Where Detroit Lions Picks Rank In ESPN's Re-Draft

ESPN's Rick Reilly, who I admittedly can't stand one bit, put together a piece that re-drafts the picks made in the first round in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Unlike some re-drafts that redo the picks for each team, Reilly's re-draft simply ranks the players and looks at the change from where they were originally drafted to where they would be picked now. As you can probably guess, the results aren't too pretty for the Detroit Lions.

In 2006, The Lions selected linebacker Ernie Sims ninth overall. In Reilly's re-draft, he doesn't have Sims going off the board until the 160th pick, making that a drop of 151 spots.

In 2007, the Lions took wide receiver Calvin Johnson with the second overall pick. Reilly only dropped Johnson two spots down to fourth overall in his 2007 re-draft. He has Adrian Peterson going No. 1 overall and Darrelle Revis and Patrick Willis going second and third, respectively.

Reilly's 2008 re-draft has Gosder Cherilus, who the Lions took 17th overall, going undrafted. That's a drop of 235 spots, and personally I find it pretty ridiculous. Has Cherilus been a first-round caliber tackle for the Lions? No. But has he been a serviceable right tackle when healthy? Yes. I can see dropping him down quite a bit, but having Cherilus go undrafted is just plain dumb. To his credit, Reilly has Cliff Avril up 72 spots from the 92nd pick to 20th overall, but it's tough to take the piece seriously with how far down he has Cherilus. I guess it's tough to take anything Reilly says or writes nowadays seriously, though.