Revisiting the 2010 Detroit Lions Draft Trades
By Jeff Risdon
NFL fans love draft trades. And former Detroit Lions GM Martin Mayhew often scratched that trade itch, making several transactions in shipping picks and/or players over draft weekends. The 2010 Detroit Lions draft was one of his most active, for better and for worse.
The first major Lions draft move involved trading with division rival Minnesota to move up in the 2010 draft to select Cal RB Jahvid Best. Detroit also received a fourth-round pick which became oft-injured offensive tackle Jason Fox.
Best made quite an instant impact but was unfortunately unable to shake the durability concerns that dogged him at Cal. Fox was seemingly always injured, never able to live up to the promise of being the answer at right tackle. He’s now in Miami, once again injured.
Minnesota picked up slots 34, 100 and 214 in exchange. The Vikings had decidedly mixed results with those picks.
No. 34 became cornerback Chris Cook, a long CB from Virginia whom I can verify the Lions definitely liked during the draft process. Cook couldn’t ever adjust to the speed or physicality of the NFL and was a below-average, part-time starter over four seasons in Minnesota. He never recorded a turnover in 34 games before the Vikings pulled the plug. After one more season buried on the bench in San Francisco, Cook was out of the league.
No. 100 turned into defensive end Everson Griffen. After a slow start where he rode the bench as a bit player for his first season, the USC product emerged as a decent situational rusher in 2011. He bagged four sacks in that second NFL campaign. One of his best games came in 2012 against the Lions, when he hammered Matthew Stafford for two sacks and also stuffed Mikel Leshoure for a 5-yard loss.
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Griffen’s career has taken off over the last two seasons. Starting all but one game, No. 97 in purple has racked up 73 tackles and 22.5 sacks. He made the Pro Bowl after 2015.
Even worse for the Lions, he has 7.5 sacks in 11 games versus Detroit. Then again, he’s notched 8 against the Packers and also forced a fumble. He would have looked mighty good opposite Ziggy Ansah had the Lions kept the pick, though at the time the team had a young Cliff Avril and a prized free agent signee in Kyle Vandenbosch at defensive end. At that time Andre Fluellen was still on his first Detroit tenure and playing end, too. Plus they added Willie Young. More on that in a minute…
The final pick in the deal became Mickey Shuler, a tight end out of Penn State. He didn’t make the Vikings as a rookie but wound up starting two games for Miami. In buts of four seasons–each with a different team–Shuler caught exactly 2 passes.
Detroit had a young first-rounder in Brandon Pettigrew and a strong blocking TE in Will Heller, so it’s doubtful the Lions would have sniffed the 24-year-old rookie in Shuler. In fact, Mayhew traded Ernie Sims for Tony Scheffler just a few picks later. As part of that deal, the Eagles acquired a draft pick that became LB Jamar Chaney, who was out of the league by the end of 2014. Chalk that one up as a partial win for Mayhew, because as a further extrapolation of that deal the Lions wound up with bust Alphonso Smith.
That seventh round was a busy day on the Detroit transaction wire. At pick 213, one spot before where Shuler wound up being drafted with a pick from the Lions, Mayhew drafted Willie Young with a spot acquired as part of the Rob Sims deal. You remember that one, Lions fans…the one that sent the pick (No. 133) that became Kam Chancellor to Seattle. At least Sims was a decent left guard for a few seasons before his body finally gave out.