if instead of letting Millen draft any players in his 8 years as GM and we simply traded our picks for draft picks the following year(s). Using the standard value it would look like this:

1st traded for two first (following year and the year after)
Every other round would just be a round higher the next year.

We'd have almost 200 1st rounders in 09 and 10 drafts EACH and a whole crap load of other rounds. ally... we would own a WHOLE draft. Instead... to show for it we have the records for being the worst team(s) ever and a handful of players to show for it. WE could have drafted a WHOLE new team and had no idea what to do with the rest of the picks but to capitalize on trading them for next year.

Obviously this would take a bit of "perfection" to accomplish this because you'd have to find trade partners and eventually no one would have any first round draft picks to trade you... but I think I made the point.

MORE EGGNOG!

Sorry to hijack your post, but I had an "Imagine if..." moment too.

Imagine if Matt Stafford had stayed at Georgia for one more year and had the same senior year that he did his junior year. Would he still be the #1 QB this year? Would Jimmy Clausen or Sam Bradford be taken ahead of him??

Then we probably would have drafted Sanchez...

That said... I think Clausen would/is the favorite over all three players. I think Bradford could have been, but I think his injury and lack of playing time/progress/tape is going to hurt his draft stock. It will probably work out better for him though... The further he drops the better the team he will go to... and... GOOD TEAMS MAKE GOOD QBs!!!

No hijack, I was hoping we could start a thread with things like this. I'm glad someone else added.

I really wonder how things would turn out. We would have Sanchez.

Imagine if:

Fans could just be happy with the QB that we got and that he has his rookie season over with already so that we can get on with the business of fixing the rest of the team.

Preach it Billy. Im all in.

Sims, I'm totally happy with having Stafford. It was just a mental experiment for all of those who wanted Jason Smith or Aaron Curry at #1 last year instead of Stafford. With the way that Bradford hurt his stock by staying another year, as well as Colt McCoy looking pedestrian, I'm happy with having Stafford opposed to those two or Jimmy Clausen.

Had the Lions gone another way last year we'd be stuck with one of those guys and very well may have won less games this year then we did.

The only question, albeit premature, is would Stafford be the overall #1 pick in this draft?

If it was a question mark last year it wouldn't be this year. Stafford this year would still on skill-set and intelligence assuming good to great play would be by far the best QB in the combine. With the Rams having first pick, it would be a no brainer specially with another college year under his belt. The only reason that he wouldn't get picked 1st is if we picked up Sanchez and didn't have the Browns win, then Suh might go first.

But I also think Clausen would go first and as much as I think Clausen would a great Pro the ceiling is just so much higher I think with Stafford (though admit-tingly his floor is quite lower as well.)