I am a little sick of hearing the links people are making between Barry Sanders and Kevin Smith over the college rushing records and the fact that they will both play for the Lions. Barry Sanders was 1st overall; Kevin Smith was 1st overall of the 3rd round.
I wanted to wrap up the draft talk by reviewing how the Lions could have won the Super Bowl by now with a few draft adjustments.
2002 was a horrible year for QBs. David Carr, Harrington, and Patrick Ramsey were the 3 QBs taken in the first round. If they took a WR that year, such as Stallworth or Javon Walker, and lost a few more games, they would have been all set to take Carson Palmer in 03 with the first overall pick. They could've gone defense that year and had their pick of Quentin Jammer, Roy Williams (the good one), Dwight Freeny, Albert Haynesworth, Ed Reed, etc.
Their 2004 draft was good on paper - I remember being excited about Roy Williams, Kevin Jones, and Teddy Lehman. I can't fault them that Jones didn't turn out and Williams is a primadonna. 2005, however, was a complete defensive draft - they missed out on Shawne Merriman, Derrick Johnson, and a number of other defensive stars.
I heard a lot of sportswriters slam the ridiculous system of handing out draft grades - their argument was that drafts need to be evaluated 3 years after the fact. I agree, but who out there was analyzing the 2005 draft results? Ok, so I was because I am lame and spent way too much time on the draft this weekend. Dallas (DeMarcus Ware, Marcus Spears, Marion Barber) and San Diego (Shawne Merriman, Luis Castillo, Vincent Jackson, Darren Sproles) had the best - and look at their performances now. Lions deserve an D- (Mike Williams, Shaun Cody, Stanley Wilson, Dan Orlovsky).
I'm done trying to think I am smart by evaluating things in hindsight.
1 comment:
I don't think anyone is saying that Kevin Smith will be Barry Sanders-esque, just mentioning the coincidences. If he's half of what Barry was, I'll be ecstatic.
On draft day I spent a lot of time looking at the old drafts, too. I guess that makes me lame as well :). Looking at the Lions' 05' draft compared to the Cowboys makes me want to cry...if only we had a real GM and not a pretend one.
Post a Comment