Reaction To Lions Draft? 1st Round thoughts

I think it is safe to say that most fans were scratching their heads for all 3 of the picks in the first 2 rounds of the draft. After a couple days many have come around like they always do, but many just think that taking Fairley was something they couldn't pass up, while the other two of WR Titus Young and RB Mikel LeShoure were more of a head scratcher. Let's take out the utility knife and cut into the picks.

Let's go with the main complaint first that the Lions drafted to strengths and more or less passed on positions of need through the first 2 rounds. The 1st pick of Fairley we can all see that if it pans out makes our DL just all that more dominant, and literally feared around the league as extremely dangerous. Fans of other teams reacted this way right off the bat and the NFC North fans were even more worried about the combination of Fairley and Suh in the coming years.

We didn't get a LB in the first 4 rounds of the draft, but look at it this way. With the dominant front four we are going to have there would be very little needed to convince a "name" LB like Tulloch that he could put up career numbers behind these maniacs. Besides drawing more attention to FAs we are actually going to get better play out of lesser LBs playing behind these guys. While having a stud out there along with them would be incredible, we improved the LB core either way. Now it is just easier to sign guys that we know will start day 1 in FA.

There are a lot of naysayers that REALLY wanted to draft the CB from Nebraska, Prince Amukamara. Our own DROY Suh wanted his old teammate more than anyone. I haven't heard his reaction to this pick at all, but I'm sure he will get over it if Fairley pans out.

I really don't know what to make of a lot of the negative thoughts on Prince that came up leading into the draft. Stats that made it look like he was a bit weaker than some of the later guys that would get taken such as Harris that we could have also drafted in the 2nd round. The Giants decided to take them both so I guess they wanted to lower risk. Mayhew was a defensive back in the NFL so there must have just been something about him that he wasn't convinced of, and that Fairley was the best player they could get. He was definitely one of our top needs while Fairley seemed more like a luxury pick to many.

The Lions had no thoughts that Fairley would be there when they drafted. They felt it was a gift from the draft gods, although many teams passed on him for attitude and laziness. These are red flags, and you never know what the league is trending to year to year in drafts with problem players.

This year seemed like there were a lot of teams that shied away from any player that had negative character issues of any kind. Ryan Mallet the best QB in the draft in my opinion, and maybe the 2nd best CB in the draft of Jimmy Smith both fell like bricks. Smith went to Baltimore with some real mean bastards and Mallet went to New England. Both places that I would consider very good situations for problem players to go and get the supervision they need. Teams with solid leadership.

We have to hope that Fairley will benefit from guys like Kyle VandenBoesch and even Suh to keep him in line. If he can learn the NFL from guys like that he could be a serious talent in the NFL and live up to the top 5 talent that some said he has. Only time will tell, but I am quite excited to see if this works out and can't complain one bit.