Who Should the Detroit Lions Take at #1?

As bad as this franchise has been, surprisingly they have rarely been the worst. Picking #1 overall isn't as common as you would think for this franchise. Sure a handful of top 5 picks and even more top 10 picks have been there, but never #1 overall.

So...other than a trade down scenario which every single person who talks about #1 always says is their first choice, but occurs about once in a blue moon, who should the Lions take int he draft? Sorry no toll free to call. Just the comment form :).

The consensus is that the Lions will take Georgia QB Matthew Stafford. The Lions have never had a real good QB in my lifetime. Ever. The best single season a QB has had is the Scott Mitchell offensive outburst season where we had THREE 1,000 yard WRs. Remember who they were? Johnny Morton, Brett Perriman, and Herman Moore. Those were the days, and we didn't draft them all in the top 10 like the 45 ones we have since Millen was here.

Remembering Joey Harrington has a lot of people worried about taking a QB. Namely Stafford since many claim he is too inconsistent to succeed in the NFL. Only a Jr. as well. Pointing to his less than stellar completion percentage as well as his age brings up comparisons to all the other Jr. QB busts. Other than the rocket arm the comparisons to Ryan Leaf seem to come out a lot as bust potential,b ut he is nothing like him.

Then you have the other camp. The old "build the lines" camp. Now don't get me wrong. I consider DE, and OT the franchise building blocks most of the time although I also consider QB as the other one. It's the right thing to say when talking about building a team. Who do we have out there at #1?

Looks like there are 3 guys that are vying for the slot right now at OT. Andre Smith, who as recently as this week has lost a lot of credibility with his combine fiasco. Not being smart enough to make an excuse as to why he couldn't lift, and then missing 1/2 a day going AWOL. He was the consensus #1 OT for the majority of the Bowl Season and now is being questioned as even top 3.

Eugene Monroe made a run at the #1 slot, but it appears that Jason Smith out of Butler is making a very strong push for that top OT spot in the draft. An athletic OT, that was a TE before he became an OT. He is saying all the right things, has a reputation for hard work, and by far the most athletic of the 3. Of course all 3 have question marks. Mostly whether or not they are truly a franchise OT, or possibly just an OG.

There are also a few rumblings about there about DT B,J. Raji from Boston College. He has improved his standing significantly since the end of the season. We do NEED a DT very badly and it appears we aren't going to sign Albert Haynesworth :(.

Then we have the great Aaron Curry. OLB from Wake Forrest who is considered the "safe pick" in the draft. He is considered the bust-proof player this year, but can you take a LB #1 overall? Much less a guy that isn't even a MLB? I certainly have no argument for doing it. He'd be one of the highest paid LBs int he league, and although he is said to have the ability to play MLB, that is a pretty big IF for taking a guy #1 overall. Would I be upset with this? Not particularly, but I also don't see it happening either.

I've been on the Stafford bandwagon for a few months now. I think it is the way to go. While I take the criticism of him into account, I see a lot of talent here. I see a guy that is a bit a head of others who are touted as the next big QB. He has the rocket arm of course, but what makes him stand out to me is his ability to look off DBs, and go to 2nd and 3rd options better than any of these other guys. Bradford the Heisman winner is terrible at this. He stares his WRs down and looks like an INT machine in the making. Please watch him play and forget the hype on him.

I know a lot of people worry about Stafford, but that is who I;'m going with. I have no interest in Sanchez out of USC. I think he may have an average career int he NFL, but the guy just has way too many question marks. Many more than Stafford. He also is being touted as so great because of his ONE bowl game. Stafford is getting a lot of his negatives from his ONE bowl game as well, but we'll disregard that today. He only is ranked this high because the other 2 big names stayed in school in Colt McCoy and Bradford. HE was ranked behind all of them all season until all of a sudden he had a big bowl game and was the only other name QB in the draft.

I'm taking Stafford #1 overall and drafting defense the rest of the way. We have 2 OTs that aren't going anywhere as much as people want to wish Backus to the cornfield. He isn't going to play OG either no matter how badly we want to think it. We don't need O-Line as badly as people think we do, but we do need some OGs VERY badly. We take Stafford and ALL defense the rest of the way with maybe an OG thrown in, or a WR that hopefully can return kicks.