on the draft

This morning, I woke up to the sounds of my alarm failing to go off.  The morning sun was warming through the miniblinds, the cats were pawing at the basement door, and my eldest child was sneaking around the house doing things she knows she's not allowed to do.  Typically, waking up like this means I'm already well past late for work, and the day will be an exercise in futility and frustration, of running behind and losing my head.  Today, however?  Today was different.

It's spring.  The sun comes up earlier these days--and with it, come the early rays and the chirping birds, the joggers and the potholes.  Today was the first weekday where I made it all the way out to the car without ever once considering wearing a coat.  In fact, I had to go back into the house to fetch my money clip from said coat--and opted to leave the coat right where it sat.

I twisted the keys in the ignition, and as my mount quickly purred to life, it hit me: four months ago, nearly to the day, I started this blog.  In some ways, that day was the complete opposite of today--yet in other ways, it was exactly the same.

"When I walked out the door into the early morning darkness, the wind was a stinging, bitter smack to the face. After a warm and lovely holiday weekend, where most of the near-foot of accumulated snow and ice melted off, last night Winter came roaring back. A silvery sheen of frost and ice glazed over everything, including my car. After cranking the engine, I began the routine: hacking, scraping, brushing, and scouring the exterior glass--while my car desperately tried to maintain a series of small fires inside a solid metal block chilled to a temperature well below freezing. With the grueling work done, I collapsed into the driver's seat. It was then that the voice on the local sports talk radio station smacked me in the face with an even colder reality: I'm a Lions fan."

At that moment, it was the morning after a landmark in Lions (and NFL) history.  It was the nadir; it was rock bottom.  The edges of the winter wind cut and sliced my skin like thorns, yet didn't hurt half as badly as the 0-16 knife in my chest.  That bitter, freezing day smacked me in the face, and then kicked me in the stomach.  This morning, however?  It was the morning after the new start.  There were buds on the trees, daffodils already in bloom.  This morning was the first day of the spring, the first day of the new Lions.  Then first day of the Matt Stafford era.

Yes, the Matt Stafford era.  The Lions chose to make Georgia quarterback Matt Stafford the face of the Lions for at least the next four years--and paid him at least $41.2 million do it.  On a team with few--possibly no--veteran leaders, Stafford will look to fill the huge power vacuum in the huddle.  He'll also need to fill the huge performance vacuum under center.  The Lions have not had consistently good quarterback play . . . well, ever.   But beyond that, Stafford and the Lions are now incontrovertably bound together.  From this day forward, no matter who you wanted the Lions to draft #1 overall, no matter how you felt about the contract, no matter what you think about Stafford's chances at the next level: if you are a Lions fan you will root for this kid's success with everything you have.  If he succeeds, the Lions will be contenders every single year for the next decade or more.  If he fails, the Lions might well have to have yet another regime change at the top, and we'll all be in for another six more years of winter.

As far as the rest of the draft goes, the Lions did what they said they would do: they drafted for talent, not need.  They took the highest-rated player on their board, except for when they made (brilliant) trades back for more picks.  They drafted like they had a clean sheet of paper from which to start, and--especially on day one--they took the rest of the NFL to school on how drafting the best players is done.  They didn't draft to reach for 2009 needs--they knew that the Week 1 roster for 2009 was going to have holes in it no matter who they drafted this weekend.  Most importantly, they took players that everyone agreed on.  The scouts, coaches, and front office folks came together to draft players that will never be anyone's pet project or sacred cow.  These players will all get plenty of opportunity to compete, and all will ultimately be judged by their efforts when granted those opprtunities.  As I've already said, in two or three years, when other teams' fans review other teams' 2009 drafts, these Lions are going to be named over and over and over as the players those other teams "could have had".  To me, that alone speaks volumes about the change in direction, change in execution, and change in the weather.  That's not to say we won't see stormy days--we will, and sooner rather than later.  But it comes down to this, what I said four months ago:

"I'm a fan. I was born a fan, and I will die a fan. The hooting and derision of the American sports culture has set my resolve. I'm sick of getting snickers on the football-y corners of the Internet. I'm sick of getting reaction takes when I wear Lions gear around town. I've thought about starting this blog for years, but this morning I knew that today was the day. I've pulled my hood tight, I've loaded up the sled with wood, and I've got fuel and spark to spare. I'm going to reclaim my Lions pride. I'm going to fan that little blue flame into the great big bonfire it ought to be, and nobody's going to be prouder than me when thousands are once again carrying torches to rally behind this team."

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meet the cubs: Dan Gronkowski

 Now that the 2009 NFL Player Selection Meeting has concluded, there's a whole new group of Lion cubs: ten rookies who represent a desperately-needed shot of talent to the Lions' roster.  Every single one of these players will have an excellent opportunity to not only make the team, but contribute significantly in short order.  Unfortunately, that's not a function of the quality of these players as much as of the dearth of talent on the Lions' roster.  Since I ran my roster review series from defense to offense, I think I'll starts with the runts of the litter, and end with the heir apparent.  So, let's begin with the end: the second-to-last-selection, the penultimate pick, the dude who went as low as you can go without actually winning something for it . . . 

Dan Gronkowski, Maryland TE:

His official bio offers up some much-needed background info.  Recruited to Maryland as a quarterback after a school-record-smashing senior season, Gronkowski and his 6'-6", 255-pound body were quickly shifted to tight end.  In fact, here's an interesting recruiting blurb from Rivals that, in hindsight, suggests that they might have only ever paid lip service to letting him take snaps under center . . .

Gronkowski took to the weight room immediately, earning their Iron Terp status in spring ball every year. His career-best squat, 635 pounds, is second only to Vernon Davis amongst all Maryland TEs ever. Lest you think he's just a meathead, Gronkowski he earned his Marketing BA in just three years, and pursued an MBA during his senior season. He's a two-time Academic All-ACC team honoree. His father actually owns a chain of fitness stores, and he says the best athlete in his family is actually his little brother Rob (Dan has four brothers), who's a tight end at Arizona.

Gronkowski spent most of his career as a pure blocking tight end, but was powerful enough in doing that to start twenty-nine games in his last three seasons. As a senior, he started to flash some recieving skills, and caught 29 passes for 287 yards and 3 touchdowns. Obviously he's not a devastating offensive weapon, but here's a nice little TD catch that shows he's got some potential:

And here's a little post-draft reaction blurb from him and another player. He notes that several other teams called him to say he was the highest player left on their board . . . and yet, he fell. Schwartz's statement backs this up:

"We didn't anticipate taking two tight ends but at that point in the draft with the people that were available he was by far the highest-rated guy and you want to still stick with that."

Don't expect much out of Gronkowski right away, but he will certainly push Will Heller for playing time as "the blocking TE" on the roster--in fact, this may bode ill for Heller's prospects for making the roster.  Either way, the Lions have added an extremely smart, extremely tough young man to the roster, who'll no doubt make an impact on special teams right away--which is about as much as one can hope for from a pick so late.

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day two

One of the worst things about this wretched 4:00 pm start time for Day One is that there's no real layoff time before Day Two to pen breathless, pointless manifestoes.  I'll go in-depth later tonight and tomorrow, but for right now I'll just say that the Lions truly did draft for talent instead of need, and that they got the best players in the draft at three separate positions.  They didn't just go for the "grocery list" and take the best-available player in order of positional need (which is how we ended up with Jordon Dizon in the second round).  When people review this draft in three years, the Lions' players will be on other teams' "could have had" list. 

Moving along to Day Two, who's still out there?  As we remember from last year, the #1 pick on the second day is quite valuable, because the Lions have all night to review their board, review their needs, explore potential trades, etc.  Some players I think the Lions should look hard today:

* CB/KR Victor "Macho" Harris.  A physical corner with good size, good instincts, and excellent return skills.  

* WR Brandon Gibson.  A big, quick target with soft hands and excellent body control, Gibson's a low-first, high-second round talent who was trapped on a rotten Washington State team last year.  Great slot WR prospect, also has return experience.

* OG Kent Urbik.  The road-grader Jeff Backus has never had next to him.

* MLB  Robert Henson Jason Phillips, TCU.  Might make everyone forget about Little Animal.

A sharp-eyed reader also saw that Vanderbilt CB D.J. Moore is still out there, and he'd be an excellent value here in the third.

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