Mel, and a lot of people even I haven’t heard of, love the lions draft

Wow, that was some RIDE; the ride being the first two rounds of the NFL Draft last week.

I just can’t get enough of the rave reviews that we’re getting from all angles. I think I’m going to wallpaper my man cave with them. Mel Kiper was quoted ” Detroit hit home runs all over in terms of value.” “Nick Fairley at 13 is perhaps the steal of the draft.” On TV, he’s quoted as saying that the Lions got the best value of ANY freakin’ pick in the entire draft with Mikel Leshoure. C’mon Mel, which pick IS the envy of the NFL?? USA,USA,USA!

Todd McShay of ESPN wrote that “the Lions slam dunked their first three picks.” Did you hear that sound? that’s the sound of the rest of the NFL gasping. Rob Rang of CBS sports noted “It doesn’t get much better than the Lion’s first three selections.” His colleague Pete Prisco’s Best Pick: “I love first round pick Nick Fairley, he was the top player on my board.” After the Fairley pick, Boomer on ESPN said during the draft, “They’re going for greatness on one side of the football.” Is there a heart defibrillator in the room?

Rick Gosselin, of the Dallas Morning news, someone who even Kiper aspires to be as correct as in his mock drafts, the only guy that correctly predicted Fairley going to the Lions at 13, told Mike O’Hara of Fox Sports Detroit that “drafting Fairley was like getting Ndamukong Suh and Gerald McCoy in the same draft-and that Fairley is better than McCoy.” USA,USA,USA! Maybe I’ll find a female with a nice soothing voice and record all of these glowing testimonials to the Lions draft prowess and play them over and over as I go to sleep at night.

Did I mention the the Lions also got the most explosive receiver in the draft with Titus Young? I know a lot of you were screaming for corner and linebacker help, but the Lions badly needed a third receiver that knows what the end zone looks like. Even though the Lions were ranked 12th for the most yards passing, they were a horrid 4th LAST in the league with a 6.3 yards per attempt. You read that right, 6.3 yards per ATTEMPT at throwing the ball. That’s great if you’re a running back, almost Mikel Leshoure’s average in college, but not for a team that aspires to make the playoffs. Now, defenses won’t be able to track Calvin Johnson like he has a GPS device planted in him. USA,USA,USA! Hey Derrick Williams, don’t be surprised when you report to camp and your locker has been moved next to the door with an exit sign hanging over it.

I never imagined that Nick Fairley was even a remote possibility. I was so stunned when they took him that when I commented on the running chat we ran during the first round, “What the are we going to do with him?” every one else here at SideLion Report from Zac the editor to the cleaning woman, knew better and correctly jumped down my throat. I think Ace Anbender put it best when he replied “Take over the world!”

I know we could have used an end because of Kyle Vanden Bosch’s age but Robert Quinn didn’t play last year and I’m still not over that whole Mike Williams thing where he missed a year and we drafted him anyway. USA,USA,USA! Doug Hogue, the linebacker we took in the fifth round, could be a find. He’s fast and shows the ability to cover in the open. Am I the only one who notices that Martin Mayhew loves to draft offensive lineman late in the draft? It’s the second year in a row that he’s done that. I like the fact that we’re growing very large talent down on the Lions farm.

I You-Tubed the highlights of Young and Leshoure for better inspection and came away VERRRY impressed with our second round haul. As Titus Demetrius Young loves to point out, his initials are TD for a reason. He averaged 17.1 yards per catch, and had 19 touchdowns in the last two years. Mayhew called him a “stick of dynamite.” He was exploding all over the field in his highlights. He is going to be a fan favorite here by his second game.

I know it sounds absurd to most of you, but Mikel Leshoure reminded me a lot of Hall of Famer Franco Harris. Harris didn’t like contact and caught verbal abuse from Jim Brown for his propensity to run out of bounds rather than plow into the defender. Leshoure is big, but he’s not a bruiser. He keeps his head up and his feet moving, looking for a hole to run through. USA,USA,USA! The Lions needed some umph! in there running game. We need a nickname for him and Jahvid Best.

Detroit now has as much firepower as ANYBODY in the league and maybe, just maybe, the friggin best defensive line of them all. That sounds a lot like a Super Bowl recipe to me. Remember, before the draft Mayhew stated that he’s building this team for the future and not for the first game of this year. I know the offensive line is shaky, but didn’t the Packers of last year and the Steelers two years before that have pretty shaky lines? It’s going to be a lot harder for quarterbacks to complete passes when they’re laying on the ground waiting for Fairley or Suh to get off of them.

It was reported that the Lions tried to trade with the Cardinals in the first round. Detroit aggressively wanted Patrick Peterson and would have traded a first, a second and fourth round pick this year for Arizona’s fifth pick. If we did that, everyone in the football world would have praised the Lions for such a SMART move. But, we wouldn’t have Fairley, Young or Leshoure– instead we would have Peterson and some decent LB or OL from the 3rd round.

I’m much more excited with the picks we WERE able to land. This is why the DRAFT is great, your fate could change at any second. The Lions got LUCKY. These guy’s can play right away. When was the last time you heard the words Lions and lucky in the same sentence? Where are my sunglasses?