Honesty is so 20th century. Stop that. You really need to learn how to reframe the past to your advantage. It’s not that hard. Find or make up an asterisk and lose the conscience…
I on occasion lie to my wife. Just this week at sushi she asked me, “Am I boring you?” and I responded “of course not.”
The truthful response would have been, “for you to bore me wouldn’t I have needed to be paying attention.”
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On Patricia’s chin.
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While I did like Tua out of college, I would have likely passed in him.
I like my QBs over 6’2" and a bit meaty if possible. But the taller the better. Under 6’2" is a concern and every inch is a bigger and bigger concern. It dictates different drops and the whole Oline set up changes. I also call BS that he is 6’1".
Tua has also been very injury prone.
I would have never drafted Okudah. I really feel like a top 10 pick should almost always be a player that will be involved in every play when on the field. So for me that eliminates WR, RB (somewhat), S (somewhat), Corner, and LB and TE are both out for me. I want an Oline, Dline, or QB based on impact to every play. And I get that there will always be exceptions for players that are can’t miss (Charles Woodson for instance). But as a general rule I like to try to focus on the positions that are effecting every play when on the field.
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I think there were others, but both @thats2 and I wanted to take Tua and call Grier’s bluff. I still think he would have blinked.
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I agree he is all of these things. And it seems very smart.
He is also brittle as heck. And this was known coming out of college.
If he could play without getting hit, he would be amazing…LOL Of course Rogers would still be playing football this season also.
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I will be a bit surprised if he is still in the league in 5 years.
It will be 100% due to injury. He seems to be everything you would want in a QB. Smart, accurate, that IT factor. He is just a bit undersized and injury prone. And another concussion and he may call it regardless. Which it seems impossible that he does not get crushed more than a few times this season.
Tua played great but I’m so over all the Chargers hype. Up 27-0 in the playoffs and you lose? You just don’t forget that kind of performance. Just feels like there’s something wrong with that team.
Tua’s meh. His WRs? Phenomenal. There’s probably 15 or so QBs who would put up absolutely insane stats with those two split out. Look at what Stafford did with no-namers. Now give someone like him Hill and Waddle.
It’s fun to play “what if,” and in retrospect, both Tua and Herbert look like excellent picks for a bad team. But it would NOT have worked out for either of them here, and would have still resulted in disaster. Here’s why:
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Tua wouldn’t have been drafted by Miami. He would have been drafted by Patricia and Quinn–among the worst possible “brain trusts” in the NFL.
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Along those lines, if we HAD drafted Tua, he would have either been totally ruined by Matt Patricia, or he would have showed just enough promise to keep Quinn and Patricia in their jobs. Ugh… no thank you.
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Also along those lines, a big reason Tua looks so good is the team Miami has assembled around him. Why would anyone think Quinntricia could create something comparable here? If they could, there would be no need to draft Tua in the first place–they would have just built around Matt Stafford and won with him.
That’s the bottom line for me: anything we might get from Tua (or Herbert) we already had with Stafford, and we still sucked giant balls. The only way to get better was to get rid of Quinntricia, and Okuda was big step in making that happen.
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I don’t necessarily agree.
If we’d been forced to keep Tua (i.e., we couldn’t force Miami or LAC to trade for him), he would have sat the whole year behind Matt anyway. The end result wouldn’t have been much different. And don’t forget while he would have been surrounded by the Quinntricia staff his rookie year, one of those coaches was none other than Ben Johnson.
He would have stepped in as the starter after we traded Stafford and brought in Holmes and Campbell. I don’t know if we take the Rams deal if we already have a QB, but that’s beside the point. I also believe we would have built around Tua’s strengths just like we did Goff. We have a smart GM.
And while Tua is absolutely in the best spot a QB can be in, don’t take away from what he brings to that offense as well. He’s insanely accurate, he makes the quickest decisions in the league, and they’re right 99.9% of the time. Watch how fast he gets the ball out. Watch the tiny windows he’s throwing into. The guy is legit talented, despite being surrounded by crazy talent.
It reminds me of Burrow at LSU. He was throwing to Chase and Jefferson, saying he wasn’t good because of it would have been shortsighted.
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Concussions are like the pro sports version of herpes. Ain’t going away.
Worse, they have an cumulative impact. And then there’s CTE, which, of course, is the worst possible outcome.
Players are better off tearing ligaments than having a concussion history. Surgery can enable them to walk just fine into their golden years. CTE will likely prevent them from ever getting there.
If Tua’s smart the very next concussion ought to be the time to hang em up. Not worth it for a millionaire with his whole life in front of him.
/public service announcement
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There’s a limit to how much energy I’m willing to devote to arguing about complete hypotheticals, but I think this read is wrong. Quinntricia specifically took Okuda instead of one of the QBs because they had a clear mandate to “win now.” The only way they would have taken a QB–especially if they were planning to sit him for a year–is if they had some assurance they’d be able to stick around long enough to actually benefit from that pick.
There is no viable universe where Quinntricia is allowed/willing to draft the Lions QB of the future AND the Lions clean house and bring in Dan and Brad a few months later. The housecleaning was a direct response to Quinntricia selling out to win and falling on their faces (again), and all steps Sheila took in response to that–trying to get to the bottom of why the Lions keep sucking, bringing in Spielman as an advisor, looking for specific kinds of new leaders to build the right culture. All that was a direct response to Quinntricia’s unmitigated failure, including in their final draft class, and does not happen without it.
I don’t really get the Tua or Herbert discussion. Patricia and Quinn were on the hot seat, they needed to win that year and had Stafford. Taking the QB of the future when you need to win now to keep your job just was never going to happen.
Obviously Okudah was a disaster, but having Tua hold the clipboard behind Stafford wasn’t going to help us win that year.
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Oh, I agree about this. There was zero chance of us actually taking or Herbert, despite what some of us wanted to do on here.
It’s just in the hypothetical event they had the stones to make the best move for the franchise, this is how I think it would have played out. I think we would have been drafting Tua/Herbert with the intention of forcing Miami or the Chargers hands. So to me he only ends up on our roster if they don’t blink (and I still say they would have). So you have to be willing to accept the consequences (Tua on our roster) if you make that move, and like you I knew that was never going to happen.
But I believe they still would have been frantically trying to save their jobs if we failed to entice LA or Miami, hence Stafford over a rookie.
I agree with all of this. As far as I can tell Tua’s last official measurement came in at 6’-0.5". I care more about hand size and it came in over 10 inches.
This was an older model of thinking. There’s nothing wrong with it, but it doesn’t speak to the impact players have on the game on any given play. Calvin was involved in every play whether it was a run or a pass. So was Randy Moss. Those guys dictate coverage and change how the other team can/will play defense. That’s huge. I bring up WR specifically because if you added WR to your list…you would be in alignment with the Eagles and Howie Roseman. In the 1st round they will only draft offensive lineman, defensive lineman, quarterbacks and wide receivers. There are a few “LBs” sprinkled in, but those were “edge” guys. The only times they have deviated in recent history are:
2002 - CB Lito Shephard (they went DB with all 3 of their first 3 picks that year)
1990 - DB Ben Smith (who?)
1988 - TE Keith Jackson
1986 - RB Keith Byars
1983 - RB Michael Haddix
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Talk to me at the end of the season if Tua doesn’t suffer multiple concussions.
For his sake I hope he stays healthy to get that 2nd contract so his dad and family can reap the rewards of their son’s sacrifice.
For sure my approach is a bit old school. But it feels new school for the Lions…LOL.
I did point out that there are exceptions to this idea. As I would absolute look to deviate if my analysis came back that the player was a can’t miss type.
Listen the Lions have been murdering the draft. So I guess I would just ask myself “Would Brad Holmes draft this player…???” 
We differ in how many positions are “off limits” in the 1st round but we still view things the same. TE is completely off limits for me…no exceptions. I am only willing to make a rare exception at RB. The kid better be special and either attract TONS of attention from the defense (young Zeke) or be able to do something other guys can’t do (Christian McCaffrey).
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