The Detroit Lions top 7 ‘buyer remorse’ first-round draft choices

Buyer Remorse draft pick #1 – James Jones

For every Detroit Lions fan, there is one particular draft pick that will drive them crazy until the day they die because of how badly they wanted another player who turned into one of the greats of the game for another team. For me, that was during the 1983 NFL draft.

As a wide-eyed kid, I really thought that a strong-armed quarterback from the University of Pittsburgh was the answer. Unfortunately, on April 26, 1983, head coach Monte Clark and the Lions decided to use the number 13 overall pick to select University of Florida fullback, James Jones.

I tried to comfort myself with the fact that the Lions first-round pick happened to share the same name as my father, but that didn’t change reality. Jones was paired in the backfield with Billy Sims with the idea of creating an unstoppable ground game at a time that the league was taking to the air.

By Jones’ second season Sims career had ended with a knee injury. Despite being a solid blocker, tough short-yardage runner and a good receiver out of the backfield, there is nothing he could ever do outshine the player I preferred.

After being ignored by almost every team in the NFL, the Miami Dolphins used the 27th pick in the first round to select the Pittsburgh product. A well-known kid named Dan Marino who had experienced a senior slump after an outstanding junior season.

Today Dan Marino is known as one of the most prolific passers the NFL has ever seen. He was indeed a gunslinger who threw touchdown passes like there was no tomorrow and is currently in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Every time I see or think of Dan Marino I react the same way that Art Rooney the former Pittsburgh Steeler owner did on his death bed when he said to his son Dan, ‘I told you we should have drafted Marino’.

With all due respect to James Jones, the Lions should have selected Marino and allowed him to usher in a level of competitiveness Lions fans haven’t seen since the 1950s. For me, this is unquestionably the Lions’ greatest ‘buyers remorse’ draft pick of all time.

Now that I’ve shared my list with you, what is the first-round pick you wish the Detroit Lions could have exchanged for another player they decided to pass on? Let me know in the comments below.