Hey gang - hope you all enjoyed the draft as much as I did. Having seen both of these guys live for a few years, I'm stoked to see Jahvid Best joining back up with the Pain Train Zack Follett in Detroit. Maybe my favorite moment with those two players was the 2008 Emerald Bowl (check out at 3:39 of that video for some good vibes).

With the draft over, there have been a couple of articles (Detroit News, Free Press) that have begun to speculate about the Lions' starting roster for 2010. Looking at those lineups got me thinking.

The two papers have slight differences in the starting lineups, but I went ahead and went with the Freep's for this exercise since I agreed with that one a bit more. For the purpose of generating some fun facts (tm) I added some extra info: the GM involved in bringing that player to the Lions, the year he joined the team, how he was acquired, his original draft round, and when the player entered the league.

If this holds up, did you know:

• On offense, we have five players acquired by Millen and six by Mayhew.
• On defense, we have one Millen player (Avril) and ten Mayhew players.
• 65% (17 of 26 players) of the starting roster has been acquired by Mayhew, in the last two years.
• 91% of the starting defense has been acquired by Mayhew.
• One starting player (Hanson) was acquired by Chuck Schmidt back in 1992.
• 35% (9 of 26 players) of the starting roster was acquired in 2010.
• 31% (8 of 26 players) of the starting roster was acquired in 2009.
• 58% (15 of 26 players) of the starting roster were drafted by the Lions.
• Only five players drafted by Millen are starting for the Lions, compared to ten drafted by Mayhew.
• 23% (6 of 26 players) of the starting roster were acquired by trade, all by Mayhew, and all in 2010 except two (Peterson, Simpson) in 2009.
• Ko is short for Yukota.
• The Lions have eight former 1st round picks starting (31% of the starting roster).
  
• Only three of the eight starting former 1st round picks were made by Millen (Calvin, Cherilus, Backus).
• No player on the offense was drafted later than the 4th round (Sims).
• Our kicker was a 2nd round pick and our punter was a 4th round pick.
• The Lions have a starter from every round in the draft except the 5th round.
• 50% (13 of 26 players) have been in the league three years or less going into the 2010 season.

Things will surely change between now and the start of the season, but thought you all might enjoy in the meanwhile.