It is painfully obvious that the lions need some depth and talent at DE. Our system asks the DE to line outside far enough to funnel plays inside. I feel that requires shorter DE with some burst. Essentially we are probably going to go after those DE/OLB Hybrids that 3-4 teams covet. However we will have a narrowed search because we need them to be able to play DE not OLB.

Graham uses his height, or lack of, to his advantage by getting under tackles and creating pressure and anchoring the run. He is also a hard worker. Graham would allow us to move Avril to RE again. Grahams lack of height will also make him drop down the board making him available most likely at some point in the second.

Your Thoughts?

I brought him up earlier as a consideration in the 2nd rd and I was pretty much alone on that even though I still say he looks very similar to Woodley back then....

Stallion, I disagree with you about Schwartz wanting shorter DEs. In Tennessee, their entire DL consisted of taller players, but that may have been what Fisher wanted instead. With that said, look at the DEs that the Lions signed or claimed off waivers this year. All of them have been atleast 6'2". If Schwartz truly wanted shorter DEs, don't you think he would have signed atleast one of them?

As for Graham, I like the guy as a college player, but I think he lacks the explosion to excel in the NFL. Sure, he'll make a team and probably become a solid starter, but I can't see him ever becoming an elite pass rusher. He ought to be decent against the run and get maybe 5 sacks a year, but that's about it.

Aka Jared DeVries

Schwartz's big thing was not running a scheme so I don't think that what Tennesee runs pertains to us.

The reason I think that we are leaning towards smaller DE's is I feel our DE are smaller. Our DE average size is 6'3 265lbs. Also, Schwartz and Gunny said the are using allot of 34 principles in our 4 front. We line our DE up a good distance outside the OT which to me seems like smaller, more explosive DE's are of greater use. Short height cna be an advantage if you are stout and have a good rip (basically what Harrison lives off of in Pitt). I could be wrong though.

i see graham becoming a very good nfl player - he is explosive and is nothing like devries

Graham, I think, should definitely be an option for the Lions. I'm not at all concerned about height. Graham is built a lot like Dwight Freeney. It looks like there are a lot of decent DE prospects in the upcoming draft: Hardy, Dunlap, Graham, Hughes, Kindle, Wooten, Selvie, and it is likely that a good one could be available near the top of the second round.

I am beginning to wonder if Graham was nursing an injury earlier in the season, because he seems much more explosive off the ball now than in the first two or three games. He had a pretty strong game against Iowa.

Or maybe we should look at his entire body of work rather than making claims after 2 games...

Really? I thought he was an absolute beast against Western Michigan, at least. He was up in Hiller's business every other play. He just didn't register any sacks because Hiller has a killer release, but I thought that Graham had a huge impact in that game. I felt that his early season was just filled with a lot of near misses on sacks and now his string of bad luck is over.

S&C... Did you notice that he was on the sidelines for a lot of that game? I agree with your assessment, but he missed a lot of snaps that game. I couldn't tell if Rich Rod was pulling him when we were ahead, or if he was pulling him for some other reason. WMU did a MUCH better job of moving the ball when he wasn't in there. RR would take Graham out, WMU would get down to the 20 or 30 yard line, RR would put Graham back in, and they would generally stop them at that point. I just don't know why he kept coming in and out of the game...

I was at the game today and noticed something Graham definatley needs to work on. He really need to get going once the ball is snapped. He took himself out of the play a few times by not even getting out of his stance.

i saw him come out of his stance real slow a couple times also

Brandon Graham really hurt himself today at the Senior Bowl weigh in. He measured in at 6'1" and 263 lbs, which is actually nearly an inch taller than I thought he was. The problem is that his arms measured in at only 30-1/2 inches long. Several teams will drop him from the 1st to the 2nd, or even from the 2nd to the 3rd because of it. With that said, all it takes is one team to draft him based upon his performance instead of his measurables, so I really don't know where he'll go now.

I'm scared of how he'll transition. The guy was a stud on college and by production should get drafted in the first. But I still feel like he won't be able to translate that success to the NFL.