able.
There is no whining about āmeaningless gamesā when it comes to Rogers, Brady, Brees, . Mahomes , or any OTHER QBā¦just ours. Itās always āStafford is a dumb SOB for playing the final games.ā
But you TRY to win EVERY game and try to help your team get more winsā¦this is why you play them all.
Weāve lost a ton of meaningless games at the end of seasons, and we canāt even pull off a playoff winā¦much less a Super Bowl.
Draft value charts donāt show you how the guys actually play the game of football. We want good football players, not some nebulous chart that says they should be better.
This is how I feel.
The team was more than capable of delivering Lāsā¦over and over and over again. We even managed to lose to the team who ended up with the pick in front of us. As of right now we are an answer to a trivia question, as we will go down as one of the only NFL teams in history that ever lost a football game to Dwayne Haskins.
You mean guys who are going to be playing in playoffs games and may sit an entire game or half to not risk injury in a game that will, not affect their playoff positioning?
Like Roethlisberger not playing yesterday? Like the Chief resting starters yesterday?
Yeah, never happens. They always play to win. Every game.
This is true in general, but if a team is looking to draft their next franchise QB, as we damn well should be, you really do want to be in the top 10. Itās not impossible to draft a good QB later, but teams sure donāt hesitate anymore on pulling the trigger early in the draft if a guy looks like a reasonable bet. Yet another thing thatās changed in the last decade as the NFL has gone all-in on the passing game.