MichiganCardinal

Quite the gamble they’re taking on arguably the worst QB in their division.

I think Hock has the ceiling to be a borderline top five TE in the league. I take his stats from last year with a grain of salt, considering both his injury and the fact that he was the only offensive weapon on the team until we acquired Reynolds and St. Brown emerged.

Kiper is the ultimate weatherman. Paid obscene amounts to throw shit at the wall without consequence when he is wrong 99% of the time. At least the weathermen have scientific backing.

I trust Campbell’s judgement on character. I think the jury is still out on Campbell regarding player development, but I have no doubt he is a good guy. If he thinks he and the team can work with Thibs, I trust that he can. If he doesn’t think he can, I don’t think anyone could.

A conditional 2040 7th round pick… the condition being that our selection has to be enshrined in Canton prior to 2040.

I actually like Jermaine Johnson a lot, and if the pick were at 10 instead of 2, I would be all aboard taking him. He legitimately could end up being the best edge rusher in this class. Taking him at 2 though screams "smartest guy in the room" to me.

I thought between the lines Campbell was a little more “party line” than it would appear by Birkett’s tweet (not Birkett’s fault he only gets so many characters). Campbell also mentions within the interview that if they feel someone (particularly Willis) is good enough, they’ll take them despite that desire for a day one starter, which I think is true. I don’t think they’ll take Willis at #2 though. I hope another team will though.

You could put Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady on this team and the ceiling would still be in the ballpark of .500. Quinn and his genius sidekick left us needing to find or develop somewhere around 16-19 starters, including every single position on defense, in order to compete for the playoffs. When Stafford wanted out, that added yet another. As you crawl out of that gaping lack of talent, if the QB of the team described above is not so incredibly bad that they are limiting the development of your young offensive core, they're doing just fine. Goff had his moments last year where he was bordered on being that bad, when he was playing through injury. He also had his moments though, especially towards the end of the season, where he looked considerably better than that very low bar. I would be (pleasantly!) surprised if Goff is the starting QB on the team that takes the Lions where they haven't been in 30+ years. That doesn't mean they need to rush to find someone to replace him at the expense of plugging one of those many other holes with an instant starter.

So many mocks are lazily slapped together, I put weight into very few of them. Those talking heads just plug-and-play with perceived needs and their master prospect list. Seldom does it take into account any actual insight as to the individual teams’ thought processes.

Where I’m at right now… Almost any trade down would get an A+… Hutch/Thib/Walker would get an A-… Willis would get a B-…. Hamilton would get a C-… A corner or any offensive lineman would get a D…. A trade up would get an F. Those are the names I’ve heard most.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that the NFL salary cap is a figment of our collective imagination used only as a talking point to help move the off-season along.

Maybe. Even so I think this is something I wouldn’t want to pull the trigger on until Draft Night. See how the board starts to fall.

I don't get New Orleans' angle if they're done with what they did today. The consensus is that the draft class this year is weaker than usual, so why do you trade away future assets for mid-first talent? Particularly when this far out it's difficult to say exactly who will be there? And when you are lacking a franchise QB and are clearly not in "win-now" mode. I think the only way this really makes sense for them is if it is a set-up for another move to go up and get one of Willis or Pickett.

Where are my six runs?

As others already mentioned, I’ve seen Tyreek Hill comparisons for Robinson. The height will scare people off, but a guy like Hill could be 5’6” with the separation he creates. And once you have the ball in his hands, height doesn’t matter. His game is not “just” speed, it’s agility and get-off that allows him to nearly instantly have a step and a half on his corner, and then make multiple defenders miss. You don’t put up numbers like Robinson did at Kentucky without being good. He was the only NFL caliber offensive weapon on that roster and was still getting open against SEC defenses. I think he is similar to Raymond in that he would quickly put Raymond out of a job, but the comparisons stop there.

I don’t think Robinson makes it out of the second round. I would take him with the 2nd pick of the 3rd round if we haven’t yet taken a WR. He’s got a WR1 ceiling if his speed can translate to separation at the NFL level.

I think there is a decent chance he doesn’t make the team. Likely depends on who is drafted.

Reading the tea leaves, this likely points the Lions away from Willis and towards WRs, Hamilton, or the field of edge rushers. I think most team moving up would be doing so for Willis, so I wouldn’t expect a deal to be done until after Jacksonville picks. (Otherwise leaving the door open to being jumped themselves).

I think this could be a real opportunity for MCDC to sell Detroit to the greater NFL players community before we start really looking to compete in 2023.

This. Don’t play into the Giants’ hand. They know that teams who want a QB next year will need to pay a fortune to move up to 1 or 2. They will very possibly be in that boat, as will the Lions. It’s smart of them to try to gain more assets in preparation of doing so. If the Lions can do the same with #32, they should.

Then he won't make the team out of camp. I'm sure they're not signing him to some mega-deal.

I don’t think Mayfield is that bad. I even think he’s slightly better than Goff on any given Sunday, though not by much. Certainly not enough to overcome the baggage that would come with him. And certainly worse than whatever QB I would hope the Lions take to be the next face of the franchise. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him do well somewhere though. He’s only a year removed from putting up 48 points on Pittsburgh in the wildcard round and nearly beating the Chiefs to go to the AFC Championship.

For all that was made about Thibs, it shouldn’t be overlooked that he was the consensus #1 overall prospect coming into this for a reason.

That's the nature of the NFL anyway. If you don't make the playoffs in three straight years, you're on the hot seat if you aren't fired outright. If these teams can't manage some success now, those 2024 and 2025 draft picks won't matter to those front offices anyway. Becomes a problem of the replacement regime.