The kindest way to articulate my feelings on what the Lions did over the weekend's draft is to refer to it as "Millen-esque." Drafting two tight ends, a running back, a wide receiver, and a quarterback is not quite the move toward the bigger, stronger team we were promised months ago. Matthew Stafford reminds me a lot more of Tim Couch than one of the Manning brothers.
Somehow, as the draft concluded, I felt as though nothing had changed. Rather than find talent that can make an immediate impact, Mayhew and Lewand have seemingly drafted to purchase extra time for themselves. It will be two years before we can call this draft a bust, giving them more time to be employed and mismanage an NFL franchise.
It seems to me that successful teams build from the inside out. They bulk up their lines, improve their defense, then focus on skill players. How Lions management missed this lesson escapes me.
I couldn't agree more. Look at the Pistons. Your theory worked for them. I don't know much about sports, but you have to build a culture of confidence, before some can step-in and ensure, and build that confidence even greater. No one man is an island, if that were true, the Lions would be doing a lot better, they have Jason Hanson, argueably one of the greatest athletes, and natural born leaders. He is part of the team, he practices with non-traditional means, he's on the line running sprints, and drills along side everyone else. He expects no special treatment. Maybe he lacks the empowering speach but he certainly leads by example. You can only point someone out like him so much before everyone else is sick of being compared to someone so perfect. But it's true, if one person can fix a team, I don't feel confident they made the right decision. I don't know if this year was the year to say, HE WILL FIX IT. I agree with you, they should have built up some core competencies first, before putting the cart before the horese.
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