Top Ten Worst Draft Picks of the last Decade

A wise man once said "only fools give into their anger and create posts on POD that are likely to get you either flamed or removed from the communitty." I am pissed and I read enough on here to know that many of you are already turning your thoughts towards this years off-season and draft as opposed to salvaging anything from this year (I for one and finally ready to give up hope that we can win 4-5 games). So, in the interest of being constructive we can call this learning from past mistakes (and putting off doing a paper). Factoring in overall production, team needs and hindsight is 20/20 (in other words who we could have gotten) here are my 10 worst draft picks the Lions made in the last ten years:

10. Brandon Pettigrew: Flame away boys, but understand this is not a critism of Pettigrews production. I sincerly hope he gives us 10+ years of being a productive recieving and blocking TE. And you can look at most of the Super Bowl champions of the past decade and most of them featured a productive tight end. But, if I'm rebuilding an 0-16 team and I have needs at LT, OG, DT, DE, MLB (no Foote when pick was made) CB and Safety I don't take a TE no matter what his potential is. And hindsight being 20/20 right now I would much rather have the player I spent all day hoping would be available at # 20, Michael Oher. Instead the Lions continue a disturbing trend, passing on players at high need positions in favor of big upside guys only to enter the following years draft still desperately needing help at that position.

9. Stockar McDougle: What I remember about this pick is that the year before we took a flier on Aaron Gibson with a late first round pick. This pick came following an 8-8 regular season and the teams last trip to the playoffs. McDougle's production is worthy of the bust tag and leads to a second disturbing trend the Lions showed during this decade; using high draft picks on players who play the same position as guys you used high draft picks on the year before. Hindsight being 20/20, wouldn't you rather have seen us use this pick on Keith Bullock?

8. Jeff Backus: One could argue that Backus was the most productive first round pick the Lions made in the 2000's. Drafted in 2001 following the Lions last winning season (9-7 the year before, damn you Paul Edinger!) Backus has been a fixture in the Lions starting line-up ever since. Maybe that is the best way to describe why the Lions have been so awful this decade. Not that I hate Backus but he has been average at best his entire time in Detroit and the fact that the team continues to put off looking for an upgrade at LT is absurd. I also put him here because I remember going horse that day screaming at the TV for the Lions to draft Drew Bree's. There is more to that than just "look how good Bree's is now." Before this draft we hired Millen and Morningsomething with an eye on overhauling the offense and running a variation of the west coast offense. It sounded like it could be a good fit for Brees. It was also widely considered a terrible fit for Charlie Batch. Batch was awful that year and the Lions went 2-14 and haven't had a winning record since.

7. Boss Bailey: You can substitute Teddy Lehman here is you want. This pick represented a third disturbing trend the Lions took in their approach to the draft during this decade. That would be drafting the guy with first round talent that slipped out of the first round because of injuries or off-the-field issues. Sure, taking a guy like this every once in awhile is okay but there were a few years in a row that I felt like the Lions took this kind of guy every year with a second or third round pick (or both). When they are healthy and have their head in the game they are great but as we saw with Shaun Rogers, who was argueably the best of these types of draft picks, they eventually wear out their welcome and the team is left with another wasted high pick. Hindsight being 20/20 you could argue that Charles Tillman,  Eugene Wilson, Rashean Mathis and Ken Hamlim all could have helped a secondary that was garbage all decade long.

6. Daniel Bullocks: I have nothing personal against Bullocks, this is just to point out that prior to this past years draft with Delmas (who I love), Bullocks was the highest we drafted a player for the secondary when he was picked #40 overall. Next highest I believe was Andre Goodman. The Lions secondary has been among the league's worst all decade long and you could argue that the best player we had prior to Delmas was Dre Bly who is missed by very few. Hindsight 20/20: Your secondary makes up 4 of the 12 starting positions on your defense, please put more effort into finding quality players to play in that secondary!

5. Jordon Dizon: Yet another disturbing trend in the Lions draft philosophy, favoring the big motor guy over someone who more aptly fits the description of what you are looking for. In fairness, I was a Dan Connor when this pick was made and you can easily argue that Dizon has been more productive. But, does anyone look at Dizon as an answer moving forward? I didn't think so. Part of this pick is just me being bitter because I thought it was a waste at the time and I haven't seen anything that would change my mind yet. Hindsight being 20/20, we could have gotten Ray Rice and then grabbed Connor or even still landed Dizon early in the third round (no Kevin Smith though which would be a little sad).

4. Joey Harrington: It's tough to argue that we had any choice other than taking Harrington here, but clearly this pick set the franchise back several years. Liked the pick at the time and there is still a part of me who feels it was the way he was managed that killed his chances in Detroit (One year with Morningsomething, then Mooch came in and after one year together you could tell Mooch didn't believe in him which makes for a very poor formula for success). When you look at that draft the next 4 picks after Harrington were either quality non-pro bowl types or busts so the hindsight here goes back to why did they not draft Drew Brees the year before?

3. Charles Rogers: He would have been number 1 for so many other teams if they had taken him. I could have given him a pass if it was only injuries that held him back, but lets be honest here. If you followed this guy from MSU to the Lions you know he was a me first guy with no work ethic. The drug suspension and subsequent exile from the NFL sum it up. Does anyone know how his CFL career turned out? Hindsight 20/20: Yeah, that's right, the second wide out take that year was Andre Johnson, Opps!

2. Drew Stanton: All the talk today about why didn't Drew play is honestly what inspired this post. He didn't play because he is not good enough to play in the NFL. He is tough, but injury prone. He looked like a great back-yard QB in college but I never for a second believed his game would transfer to the NFL. At the time we were coming off of a 2 -14 season so you would think QB would be a need but we also had 4500 yards passing that year so maybe not. At the time we badly needed help at LB (amongst other areas) and hindsight being 20/20 I really wanted Dave Harris. Oh well, atleast Drew isn't ....

1. Mike Williams: Argueably one of the biggest busts in NFL, this pick looks even worse for the Lions since they had drafted WR the previous 2 years. Add to the fact that the next 2 picks were Demarcus Ware and Shawn Merriman and you could argue it was the worst pick of all time. That is all that.

If you are wondering what the point of all this is I suppose it is this. We all talk about what players we think the team needs to add. What I am asking the POD community is whether there are any changes you see that need to be made in the way we determine what players to draft? So please, flame away!