3. Love what Detroit did. The night before the draft, in Vegas, Aidan Hutchinson’s sister, Aria, said as the pre-draft pressure was getting to everyone in the family: “Please, please, please let him get picked by Detroit!” Think of that. When’s the last time someone has wanted a loved one to go to the Detroit Lions? Night Train Lane? Joe Schmidt? The Hutchinsons live near Ford Field and are close, granted. But if they didn’t believe that the Lions had a chance to escape their hellhole, they’d never have been begging for Aidan to land there. The Lions felt similarly. After the Jaguars picked Travon Walker number one, the Lions told the league the pick was in, and it was Hutchinson—within a minute of the Walker pick. “We turned the card in so fast the league got mad at us,” said one Lion official.
I know it’s not great for the TV show portion of the event, but it’s a smart strategy.
The Lions have had months to think about this. The number of hypothetical scenarios is extremely small. If they had felt out the trade market in advance and knew there was nothing there, then why wouldn’t they move fast?
Two names. Send up the top one that Jax doesn’t take.
What’s to deliberate? Give other teams less time to think about things.
I still can’t believe the Jags passed on Hutch for another DE. So fortunate for us.
The Lions were fortunate former 49ers GM Trent Baalke was still the GM there (surviving his hiring of Urban Meyer). Could it be that he hates Jim Harbaugh so much that he didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of having a Michigan player under Harbaugh drafted No. 1 overall and was looking for an excuse not to draft Hutchinson?
This may have been posted elsewhere, there’s so much to go through and plenty of bourbon this weekend, but this is The Call from Brad. Hutch finds out before they even announce the first pick…
I just love this big young man!! And staying by his roots in the state will only help him even more!
Home grown baby!
I’m not a fan at all of the immediate card turn in. It’s like you are going above and beyond to prove you got exactly what you wanted. Well, that’s like having to prove you are smart. If you are, you just prove it over time. It’s possible all the homework was flushed out and that no one was dealing and we wouldn’t accept anything (foolish). But it sort of seems like a theme as the same thing happened at other points further down the draft. There is nothing to prove. Wait out your time and maybe the 31 other teams that were all trading picks all over the place, makes a fatal decision when given more time to outthink themselves. I just think it’s bad strategy that has zero benefit, (at most showing that prospect how much you loved them 
) yet absolutely tangible downside.
If Aidan Hutchinson was the No. 1 overall player on their board, there’s no reason to wait.
If the Lions were picking lower, your point is better taken.
The Lions have indeed been fortunate the last 2 years at the top of the draft… Having Sewell fall to 7 and Hutch not go #1 will (hypothetically) greatly benefit Detroit for the next decade.
I think it’s more baalke is trying to recreate the defense he had in San Francisco. I’ve read he views Walker as the new aldon smith. What he doesn’t realize is that without Vic fangio you’re not recreating that defense.
I hate waiting , after the Jags “dropped the ball” with their pick , Our staff knew who they wanted-probably for a week in advance, I believe Hutch was ‘their guy’ and when The Jags slipped we jumped into action…before anyone could trade up and decide to take Hutch before we could. that’s how trades were made the deals, but then teams waiting until the last minute to actually pick THEIR pick. Hell no they got to blab for a half hour OR slap up another commercial …when they come back? usually another 30 seconds before they pick-then-they pick…I hate that shit.
Nobody can jump on us because we knew what the hell WE wanted AND Hutch was there to cherry-pick.
Personally I don’t have anything against it. I feel it shows that a coach/decision/organization (whatever the case may be) are doing what they want. And not doing something because someone else wants them to do something else.
But I am the kind that don’t worry what others feel about me. So maybe that plays into it too.
Unless someone decided that they HAD to have player X at 2OA and after sweating it out for awhile, caves. Remember when Dorsey had to talk down Brad Holmes from giving up resources to move up to take Levi?? That is the sort of stewing that goes on, so what is the benefit, at all of NOT waiting to see if anything unfolds? “Maybe” “most” GM’s “knew” T Walker was going 1OA. But I really doubt it. Something tells me that there was a layer of teams who “could” have been that Holmes sweating it out for player X, that if that tick tick tick had a chance, then “maybe” something unfolds. I like Hutch. I do not think he is such a great prospect that you give him the Joe Burrow treatment. Especially at this stage in the rebuild. If we end up with two more round one / round 2 level starters and KT, I’m happier with that. Perhaps at 2OA those fine with how we did it have a point. But that point goes away further down the draft, when we were still sprinting picks up there, for zero benefit to our team IMHO of course.
Even later in the draft, I think there are benefits to moving decisively.
When you’re negotiating with the same group of people time after time, establishing one’s self as no-nonsense has distinct advantages.
I personally hate the “play coy until the last minute” game when there’s a business deal on the table, and I take Hombell to operate the same way. They’re telling the league, “We’ve got our shit together and know what we’re going to do with our picks, so don’t jerk us around. You want to talk? Come early and seriously with your best deal.”
Better to turn the pick in early than not turn it in at all like the Vikings!!
Doesnt hurt to take your time. Maybe someone offers 3 1st rounders to move up.
I love “Truth” over “Tradition” here!
You can what if it all your life as one poster has pointed too
Or
Have some balls, have some conviction in your team, scouts the process and yourself…
I fing love it: be true to you and your family firsthand then the the rest…
We knew this was the best option period: roll with it baby!
I’m sure I’m victim of selective thinking, but it seems we’ve had fortune fall our way recently with Hutch, Penei, and Kwesi-assisted Jamo.
Didn’t that actually work out for them though? Other than egg in face? Like Bryant McKinney at a lesser cost than slotted and he was pissed but got over it?
That’s my point. If you are Usain Bolt to the podium do you really know if there is someone out there twisting with a decision, trying to act a certain way for appearance sake, but inside the room it being like Dorsey/Holmes/Levi? No, you don’t and you don’t give them any time to make a mistake, which again IMO bad strategy. Another point is trades don’t stop when someone is on the clock. During that time you just gave up by sprinting to the podium, OTHER teams could be making positional moves that PROMPT another team to act when that wasn’t the case the split second after your time begins.