Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Brandon Pettigrew

A lot of people were upset with this pick from the Lions in the 2009 draft at #20 overall. A Tight End when people wanted that offensive tackle still sitting there in Michael Oher who is the popular pick because every loves his attitude and determination. A great story of coming up hard and willing himself to be good enough to get to the NFL rather than be robbing Outer Banks homes, or some other silly troubles.

I wasn't particularly upset at all actually. I rather liked the pick. The guy was by far the best TE int he draft and we haven't had a real TE in decades. Waht I liked most about him wasn't that he was an offensive catching threat, but that he is a superb blocker in both the run and pass game. He becomes more or less a dual threat for the team. A guy that can move the chains as a safety valve because he does have those skills too, but more importantly a guy that can move defenders out of the way in the run game as well (Pettigrew started 45 of 47 games at Oklahoma State, recording 216 knockdowns with 30 touchdown-resulting blocks).

I could talk about Pettigrew all day, but the draft report at CBS.com for him is superb. I found the "Game Analysis" sections particularly interesting as it gives a brief recap of his performance in every game he played.

We Get Excited About Larry Foote in Detroit

Yes...the Detroit Lions faithful are so desperate for a real middle linebacker that we are excited about getting Larry Foote at the end of his career. He was released by the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburg Steelers yesterday, and was heard actually saying that he would like to play for the Lions.

Foote is from the Detroit area and played some ball for the Wolverines. Compared to Paris Lenon I think I could be an upgrade at MLB so this is a good move for us if he comes cheap. It would give us a starting LB corps of Ernie Sims, Larry Foote, and Julian Peterson (acquired via trade this year). Not too shabby considering what we've had in the past. Too bad out D-Line is still garbage, but the football gods were not kind to us by giving us the golden DE, or DT in our draft at #1. Raji is a 3-4 player BTW in case you are thinking we could have taken him. We run a 4-3 ;).

So...we get overly excited for a guy closer to collecting social security than making a pro bowl, but we should be I guess. Someone that actually says they want to play here? Now you have to wonder about his sanity.