The Detroit Lions 2018 draft is like a running joke

Seventh Round Pick Number 237 Overall

The Lions added to their run oriented draft by selecting old school fullback Nick Bawden out of San Diego State.

Bawden isn’t a ball-carrier and he has had limited opportunities to catch the ball as well. He’s basically a smash-mouth blocker out of the backfield.

The lowdown: This pick was entirely devoted to the mindset of improving the running game no matter what. Especially in short yardage situations. This was a pick I’m not sure even the most die-hard ‘run the ball’ fan would have made since his only contributions, unless he proves otherwise, will be on special teams and as a blocker.

The Final Verdict

Listen, when Bob Quinn tells us in the future that they are going to improve in any particular phase of the game, we better believe him.

Basically, almost all of the Lions draft was like a running joke about adding pieces to run the ball.

It’s way too early to grade this draft, but let’s put it like this; they better be much improved in the ground game and at protecting Matthew Stafford.

This draft class screams two things; one is that they want to be efficient enough on offense to be able to control the tempo of games and the ball at will, scoring more points and giving the defense more rest than it has had over the past few seasons.

Two is that this organization believes Matt Patricia can almost single-handedly improve the defense himself with his ability to get the most out of his players and teach them the game in a way that they understand their assignments and can carry them out.

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Are the Lions better today than they were last Wednesday? Yes, specifically in the ground game. Yet the questions will linger on defense. The Lions have done enough in free agency to be better on defense, but not necessarily as good as needed.

Especially in the front seven.

So was the 2018 draft a success for the Detroit Lions? We’ll see in about three years.