the lines are being drawn

For days, weeks, months even, the storylines have been developing.  All the rumors, the deceptions, the smokescreens, they're all in place.  As the waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting . . . finally, excruciatingly, glacially blooms into the beginnings of the first signs of the coming days, when eventually, someday, we will begin to hear word of who the Lions, with the first overall pick in the NFL draft, will select.

After all the posturing, all the stonewalling, and all the innuendo, what we know for sure boils down to this:

1) Matt Stafford is telling people it's all but done, and he's going to make north of $40M guaranteed.

2) Aaron Curry is telling Sirius radio he'd be "more than happy" to take less guaranteed money than Jake Long got last year.

Add to this the fact that the Lions made a great show of publicly hosting Curry's representation last weekend, while secretly meeting with Tom Condon at the same time, and it all leads me to believe the following statement is true:

Matt Stafford will be the pick if he'll sign a reasonable deal.  The Lions are using Aaron Curry as leverage to get Stafford to come down on price.  If Stafford won't get at least within the ballpark before Saturday afternoon, Curry will be the pick.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  I can't possibly talk angles on the #1 overall pick any further . . . I'm completely drained.  Either we will be surprised with a signing in the next seventy-six hours, or we'll find out when Roger Goodell takes that little white card up on stage.