Lions coach Rod Marinelli apparently has violated the first rule of NFL draft strategy.

He’s talking openly about his NFL draft strategy.

On Sunday, Marinelli was candid about his views while holding court at the league meetings in Florida. 

For starters, he has identified what he regards to be his team’s major needs — defensive end, linebacker, offensive tackle, and running back.  The third-year coach also said that the team wants to bring in fewer prospects per day for visits, so that he can spend more time with them.

And, of course, this means that other teams can assume that the Lions aren’t wasting their time by bringing in players in which they really don’t have an interest, merely to send phony smoke signals to other teams.

So far, the Lions have brought in twelve guys.  Marinelli named ten of them:  Florida defensive end Derrick Harvey; McNeese State defensive end Bryan Smith; Oklahoma linebacker Curtis Lofton; Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo; Purdue linebacker Cliff Avril; Vanderbilt offensive tackle Chris Williams; Boston College offensive tackle Gosder Cherilus; Kansas offensive tackle Anthony Collins; Central Florida running back Kevin Smith; and Tulane running back Matt Forte.

“I felt, the first two years, there were so many in a day, I didn’t get a good feel for these guys,” Marinelli said. “When you bring in seven or eight a day, I don’t do as good a job for myself.”

Marinelli also talked about the dilemma that arises when considering a guy at a higher spot than that for which so-called experts have rated him.  “This is where it gets tough, I think,” Marinelli said.  “You see a guy that you really like, and you know he’s your type of guy, and you know he’s going to come in and play, and the only way you can get him is to draft too high to get him.  And that’s where you have to feel comfortable with what you have to compete with.  ‘Oh, man, they went way too high to get that guy.’  But two years from now, if he’s a starter and a good player, it’s not.  But you have to hit.  You’ve got to get it right.

“The worst thing is, that’s the guy you like, and you’re not willing to take him early, and somebody else takes him.  Now, the guy that’s left there, do you like him as much?”

The implicit message in Marinelli’s monologue seems to be that he has acquired far more influence over the draft process and, as a result, far more accountability.  Maybe it’s CEO Matt Millen’s new strategy for maintaining job security.  Or maybe Millen recognizes that the head coach is the best guy to determine who will and who won’t fit with his approach.

Regardless, it’s not something that the head coach should be talking about.

Sure, there’s a chance that Marinelli is hoping to put out phony information about what the team is thinking, in the hopes of throwing off the other teams who’ll be picking players around them on draft day.  But the no-nonsense Marinelli doesn’t strike us as having the patience for engaging in multiple levels of psychology. 

We think he means what he says.  And that’s all the more reason for him to mean to say nothing, at least not until after all the picks are called out.