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Since 1980, the Lions have drafted 12 quarterbacks (Stafford is 13). The highest QB rating any of them has had with the Lions is 95.0. Unfortunately, this QB is Drew Stanton, who has played a total of three games with the Lions. The other QBs and their stats with the Lions:
1980 - Eric Hipple (Utah State) 102 games - 68.7
1982 - Mike Machurek (Idaho State) 4 games - 8.3
1984 - John Witkowski (Columbia) 5 games - 58.0
1986 - Chuck Long (Iowa) 23 games - 64.8
1988 - Danny McCoin (Cincinnati) 0 games
1989 - Rodney Peete (USC) 47 games - 72.9
1990 - Andre Ware (Houston) 14 games - 63.5
1998 - Charlie Batch (Eastern Michigan) 48 games - 76.9
2001 - Mike McMahon (Rutgers) 20 games - 55.0
2002 - Joey Harrington (Oregon) 58 games - 68.1
2005 - Dan Orlovsky (Connecticut) 12 games - 71.3
2007 - Drew Stanton (Michigan State) 3 games - 95.0
What do all these quarterbacks have in common? A few have had decent NFL careers. None have been the answer for the Lions at quarterback. I have not researched other teams draft picks since 1980 (that would be a lot of work), but I doubt few, if any, teams have come anywhere near this level of futility over the past 30 years. So excuse me if I don't have high hopes for Stafford. Tamales.
Showing posts with label NFL Draft 2009. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NFL Draft 2009. Show all posts
Friday, May 1, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Pleasepleasepleaseplease
Lions GM Martin Mayhew has already stated numerous times that he wants the deal with the first overall pick done before the draft tomorrow and luckily for those of us who do not feel that Stafford is the answer to Detroit's woes, a deal with Stafford remains unfinished as of Friday afternoon. To be honest, all signs seem to point towards Stafford still being the first overall pick in the 2009 draft - even Curry thinks he will be - but it's still a glimmer of hope.
It's not that I feel as though Stafford is a "bad" player, it's just that he is maddeningly inconsistent and wasn't as productive as I feel he should have been in college with the ridiculous amount of talent around him. Plus, if you whiff on your high first round QB pick, you get the Alex Smith-effect and your franchise is killed for a minimum of three years. I see the upside in Stafford (and, admittedly, it is tremendous), but I just don't agree with taking a very risky player at an already risky draft position for a franchise that needs anything but more risk at the moment.
Another thing that not many people seem to be talking about is the fact that next year's QB draft class projects to be very strong. Trying to guess how college players will perform in the upcoming season in April can be a dangerous prospect, but no matter how well the Lions draft this year they will, most likely, still be pretty bad this upcoming season and get another high draft pick. Then if you're not sold on Stafford at first overall, it's pretty enticing when you see names like Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy entering the NFL next year. The Lions have so many gaping holes that they really just need to take the best player available right now and build for the future.
In Miami, The Tuna took the Best Player Available in last year's draft (OT Jake Long) and relied on a vet as a stop-gap at QB while grooming Henne as heir apparent. Culpepper seems motivated enough to be passable while the team searches for its real franchise QB of the future.
If negotiations fall through with Stafford, reportedly a deal is already in place with Curry. How does a Julian Peterson, Ernie Sims and Aaron Curry linebacking core sound? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Although I have been a proponent of taking Jason Smith first overall for a while, the OT class this year is so ridiculously deep that the Lions could easily still get a quality left tackle with the 20th pick in the draft.
No matter what happens, the day before the NFL draft is an exciting time. Between rumors flying (Patriots want to trade into the top 10, the Cards' asking price for Boldin has gone down, Andre Smith and Mark Sanchez draft stock soaring, etc.) and the uncertainty of who is going where... it is a good time to be an NFL fan.
Edit:
I was just watching NFL Live and Cris Carter suggested that the Lions take Sanchez first overall and then trade up from 20 and take Andre Smith. Whatever you do Mayhew... don't do that.
It's not that I feel as though Stafford is a "bad" player, it's just that he is maddeningly inconsistent and wasn't as productive as I feel he should have been in college with the ridiculous amount of talent around him. Plus, if you whiff on your high first round QB pick, you get the Alex Smith-effect and your franchise is killed for a minimum of three years. I see the upside in Stafford (and, admittedly, it is tremendous), but I just don't agree with taking a very risky player at an already risky draft position for a franchise that needs anything but more risk at the moment.
Another thing that not many people seem to be talking about is the fact that next year's QB draft class projects to be very strong. Trying to guess how college players will perform in the upcoming season in April can be a dangerous prospect, but no matter how well the Lions draft this year they will, most likely, still be pretty bad this upcoming season and get another high draft pick. Then if you're not sold on Stafford at first overall, it's pretty enticing when you see names like Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy entering the NFL next year. The Lions have so many gaping holes that they really just need to take the best player available right now and build for the future.
In Miami, The Tuna took the Best Player Available in last year's draft (OT Jake Long) and relied on a vet as a stop-gap at QB while grooming Henne as heir apparent. Culpepper seems motivated enough to be passable while the team searches for its real franchise QB of the future.
If negotiations fall through with Stafford, reportedly a deal is already in place with Curry. How does a Julian Peterson, Ernie Sims and Aaron Curry linebacking core sound? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Although I have been a proponent of taking Jason Smith first overall for a while, the OT class this year is so ridiculously deep that the Lions could easily still get a quality left tackle with the 20th pick in the draft.
No matter what happens, the day before the NFL draft is an exciting time. Between rumors flying (Patriots want to trade into the top 10, the Cards' asking price for Boldin has gone down, Andre Smith and Mark Sanchez draft stock soaring, etc.) and the uncertainty of who is going where... it is a good time to be an NFL fan.
Edit:
I was just watching NFL Live and Cris Carter suggested that the Lions take Sanchez first overall and then trade up from 20 and take Andre Smith. Whatever you do Mayhew... don't do that.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
I Expect to Cry Myself to Sleep on April 25th
With the Combine behind us and most of the important free agency deals signed (questions remain about currently under-contract players such as Boldin and Julius Peppers, however), the NFL offseason is marching towards its crescendo that is the NFL Draft on April 25th and 26th. Only the pro days, which begin in the upcoming week, remain. Now granted, the pro days will be extremely important for a number of players (Crabtree, Andre Smith, Malcolm Jenkins, etc.) but most of the work is done and all of the tape has been viewed multiple times.
The question that seems to be on everyon's mind is, "Who will the Lions take with the first overall pick?" Unfortunately, the answer appears to be Stafford. All signs seem to indicate that the Lions plan on drafting a QB. After Kitna was traded to the 'Boys (Jesus-loving Kitna should be an interesting addition to an awesomely screwed up locker room atmosphere) and Orlovsky was allowed to go to the Texans, the current Lions QB depth chart reads like a bad, bad joke: Daunte Culpepper, Drew Stanton, Drew Henson. Unless Schwartz is planning to throw Stanton into the thick of it next year or make a last-minute bid for one of the FA QBs still out there (Garcia, Leftwich or JP Losman), I sincerely boubt that Mayhew and Schwartz are planning on rolling with Culpepper as their starter.
Unfortunately, the relationship between Josh McDaniels and Cutler appears to be on the mend so the train has left the station as far as the Lions having a shot at Cutler. On a side note, the Broncos fanbase that is mostly lambasting Cutler needs to get a life. Cutler is easily a top-10 QB and one of the league's true rising talents. The good people of Denver were spoiled by having Elway for so many years. So what if Cutler was a little miffed at management for trying to trade him? I'd be mad too if a new coach was hired and less than a month into his tenure his first major act as HC was to try and dump me out of town.
This man is trying to beat out Lane Kiffin for the "HC Wrecks New Team In Shortest Amount of Time As Possible" Award
At least some Denver fans are reasonable.
The problem is that the Lions have such a dearth of talent at nearly every position that any single draft pick is unlikely to affect huge change by himself. The answer then? Build a solid framework based around the offensive and defensive lines. First of all, there are some excellent OT prospects this year - Jason Smith and Eugene Monroe arguably being the standouts - whereas the QB crop is regarded by many to be overrated, dangerously inconsistent or just plain inexperienced. Any QB they drafted would likely be killed due to the ineptitude of the epically terrible joke of an offensive line the Lions coaching staff would trot out anyway, unless the O-line gets some much needed help. But hey, that whole "throw the young QB to the wolves with no O-line" worked out really great for David Carr... right? Oh, woops.
It was disturbing when I was trying to come up with a list of strong points for the Lions - positions at which I deemed the Lions needed less/no help from the draft - that I was only able to come up with a few names. Obviously Calvin Johnson is the diamond in the rough that is the Lions. Ernie Sims has now put together 3 strong seasons at OLB and is unquestioningly our best player on defense. Kevin Smith showed a lot of heart last year, rushing for almost 1000 yards despite questionable decisions by the coaching staff to keep him out of the starting lineup and having one of the worst offensive lines in NFL history be his blockers. Along the way he cared only for the team and never complained when he was benched in favor of Rudi Johnson, despite performing relatively well. Cliff Avril is another player that has earned himself more playing time next year (5 sacks in limited action in 2008). Corey Redding may deserve to be on the list since he was been pretty solid throughout his career, but he may just not be big enough to act in the Haynesworth-type role that will be asked of him when Schwartz implements his 4-3 desensive scheme (Redding listed at 295 lbs / Haynesworth 320+) .
The secondary is also in shambles, but the DB group in this year's draft is relatively weak. Malcolm Jenkins especially had an extremely disappointing combine. With the acquisition of the fairly solid Anthony Henry (168 tackles, 9 ints and 39 PD from 2006-08) from Dallas and an adjustment in the overall defensive philosophy, I believe the secondary is not the best area to address with an early pick.
With all the help that this team needs, it seems obvious that the best pick to make the team as a whole better and more secure for the future is a dominant OT (J. Smith / Monroe) or, perhaps, Aaron Curry.
I know, I know... I just blathered on how the last thing the Lions need is to take a skill position player with the first pick, but Aaron Curry may be special enough to make an exception. All hinging on whether or not they could successfully switch him to MLB (with Sims playing weakside OLB). Aaron Curry is that Calvin Johnson-esque freak of an athlete that comes around so rarely. Considering Calvin qualifies as one of the few picks that Lions management has made that has actually worked out (in fact, worked out really, really well), then perhaps it is worth it to adopt the policy that the team is so unbelievably bad and needs so much help that the best course of action is to just take the best player available.
The FA pool the Lions could draw from the offseason was virtually nonexistent. Believe it or not, players don't want to go to an economically-ravaged city and play for a team coming off an 0-16 season. Weird, huh? To have any chance at improving in the upcoming years, the Lions need to have an extremely strong draft this year. Mayhew started his tenure off the right way by robbing the Cowboys. Now it's time to make another strong move and plan for the future by taking either Jason Smith, Eugene Monroe or Aaron Curry witht he first overall pick in the 2009 draft. My personal choice would be J. Smith, but I would be happy with any of them.
That said, I fully expect Stafford to be suiting up for the Lions next year and it makes me cry.
UPDATE:
Make this happen Mayhew. Make. It. Happen.
The question that seems to be on everyon's mind is, "Who will the Lions take with the first overall pick?" Unfortunately, the answer appears to be Stafford. All signs seem to indicate that the Lions plan on drafting a QB. After Kitna was traded to the 'Boys (Jesus-loving Kitna should be an interesting addition to an awesomely screwed up locker room atmosphere) and Orlovsky was allowed to go to the Texans, the current Lions QB depth chart reads like a bad, bad joke: Daunte Culpepper, Drew Stanton, Drew Henson. Unless Schwartz is planning to throw Stanton into the thick of it next year or make a last-minute bid for one of the FA QBs still out there (Garcia, Leftwich or JP Losman), I sincerely boubt that Mayhew and Schwartz are planning on rolling with Culpepper as their starter.
Unfortunately, the relationship between Josh McDaniels and Cutler appears to be on the mend so the train has left the station as far as the Lions having a shot at Cutler. On a side note, the Broncos fanbase that is mostly lambasting Cutler needs to get a life. Cutler is easily a top-10 QB and one of the league's true rising talents. The good people of Denver were spoiled by having Elway for so many years. So what if Cutler was a little miffed at management for trying to trade him? I'd be mad too if a new coach was hired and less than a month into his tenure his first major act as HC was to try and dump me out of town.
This man is trying to beat out Lane Kiffin for the "HC Wrecks New Team In Shortest Amount of Time As Possible" AwardAt least some Denver fans are reasonable.
The problem is that the Lions have such a dearth of talent at nearly every position that any single draft pick is unlikely to affect huge change by himself. The answer then? Build a solid framework based around the offensive and defensive lines. First of all, there are some excellent OT prospects this year - Jason Smith and Eugene Monroe arguably being the standouts - whereas the QB crop is regarded by many to be overrated, dangerously inconsistent or just plain inexperienced. Any QB they drafted would likely be killed due to the ineptitude of the epically terrible joke of an offensive line the Lions coaching staff would trot out anyway, unless the O-line gets some much needed help. But hey, that whole "throw the young QB to the wolves with no O-line" worked out really great for David Carr... right? Oh, woops.
It was disturbing when I was trying to come up with a list of strong points for the Lions - positions at which I deemed the Lions needed less/no help from the draft - that I was only able to come up with a few names. Obviously Calvin Johnson is the diamond in the rough that is the Lions. Ernie Sims has now put together 3 strong seasons at OLB and is unquestioningly our best player on defense. Kevin Smith showed a lot of heart last year, rushing for almost 1000 yards despite questionable decisions by the coaching staff to keep him out of the starting lineup and having one of the worst offensive lines in NFL history be his blockers. Along the way he cared only for the team and never complained when he was benched in favor of Rudi Johnson, despite performing relatively well. Cliff Avril is another player that has earned himself more playing time next year (5 sacks in limited action in 2008). Corey Redding may deserve to be on the list since he was been pretty solid throughout his career, but he may just not be big enough to act in the Haynesworth-type role that will be asked of him when Schwartz implements his 4-3 desensive scheme (Redding listed at 295 lbs / Haynesworth 320+) .
The secondary is also in shambles, but the DB group in this year's draft is relatively weak. Malcolm Jenkins especially had an extremely disappointing combine. With the acquisition of the fairly solid Anthony Henry (168 tackles, 9 ints and 39 PD from 2006-08) from Dallas and an adjustment in the overall defensive philosophy, I believe the secondary is not the best area to address with an early pick.
With all the help that this team needs, it seems obvious that the best pick to make the team as a whole better and more secure for the future is a dominant OT (J. Smith / Monroe) or, perhaps, Aaron Curry.
I know, I know... I just blathered on how the last thing the Lions need is to take a skill position player with the first pick, but Aaron Curry may be special enough to make an exception. All hinging on whether or not they could successfully switch him to MLB (with Sims playing weakside OLB). Aaron Curry is that Calvin Johnson-esque freak of an athlete that comes around so rarely. Considering Calvin qualifies as one of the few picks that Lions management has made that has actually worked out (in fact, worked out really, really well), then perhaps it is worth it to adopt the policy that the team is so unbelievably bad and needs so much help that the best course of action is to just take the best player available.
The FA pool the Lions could draw from the offseason was virtually nonexistent. Believe it or not, players don't want to go to an economically-ravaged city and play for a team coming off an 0-16 season. Weird, huh? To have any chance at improving in the upcoming years, the Lions need to have an extremely strong draft this year. Mayhew started his tenure off the right way by robbing the Cowboys. Now it's time to make another strong move and plan for the future by taking either Jason Smith, Eugene Monroe or Aaron Curry witht he first overall pick in the 2009 draft. My personal choice would be J. Smith, but I would be happy with any of them.
That said, I fully expect Stafford to be suiting up for the Lions next year and it makes me cry.
UPDATE:
Make this happen Mayhew. Make. It. Happen.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
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