A few years ago I talked about wanting a Jones from Alabama(Julio) if he fell to us. Im in a similar situation this season. Barrett Jones the C from alabama has the looks of a top NFL lineman. He has the versatility to play just about any OLine position. I think the lions pull it together this season and finish with 8 to 10(gulp) wins and pick in the 16-low 20 range. Assuming they do centers usually dont go to high so that could be a great pick. I have not really seen any safetys I like in this draft or even CBs for that matter.

On an unrelated topic, it is upsetting to me how Jeff Fisher finds so many very good cbs in the late rounds. Jason McCourty, Courtland Finnegan, and Alterraun Verner were all drafted in the 6th or 7th round. Schwartz needs to get a spy to look at the CBs on his board lol.

Jones is obviously a very good O-lineman and I think id be happy selecting him. IMO, there would have to be a darn good safety or CB off the board first before Id consider an Olineman, even considering our need for a couple. And even though its way too early, and even though Jones is a very good VERSATILE lineman, i would hope we could find a TRUE, bonafide road grading guard. If Jones can be that, then im all for it. But again, there has to be a darn good reason that a safety or CB wasnt picked.

I will be happy as long as we go oline or defense. We had a chance at what they said was the best gaurd in like 10 years in DeCastro. I was surprised we didnt take him last year.

Well, other than his current injury, most reports out of Pitt are that hes struggling, so I dont think we blew that pick as far as that goes.

Early camp reports said DeCastro was struggling, but only with the consumption of their offense. As a one on one blocker, he was doing well. And he was going to be one of only four guys in the entire Pittsburgh history to start on the offensive line as a rookie in their first game. I think that says something about how he was viewed by the franchise and how well he was doing up until his injury.

Personally, I wanted the Lions to take DeCastro. I'm not sorry they took Reiff, but DeCastro would have been an immediate starter in my mind. Reiff and Broyles, as our first two pick, not seeing the field on a regular basis is kind of foolish to me. Your first two picks should be seeing ample playing time, unless you have a stacked roster. The Lions certainly do NOT have a stacked roster.

I agree with the acquisition of talent during the draft process, and that certain positions are given a "premium" over others. But I also feel that your first rounder needs to contribute almost immediately, unless they are a QB. Second rounders should be able to contribute as well. Third rounders and below should be developmental players and hopefully will add quality depth in areas where it is lacking. The Lions seem to target areas of need later in the draft process (linebackers and corners were needs), but didn't exactly do themselves any immediate favors with their picks of Reiff and Broyles. And I actually liked the ideas of selecting Ryan Broyles....but not until the fourth round. I think he was a reach, given his injury and our depth at the position.

Speaking of Broyles, and to support your opinion, why is he hardly on the field? He is healthy, right? We have guys dropping passes like crazy and we have the all-time leader in NCAA receptions sitting on the sideline. Something aint adding up. We better see a whole new Detroit Lions now that the bye week is done.

I don't think you'll get any disagreement about the Lions needing to build the interior OL. However, lots of GMs don't believe in drafting G or C in round 1, so I don't know if they'll target the "hot" inside lineman that we'll all be clamoring for in April.

It's probably not a great idea to get too enamored of one particular player in the draft anyway--you're just setting yourself up for disappointment since it's unlikely your favorite team will draft the exact player you dreamed about. As the draft nears, it will be great to talk about all the guys who would be a good fit in our offense but it's not like there's one magical lineman wo will take the Lions to the Super Bowl. Surely there will be several good interior OL in the draft who could help the team.

I understand the Broyles pick, but it was a case of timing. Broyles will be a great slot receiver, but the problem is Nate is already performing well there. If Titus continues to slouch, I'd be fine sliding Nate outside, but they still have faith in Young at the moment. With that said, Broyles isn't 100% and he's not big enough to do what Sheffler can do as far as a chip block before going on his route.

M2k is right, the 1st and 2nd rounders need to contribute immediately, so that makes it a wrong pick for this year. We might think differently down the road, but not now.

The value of interior offensive lineman has seemingly gone up the past few drafts. We have begun to see more and more guards and centers coming off the board in round one and early round two. Getting worked about about a particular player now is not in the Lions cards, nor any other team. And from a fans perspective, we will always be looking for the next great addition to the roster, especially when they are under achieving like the Lions are now. I don't think that the Lions "targeted" Nick Fairley or Riley Reiff in the last two drafts. There were two guys that basically fell into their laps. Both were predicted to go much higher than what they did. Personally, it's looking like the Lions would have been much better off having drafted Robert Quinn or Jimmy Smith than Fairley. As much as people spoke of character concerns about those two players, Fairley has turned out to be a worse person and even less of a talent than those two.

I think Best Player that fits a need will end up pushing Safety over Oline, but wouldn't be against a guard early. All depends on how early.

It is hard to say at this point what way the franchise should go. We have a lot of pieces that are either free agents this year, are likely not going to be with us next year, or who are under performing thus far.

Defensively we could be in the market for starters at as many as 9 spots. Offensively, we need have issues on the OL if we ever want to be able to run the ball.

Posted Sept 6th in the other thread: