It’s rare that one sees a fan base in near-complete unison in support of a draft. And yet, over at SBN’s Detroit Lions blog, Pride of Detroit, fans have stood behind this draft in impressive fashion: when polled, roughly 96% of respondents gave the Lions’ draft either an A or B (two voters out of over 1800 gave the draft an “E”; we assume that’s for “effort”).
Lions Blog: ‘Lions Addressed Big Needs’ With Draft
Author Sean Yuille lauded the overall efficacy of the draft and the Lions’ ability to get as many starters out of it as possible:
As far as the picks go, the Lions addressed their big needs at defensive tackle, running back, and cornerback with the selections of Suh, Best, and Spievey. The rest of the picks also addressed needs one way or another, but they are more developmental guys than players that can come in and compete for a starting spot right away. Suh obviously will be expected to start from day one. Best could start right away if Kevin Smith isn't healthy, but even if he doesn't start, the former California Golden Bear will be somebody who is on the field in a variety of ways to make plays. Finally, Spievey could take some time to develop much like DeAndre Levy did last year (both are Big Ten guys taken in the third round), but since the Lions aren't exactly set at cornerback, he may be forced into the starting lineup much quicker than Levy was.
[...] The Lions controlled 14 different picks in this year's draft over the last year or so. They only ended up using 6 of those picks to draft players because 4 picks were traded directly for players already in the league, 3 were traded to make the Jahvid Best deal possible, and 1 was traded for a higher future pick. Taking all of the picks the Lions have held into consideration, this is what their 2010 draft looks like if you break it down by which picks were actually used and which were dealt.
- Round 1 - #2 - DT Ndamukong Suh
- Round 1 - #30 - RB Jahvid Best (to move up from #34, the Lions gave up that pick, swapped fourth-rounders, and gave up the 220th pick)
- Round 3 - #66 - CB Amari Spievey
- Round 4 - #128 - OT Jason Fox
- Round 5 - #133 - OG Rob Sims (from Seattle)
- Round 5 - #146 - DT Corey Williams (from Cleveland)
- Round 6 - #171 - CB Chris Houston (from Atlanta)
- Round 7 - #209 - S Ko Simpson (from Buffalo)
- Round 7 - #213 - DE Willie Young
- Round 7 - #220 - Sixth-rounder in 2011
- Round 7 - #255 - WR Tim Toone
When you look strictly at the list above, the Lions used picks from this draft to acquire one player who has already started for the Lions (Simpson), four players who are expected to start for the Lions in the future (Suh, Sims, Williams, and Houston), two players who could very well start for the Lions in the future (Best and Spievey), a few developmental players (Fox, Young, and Toone), and a pick in next year's draft. All things considered, I'd say that's a pretty damn good draft when you take into account how all of the picks were used in the grand scheme of things. Say what you want strictly about the six picks from the last few days, but altogether the Lions ended up with 10 new players and a future pick on top of that.
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