This topic was inspired by this post:
For me, it’s not even close.
Ndamukong Suh.
I’m not a huge college guy, and I’m definitely no talent evaluator. But I did see the Big 12 Championship where he absolutely dominated.
From that moment on, I was a Suh guy. I was so excited when the Lions picked him.
Ndamukong Suh is a close 2nd. And I mean close. 1st has to be waiting to see who JAX selects, leaving us Hutcjinson.
I wanted both Calvin and Suh.
Very happy we got them.
Love them.
Love all our greats.
Now?
Im excited for all of our draft picks…
I really am…
We drafted you…
Prove us right…
Boss Bailey
Andre Ware.
I never really got over that one.
Barry Sanders.
No one else is even close.
After watching him literally destroy the Texas offensive line in the bowl game with 4.5 sacks, I was sold. But he wasn’t Barry.
That’s a tough one. There’s several picks I was excited about but none of them stand out as one singular one.
Swift, Jamo, and Terrion were probably the most exciting ones. Penei and Hutch were really cool but we knew those were probably going to happen so there was less excitement at the time of the pick for me.
Stafford for me.
I spent a lot of years watching the Lions run mediocre (at best) QB’s out there. I was ready for a real one.
Probably Ndamukong Suh. I was really excited about Jack Campbell, and Brian Branch.
2002, and on was when i started getting into the draft. Rarely did the Lions ever pick the guy I wanted in the first…lol.
I remember I hated the Calvin Johnson pick. I wanted Patrick Willis. But it was mainly because I was sick of Matt Millen picking WR’s.
I didn’t know a lot about him prior to the draft.
I know this topic is about most excited draft picks, but my gosh this topic has me thinking about all the draft picks I hated. This team has been so disappointing for so many years there weren’t a lot of draft picks to get excited about. And the GM’s like Millen, and i hated Mayhew.
Most hated ever was Ebron. 2nd worst draft for me was 2009. I loved the Stafford pick, but then they drafted Pettigrew, and Delmas I was so upset. They needed OL help, and there was some fine OL players available like Mack, Oher, Wood. At that time to OL needed help, and it was like how are you going to spend your #1 pick on your franchise QB, and give him a billion dollars (no rookie wage) and not draft players to help him? So bad.
Sewell. It was like winning the lottery. Our mocks here never had him as an option because it was assumed he was gone. Hutch is up there, too, just behind CJ.
I was pretty stoked about Decker, too, and Tomlinson.
Picking 1, though, it’s Sewell over all the rest.
Thinking back, it’s crazy how many OL have been favorites of mine, including Cherilus. I think those Barry vs Emmit years did a number on me.
Guys like Barry, Calvin, Suh, Stafford, Hutch were obvious picks and the most likely for the Lions to take so it was more of a formality so I was happy with the picks but I sort of knew they’d likely be Lions for weeks/months leading up.
Excitement for me is when your team lands a guy that going into the draft you figured there was no chance they’d get and that’s Arnold for me. I figured he’d be the target if Holmes traded up but I thought for sure that he’d be out of trade up range. When he kept dropping I was screaming for Holmes and when he did then I saw Arnold nodding his head in the draft room, I was elated.
I really really believed Matthew Stafford was going to end Bobby Lane’s curse. So I was most excited about him. Around the same time, Calvin and Suh too. Thought we were on our way.
After that, I have two really strange ones. At the time, I was very excited, but both of them failed miserably. In Barry’s later years, he had a really poor OL. Being a trenches guy anyway, I was really excited about two giant OL - Juan Roque and Aaron Gibson. Ugh, neither lasted very long.
Another one my wife still kids me about is Larry Warford. I was whooping and hollering because it was so long before that since the Lions drafted a player I really wanted.
Man there has been so many. Mine might be Charles Rogers.
I was nervous about him flaming out and had preferred Monroe. LOL. The OL affinity is real. LOL
You knew. At the time, my research on draft picks didn’t go much beyond height and weight, LOL.
Edit - ahh, you were talking about Stafford, not Gibson/Roque. Comment still holds, even if its a non-sequitur.
Brian Calhoun
I think we spend the most or nearly the most on OL, but it still doesn’t seem like enough.