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In response to the recent announcement by Lions coach Rod Marinelli of the names of ten of the players who’ll be visiting team headquarters prior to the draft, a league source with extensive experience preparing for and conducting drafts has shared the following opinion with us:
“Clearly, he’s an idiot.”
Though the media often pieces together, based on discussions with players and/or agents, the names of guys who make visits to individual teams, it’s rare that teams blare that information to the world.
The fact that Marinelli did so in conjunction with a media discussion in which also he declared the team’s needs for the 2008 draft is almost unheard of in the cloak-and-dagger world of the NFL draft.
“He and Matt [Millen] are made for each other,” the source said.
Then again, it’s possible that it’s all a ruse, and that the Lions are bringing in the guys whom Marinelli said they’re bringing in in order to distract the rest of the league as to the guys in whom they’re truly interested.
But these are the Lions. The team that has burned four top-ten picks on wideouts since 2002. They’re not playin’ dumb; they’re plain dumb.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I am so glad that the Lions are in the same division as the Vikings. One less team to worry about.
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April 1st, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Yes, Marinelli is clearly an idiot because:
A) Nobody had any idea that the Lions desperately needed an RB, ROT, WDE, and MLB until he said so, and
B) It was a complete mystery as to where in the order the Lions pick, and what players of the above positions will be available at those slots.
Peace
policy
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
April 1st, 2008 at 11:19 pm
It’d be a lot more logical to slam the Lions for drafting WRs if they were actually stacked at WR. They’re not, and the only one that’s worked out so far is about to leave the team next year anyways. There’s a million good reasons to bag on Millen but drafting WRs is a very dumb one.
Second off, if the news of who the Lions are going to meet with is going to get out via the press anyways, why shouldn’t Marinelli just announce it? To play to the “top secret” illusory paradigm that’s currently in place? Please.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
April 1st, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Someone in Detroit needs to flat out say, “This team needs to manage itself better.”
Someone inside the organization, because the team obviously has deaf ears to everyone else in the world. The problem is, old Ford doesn’t really care, his team is making money. Ford Field is selling out, with Lions fans lemming their way to the game every Sunday. They’re all, coincidentally leaving early for the exits to beat traffic.
I haven’t seen the list of the guys Marinelli said are visiting, but I’m sure he’s not lying about it.
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Rating: 4.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:18 am
Oh, like every team didnt already have DeSean Jackson written in ink at #15. After all, Roy Williams is getting old.
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:46 am
Wow, could this be the first smokescreen ever used prior to a draft?
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:16 am
If it isn’t a smokescreen, then yes–the management isn’t just the worst in the NFL. It’s the worst in the NFL by a mile.
Then again, my guess is that it ISN’T true. After all, all you heard out of Detroit before the draft last year was “Gaines Adams this, Gaines Adams that.” They took Calvin Johnson.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:07 am
What’s the buy in at the Marinelli private poker game?
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April 2nd, 2008 at 8:15 am
whytemyke,
The fact that they’ve burned all those picks on 1st round wide receivers and STILL aren’t stacked at wide receiver is the best reason in the world to slam them for it. It means they suck at drafting. And they kept swinging and missing on an “icing on the cake” position when their offensive and defensive lines needed help in order to make them respectable.
Regarding the Lions’ potential for chicanery (thanks Tiki), they DID have everyone hoodwinked into thinking there was actual interest in trading up for Calvin Johnson. Although it netted them squat in the end, they did pull it off.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 8:50 am
Speaking as someone who lived around Detroit for 45 years, I can say with confidence that this is merely part of the Fords’ clever plan to maintain, for yet another season, the unmitigated disaster that the Lions have been continuously since the family bought the team back when I was a kid.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 9:23 am
Maybe Matt Millen will resign and run for mayor? Detroit is the new Cleveland.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 9:43 am
Just beware…….Matt Millen is the king of the “fake” smokescreen. He out thinks everyone, including himself.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 9:50 am
G-man, are you on crack? Everybody knew the Lions were taking Calvin Johnson.
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Rating: 4.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:50 am
whytemyke,
You can be successful without an elite wide receiver. WR was not the position they had the most need at. Look at the Jaguars. They made the playoffs last year and won a road playoff game without an elite wide receiver and an above-average defense. It wasn’t their receivers that held them back against NE, but their defensive line play.
The Lions were not a wide receiver away from the Super Bowl. Drafting WRs the way they did has hampered them, not helped them build for the future.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 10:28 am
I think the Lions have done much dumber things than this.
Like employing Matt Millen as if he’s had any modicum of success as an NFL GM.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:43 am
Anyone who follows the Lions at all knows that our draft board at 15 looks something like this (with some variation among the ranking of these 5):
1) Ryan Clady
2) Derrick Harvey
3) Best RB available
4) Jerrod Mayo
5) Chris Williams
Clady won’t be there, Harvey probably won’t either. Marinelli is probably just being honest, but if not I think it could be a ruse as the Lions might take the best RB in the draft… Jon Stewart.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
I still think you can defend the WR picks. Personally I wasn’t happy with the Calvin Johnson pick last year because I thought they clearly needed help on the OLine. I bring up the WR point because, for the most part, everyone and their mom thought that Calvin was the second coming (even this site, if I remember correctly.)
But look at the draft speculation of their other WRs. Charles Rogers was loved by everyone before the draft and very few people had any worries about his health. Attitude? Maybe, but his attitude didn’t become a problem with the team until his second collar bone injury.
Roy Williams? I think that I could argue he’s a top 10 talent in the league at WR. I don’t think anyone would argue with me on that, either, annoying first down celebrations aside. (Anyone else notice how he didn’t really do it until last year, then was questioned about it by the media and he said he’s always happy when he makes a first down? Since then he’s celebrated EVERY first down, and I honestly believe it’s just because he got pushed into a corner last year over it, haha.)
Anyways, I digress. You can easily make the claim for the Lions drafting being horrible, but it doesn’t start with the WRs. It starts with them being entirely godawful at every other round in the draft. The third through sixth rounds is where teams build their depth, and the Lions only have a handful of guys that even make their roster from those rounds.
I’m just so frustrated as a fan.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Everyone knows which positions the lions are looking for, Marinelli just said it in public, so whats the big deal?.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Proxac–You hit it exactly. Its no secret here that the Lions need so much. So whoever the Lions get other than a WR they sure can use
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April 2nd, 2008 at 9:54 pm
If anyone thinks that the Lion’s current needs were a secret is an idiot. Plus it’s not like all the other teams are gunning to block the Lion’s for picking who is best available with each of their picks. Every team is drafting for their own needs as well. The Draft is about player evaluation, so you know who to pick from who ever is left on the board.
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