they could go a number of ways with the pick. its hard to say which needs we will fill in FA and trades vs the draft. Bowers could be a force on the DL for years to come and you could argue that the best possible scenario would be to fill gaps so that there are no true immediate needs allowing you to take the best player at an impact position LT/DE/QB.

If there's no rookie cap, then the top three picks can only be used on DEs, WRs, QBs, and LTs (and maybe, maybe RBs but I think the odds of this are less and less every year) due to money concerns. This is why top picks are so hard to trade away.

Occasionally, like last year, other positions can be taken, but only if the guys playing these positions are absolute studs. And for this upcoming draft there are none of these guys. There is no one at LB, S, CB, C, or G even close to being worth the 2nd pick. You can make a case for Patrick Peterson, but the obvious comparison there is to Pacman Jones, and he went #6--not #2. The ideal pick would be a LT, but there aren't any great ones coming out this year. So it comes down to Bowers or AJ Green. I think they'd opt for Bowers.

If the Lions practice what they preach, BPA will be the selection. I think it's painfully obvious that, as you said, " we need linebackers, corners, safety, center and guard." But if none of the top 5 or 6 players fits our positional needs, it would be foolish to reach. I have high hopes that this will finally be the year we can trade back. With Luck, Newton, Locker as potential early first rounders, as well as an abundance of D-line talent in Bowers, Quinn, Fairley, and Heyward, just to name a few. With the depth that we have at DT and DE it seems like they wouldn't consider adding to it. But, Avril is a res. free agent. McBride is fa as well I believe, and KVB is approaching the twilight of his career.
I could see adding a DE if there are no other options. I haven't seen Bowers or Quinn play, but I have seen Fairley a couple of times in the last month, he looks like the real deal. Avril played great on Sunday and has had a pretty good season, when he has played. May be that I'm being to critical, but I'm not as high on him as others. So, if the Lions are stuck at top 5 on d-day, it might be a no-brainer.
Mayew has done a impressive job of remaking the roster, and Schwartz has them playing hard every game, nuf said.

As fans who follow a team like we all do, BPA is kind of a frustrating approach to take for us. We all see the holes on this team, and we want them to be filled. Unfortunately, as we've all seen, draft positioning affects the position we can take in round 1. Of course Mayhew is a BPA type of guy, they're always picking in the top 5! They have to pick those guys! It would be great if we could take a WLB with our first pick, but are there any that are top 5 material? Nope. I like Akeem Ayers, but not at #2. Is anyone going to really want to trade up to take..... nope. Stuck.

Da'Quan Bowers looks like a man out there. I'm just afraid we're going to get this years version of Carlos Dunlap. Immense talent but with rocks in his head. (He does have 4.5 sacks this year, though)

As far as trading, there is only 1 top 5 QB IMO (Locker had looked 1st rd, but is really struggling this season) so our best hope is that if Carolinagets the #1 pick.. that they think Clausen is going to be their QB leaving Luck at #2 allowing us to trade to at least later in the top 10. Cardinals anyone?

i think the stock on players like mallet and locker will rise as we get closer to the draft. panthers are nuts if they stick with claussen over luck

Erm forgot about Mallet. Luck is by far the top Dog though. Very impressive.

There's no way I can see anyone other than Luck going #1. Jimmy Clausen was a second rounder, so they aren't really in for too much money on him anyway. With 3 potential first rounders and a handful of teams wanting/needing a QB, would anyone be desperate enough to move all the way up to number 2 to take Mallett over Locker? The teams below have QB needs, as far as I can tell, not all, though, will want a first rounder.

Carolina (Clausen, Moore, Pike)
Buffalo (Fitzpatrick)
Arizona (Anderson, Hall)
Cincy (Old Palmer who can't throw the deep ball anymore)
Seattle (Old Hasselbeck, Whitehurst)
SF (Alex & Troy Smith)
Minny (Tarvaris Jackson)
Jax (Garrard's could definitely be upgraded)
Tenn (VY burning bridges and the corpse of Kerry Collins)
Miami (Henne hasn't proven anything, Pennington done-zo)
Wash (Watch McNabb get cut after this year)

I think Buffalo will roll with Fitz. I dont think he is their issue (i dont think hes a probowler, but def not their issue).

Seattle picked whitehurts (current admin) as their future QB and gave up a lot for him. Why would they draft someone else 1 year later?

To paraphrase:
If you don't have a franchise QB on your roster and you have a chance to get one, you go get him.

Just because the current admin picked Whitehurst, doesn't mean they think he's their franchise QB

I wouldn't want to roll with Charlie Whitehurst as the leader of my franchise. But that's just me. If John Schneider wants to do it, that's his deal. From an outsiders prospective, I'd say they should take a QB. Whitehurst started once this season, week 9, a 41-7 beatdown by the Giants.

I agree with both of you.

Considering that they traded for whitehurst, and give him a decent contract, I'd guess they dont draft a QB.

If a new CBA with a rookie wage scale is in place by the draft, the Lions will have their best opportunity to trade down in years. That's what I'm hoping for. While I would still like to draft Peterson, I'd be just as happy with Prince a few spots lower. He's probably the better all around CB at this point, but Peterson has the most upside. If they drop out of the top ten completely, then they could be looking at any number of positions including LB, DE, CB, or OT.

i dont mean to single you out wayneO, but the last time i checked most scouts have patrick peterson ranked as the second best player in the draft. i think they are a little more qualified than any of us to rank players what they should be ranked. for any who say there isnt any worthy cbs to go top 5. scouts inc on espn has peterson graded at 98. who was the last corner to get that high of a grade? as a matter in fact they have peterson as having the same draft grade as andrew luck. which says thats they believe patrick peterson is the andrew luck of cornerbacks.

Oakland should probably be on that list