2011 NFL Draft Grades For All Of The Detroit Lions' Picks, Acquisitions

Fairley, Leshoure, Young, LoJack, Phonz, Houston, and Shaun Hill?

No brainer. 3 immediate impact guys and 3 impact guys from last season? A+

Mayhew absolutely made the most of the draft this way, and it shows. In 2 years, he’s bascially undone 10 years of damage by HWSNBN…

I figured it’d take AT MINIMUM 3 years before we would begin to see the team start to coalesce. As it stands, we’re easily in the top 15 in the NFL in talent, and by all accounts will be pushing for our first playoff birth in 12 years.

Unbelievable job, FO. Never thought I’d say that in my lifetime.

..but, lol, what would other teams “drafts” look like if they were counted like this? Is anyone or no one else making use of low round picks like this?

Its never enough is it? Most people give our draft an A without including all the players we traded picks for what the hell do you people expect? Why dont you tell me what would constitute an ‘A’ for you?

Fairley (and all the other picks) have yet to play a down. I still have questions about Fairley based on history. Call me whatever, but call me it after the season.

Mayhew could sign any player that was tendered 2-5 or package future picks in a trade. I was scratching my head wondering why Mayhew didn’t use NOT ONE Future draft pick to get back into the later rounds for a LB or CB. It bothered me that he didn’t bust a grape in a orange fight.
Now I understand. I see the light.
It seems that when it comes to filling a need, Mayhew wants proven talent to fill that need.

When you look at it that way,even if some needs weren’t met with the draft picks.

Although I am curious to know of the players who got taken with all the picks we moved, and then in comparison, would any of those players add anything to the Lions roster?

for a 4th even a 5th. After reading about the Best trade and how it took place, he won’t make a move if it doesn’t benefit the team 1st.

That is some pretty incredible value. Obviously this is not a one man effort. Shack Harris and the scouts have to take a lot of credit too for being aware of some of these guys and knowing that they might becoming available.

This is what I think I appreciate the most about Mayhew. He has actually built a real professional organization from the ruins of what that doofus left.

Just imagine what will happen in the next few years when the Lions have a talent base that will allow them to trade players for draft picks or allow talented players to leave in free agency and get compensatory picks for them. I can see Mayhew having a number of extra picks every year to allow him to be even more flexible in the draft.
But we need to build a deep talent base first and Martin has us on the right path.

Carter/Dowling were gone at #44 and Wilson/Harris probably won’t have the impact that TD Young will have.

I can’t believe anyone at this point, after the talent this man has added to this roster would even question his abilities or choices in the last 2 drafts. I feel he has been nothing short of brilliant in helping to turn this team around.

I guess these boards are here to talk about things that transpire, and for us to feel like we actually know something about all this, but the plans they have and the things we know nothing about behind the scenes, lol….I’m just sitting back hoping to watch him work some more magic soon.

First time poster, great job Sean!

Mayhew likes to trade those 6th and 7th rounders for quality players. I wonder who he will pick up this year with trades?

     Mayhew has done a very good job since taking over. He has added quality depth throughout the season so if there are any needs left to be filled for this season, and there are, he will fill them.
     A couple of quotes that show he wil get the players we need:

“We know there’s going to be some form of free agency coming forward – we believe that. So it allows us to kind of stick with our board and take the best player and fill in whatever gaps we have to fill in later with a better, quality player.”

“We’re drafting for the future of the franchise. We also don’t view the draft as a finish line; we’re not going to get done with the draft and say, ‘Hey, we’re all good.’ I thought our pro scouts did a great job last year finding players after the draft. Guys like Stefan Logan, John Wendling; two pro bowl alternates that we found after the draft. Young guys like Alphonso Smith, Lawrence Jackson. So we’ll keep looking after this process. We don’t think that we’ll fill all of our needs or take care of all of our personnel problems in this draft; it’ll be an ongoing process this year going into next year and years following that. It’s a long-term process for us.”

Fairley.. A. I never really thought the guy would fall so..I must say I knew very little. The one question I have now is; How can they call him a one year wonder when he actually only played two?? I also didn’t realize he was a JR.
  Makes a helluva D line. Gunther must have a hardon tryin to figure out how many ways he can rotate these guys.
Young..A- He can stretch the field and can also mirror Burleson’s routes from day one.
 Leshoure..B ( Was not on my radar..love the guy, but not on my radar.) Huge picks will be made before and after this pick..But..VALUE wize…nice!
 We only have 5 draft picks and the top 3 we have are here for a 3 yr min.!
 Later selections…….C-…..Hope they turn out but doubt it. Low risk high reward picks rarely turn out.
Overall 88.9

We play you in the second week. Your D-line is scary. I think you are gonna be my 2nd favorite team to watch now. Suh and Fairly are going to could cause enough disruption to an offense alone to sway the game. A+ in the draft.

But not cause we didn’t try to get more picks! Cause no one would trade with us for fear of getting Mayhew’d.

I think one of the major points here should be that if MaySchwartz didn’t think they could UPGRADE a position, then they weren’t taking a player. No one will contest that Nick Fairley is an upgrade for anyone’s d-line (assuming he plays up to potential), and Leshoure and Young both boost the offense in seriously deficient areas. Perhaps the LBs in round 2 were considered no better than Dizon, Palmer, Carpenter, Levy, Follett or Johnson. Maybe there are FA plans? :shrug I totally respect the choice.

Consider the depth at RB if any two of Smith/Brown/Morris are gone…we already assume (at least) one will be. Consider depth at WR… (what depth??!) Burleson is getting on in his years, so is Morris. I think the Lions are looking forward, seeing a bigger picture than the “needs” of the 2011 season.

Only reason it’s not an A is cause now I expect GREAT things from Mayhew in the trade department, not just good things.

Fairley COULD be great, Suh like but, will he? Our D line was already superb with adequate back ups. To pass on Prince for Fairley hits me the wrong way across the board. The rest of the picks are B or C at best. I’ve just moved and did not have Internet or TV since Thursday so, just getting caught up on the draft. I’ll stick with Mayhew though until these picks prove not to be busts.

The Lions have always had problems getting productive players in the later rounds. Not saying in this draft they didn’t but if the past has told us anything is that they better get their productive players in the first 3 rounds.

I’m still not sold on Titus Young, we have two WRs already and adding a third WR with our second round pick just seems like non-sense. Like mentioned above we want guys that can be productive right away and you just don’t draft a 3rd string WR in the second round (or even a second string).

I think most people are grading this draft on the Fairley pick and if it turns out like expected it would be huge for our defense. But there are other positions at need and I think unless we are getting rid of Nate Burleson and Young is an absolute stud, than that second round was almost a complete waste.

While back 7 develops