SideLion Report » 2011 » April » 22

“Playoffs or Bust”: That’s not Reality

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 21:00:40 +0000

There is a feeling among a lot of Lions fans that is concerning. I have heard it on the radio and every time I hear it I cringe. It is a feeling of expectation. People saw the improvement last season and just expect that improvement to easily continue in 2011. The expectation is called “playoffs”.

It is a mistake to call the 2011 Detroit Lions season “playoffs or bust”. It would be incredible and of course I would be thrilled to see them in the playoffs. There are bigger things to get done this season though, and I want to see them continue to build this thing for many seasons and not just this one.

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Detroit Lions Mock Draft Database Tries to Find a Consensus

Zac Snyder — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:22:24 +0000

It has been a while since I compiled a Detroit Lions mock draft database so I thought it was time to give it another look now that the draft is less than a week away.

Like I mentioned earlier, mock drafts do have some use, especially when the sample size is increased. It is said that an infinite amount of monkeys with typewriters will eventually reproduce a work of Shakespeare if given an infinite amount of time. We’re running short on time and we definitely don’t have an infinite amount of monkeys but I have produced a list of picks from 73 recently updated mock drafts.

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Mock Drafts are More Than Just Fun and Games

Zac Snyder — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:10:55 +0000

The SideLion Report Mock Draft was unveiled in early January and has seen several revisions since that time. Is it worth the time that Scott Bischoff has put into the various iterations? I think Scott will tell you it has been simply for his own satisfaction as a self-titled draft nut. An article posted to the Washington Post’s website yesterday confirms that mock drafts serve a purpose beyond fulfilling the cravings of various football bloggers and beat writers.

The article quotes Redskins’ general Manager Bruce Allen regarding the role mock drafts play in their preparation for draft day:

We’ll get into how we would react if certain things happened. A lot of times, we will pull a few mocks off the Internet and say, ‘If these three things happen, what would we do? If we have this phone call come in, what would we do?’ We play the fantasy draft, so to speak, the three days before the draft.

No mock draft will be perfect, although some are definitely better than others, so it doesn’t make sense to read too much into any single mock. Sites like the DC Pro Sports Report Mock Draft Database help give a singular exercise a broader perspective. The 362 mock drafts they track (of which ours is one) helps to identify trends that offer the most realistic look possible. It won’t ever be perfect but mock drafts have their place in the modern NFL draft process.

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