Keep your eye on this guy, Margus Hunt (6-foot-8 and 277 pounds). He might just be our next DE.

http://walterfootball.com/seniorbowl2013interview.php

He was a guy at the start of the year on my radar but he left a lot to be desired. He's a poster boy for the motor running hot and cold. He's going to have to go to a team that can get him to leave it all on the field and that isn't this coaching staff. He can play in 4-3 but will be better suited for a 3-4 or a Raven's style mixed front look.

Fisher, the LT from CMU, is soaring up draft boards because of his reportedly awesome showing in Senior Bowl practices. Did he he just become an option at 5?

He was already projected as top 15, I don't think he has shot up to #5 yet.

Pat Kirwan says that Fisher has Joe Thomas abilities.

Yeah--a lot of people are saying he might surpass Joeckel on the big board.

I highly doubt that's the case. Joeckel is not just the #1 LT, but the #1 player in the draft right now. He may elevat himself into the first round, but not the first overall pick, or the first OLman off of the board, IMO.

I just hope the Lions don't get "cute" and pass on proven talent for someone that they liked in the Senior Bowl. Last time we coached this damn game we had a horrible draft.

Agree.

Though Fisher may be shooting up boards, it doesnt change my opinion of us drafting Bjoern Werner.

It could just be a smokescreen, but all indications to me suggest that we're going to draft Dee Millner, no matter what (unless he's gone, of course, but I don't see that happening).

Ya know, at 5 Id be a little disappointed because I think that is a little too high for Milliner, but in the end it would fill a hole (or at least we think it will).

I just think if Werner is there, we should take him (not to get off subject). I think Avril is as good as gone, KVB is only declining, and the coaching staff keeps saying this D-line is the backbone of this defense, we cant let the D-line be a weak point. With Suh/Fairley at tackle, we gotta keep the unit strong.

I too think it's too high for Miller, but he's a 4.38 away from being a top 10 pick. I have the same fears about drafting Millner as I do about picking any DE, I don't trust our guys to actually take the best guy on the board. We have a horrible history of drafting someone that gets radically outperformed by a pick 20 picks later. Maybe it's just the way we groom our players, maybe going to the Lions is what's holding these guys back? Who knows, but it's uncanny how often we take someone with X pick, and 1-20 picks later someone takes someone at the same position that is markedly better than our guy.

Also, I do think DE is a more important position than CB. If we're drafting the first one off of the board, why not take the more important position of need? I'm still not sold on Werner. IMO he looks like a Kampman... Great motor, great energy, great effort, but there are probably better athletes in this draft at the same position. Who knows? Maybe I'll be proven wrong at the combine.

That said, if we pass on Joeckel my support for this team will be on lifesupport, at least until Mayhew is gone. Joeckel is the one player that makes nearly our entire offense make sense (we'd still need a #2 WR, but that's not that big of a deal). He's a plug in bargain at LT for the next 5-7 years, and he's a franchise guy. IMO he's the single no-brainer pick on the board, and I would consider moving up to get him. I'm sorry, but Reiff is no LT. I think he could be a good RT, but he's not a blind-side, pass protector capable of taking on guys like Peppers. There's flat out no way. Keeping Backus another year seems to me to be another year of decline on our OL. We'll get worse, not better upfront and we desperately need an upgrade. If we don't trade up I won't be as disappointed, because we do have a number of holes (it's not like we get value out of our later round picks anyhow, though), but if he's there and we pass on him, that's a different story.

Id be ok with Joeckel over Werner if it came down to it, but id be more ok if we went Werner over Joeckel. I completely understand your point WJB, but I really believe this organization has full intentions of Reiff being out LT of the future and would take Werner or someone else over Joeckel. I see your point, but dont see it happening.

KDS, I agree with you completely. I think the one saving grace for Mayhew and this team is that 1) Gos is a FA, 2) Gos hasn't exactly earned the RT spot, and 3) Reiff would be a good fit over there. Reiff could save us $2-3 mill a year for the next few years replacing Gos, and Joeckel could save us around $5 mill a year for 2-3 years replacing Backus. It's a good situation all around.

That said, I would not be shocked if Mayhew's stubbornness got the best of him, and we plug Reiff in at LT at all costs (and they will be huge, IMO... Like... Peppers ending Staffords season huge...). I'm just hoping that isn't the case. IMO Reiff is flat out not an option at LT in 2013, not to start the year, anyhow.

BULLSH!T... that's all I have to say about that.... Last time all it did was allowed Schwartz to over-think things, pass on guys we should have taken and save the "need" for a "later round steal" that he coached in the Senior Bowl. I think those idiots would do better listening to Rick Gosselin.