Lions 1st draft pick
Many of the experts, and also the Lions front office are raving and ranting about how the Lions need to take Matthew Stafford with the first overall pick. They talk about how the QB is the prime position in all of sports and that if the Lions want to turn their franchise around, that they need to sign someone to be the face of their franchise. I will agree with a couple of those comments. Yes, I do believe that the NFL QB is the prime position in all of sports. It doesn’t matter how crappy the QB is, everyone knows your name. I also agree that the Lions need to turn their franchise around, but I am pretty sure that anyone who pays attention to football would agree to that. When you go 0-16 for the first time in NFL history, you need to turn your franchise around.
Now what I don’t agree with is that they need to turn it around as quick as possible and make drastic moves. We can look back to the drafts of the last decade and can count numerous draft busts, especially at the QB position. Stafford has been in high regard ever since he was recruited out of high school. I don’t doubt that the man has potential, but so did Alex Smith, Kyle Boller, and Matt Leinart. However in the last two years, the first OT picked has dramatically helped their new team. The Dolphins were 1-15, drafted Jake Long, and (with the help of FA pick-up Chad Pennington) made the playoffs the next season. Go back one more year, the Browns opted for an OT over a highly touted QB. The Browns were still able to get that QB later via trade (which is maybe what the Lions should do with their other 2 picks in the first 33 overall selections), but they didn’t even use Quinn that year and had their 3rd string QB at the time (Derek Anderson) lead them to an impressive 10-6 season that was unfortunately not enough to get them a playoff berth. That success could be directly related to the improved offensive line that Joe Thomas gave them.
Lastly, getting Stafford (even if you let him sit the pine while Culpepper runs the show for half a season) does not fix anything if he still doesn’t have time to get the ball to Calvin Johnson. The Lions have been in the top 3 for most sacks allowed for the last 3 years. They average 56 sacks a year for the last 3 years. In that 3 year time, they have accumulated 10 wins. Thats right, 10 wins in only 3 years. The Chicago Bears however, with nothing more than an average QB have won 29 games in the last 3 years, and averaged 32 sacks per year. Do you see the correlation here? If the Lions want to seriously improve their team, then they need to draft the best value for their money in Jason Smith and not take a chance and roll the dice with Matthew Stafford.
On a side note, unless the OT move works for the 3rd time in 3 years, the Lions will likely have a top 10 pick next year as well, which means they will have their shot at Sam Bradford or Tim Tebow, two QBs who are in higher regard by most than Matthew Stafford.
Conclusion: draft Jason Smith, be smart, and how about maybe even using your 2007 QB draft choice Drew Stanton. He has barely been used, and will be a lot cheaper to use than Stafford will.
