The NFL draft is always a crapshoot - even when the right guy gets picked ,he doesn't always produce as expected. Even when taking the right guy, there may not be a lot of production early on.  The learning curve, injuries, etc.. make it tough for a rookie to be a 16 game starter out of the gate, and getting more than one rookie playing full time in a given season is not common (although there are some recent and not so recent examples). More often it's 2nd - 4th year players "breaking out"

Since it is hard to predict what player(s) will be available at 13, and gets harder as the draft goes on , I'm not really thinking what player yet. I'll trust the FO to make the right call, and I'm excited to see what it is.

- my questions are these :

Regardless of what player gets picked: - at which position do the Lions need the greatest impact by a rookie? Will that be the same position where a rookie actually makes the most impact next year?

linebacker is a position of need , and I think a rookie might actually also make the most impact there over the course of the season (whether we get that guy by trading down, or up or in the 1st or 7th round). 

Which young pros can we expect to make the big "next step" and really turn into contributors next year?

I predict Amari Spievey

A little twist to your thoughts on the offseason -

Go Lions