Sunday, April 20, 2008

Safe(ty)! Lions Ahead of Curve

When it comes to safeties, the explosion of pass-catching TE and multiple-WR sets have left a gaping void in many secondaries at the safety position. More and more, teams are looking for CB/S hybrids that can cover good, but still come up and support the run. These are not your typical strong or free safety, as Vic Carucci points out. Amazingly the Lions were ahead of the curve on this trend, selecting Daniel Bullocks in 2006, and even more so with the pick of Gerald Alexander in 2007. If Alexander were coming out this year, rather than a late 2nd, early 3rd round pick he would likely be going top of the second, possibly even as far up as into the last third of the 1st. To me, it makes the move to get a player like Alexander last year that much smarter. It is a universally weak class at safety, in a position that almost half the league needs to upgrade or update -- and for once, the Lions are the haves, instead of the have-nots.

6 Days to the Draft! Go Lions!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You're dead right again. Millen and Lewand and the whole scouting department took Alexander last year because the draft was thin on Safeties this year. They are geniuses. I still bet that Millen thinks the bottoms of rabbit cages are filled with Raisenettes.

I don't know if they actually forecast that far ahead, but YOU DID!

Personally, I think "Rudy" the Boxer has John Lynch written all over him. Whoever drafts Zdebski (sp) from Notre Dame will have a lights out safety.

nobsnubber

DetFan1979 said...

LOL - I was trying to be more subtly sarcastic with this post, but I guess maybe it didn't read right. Point was they got lucky and don't need to spend a high-rounder on a safety in a class that isn't too deep, according to Carucci. I was writing in the go-go style that you see on the official homepage just to be funny -- if they could "forecast" that well, Lions wouldn't still "need" a DE after spending a 2nd rounder on one last year when it was a deep LB class -- as position teams are already looking for. It is more of a "in hindsight" looks like a decent move since they stil have a lot of other holes to fill, and it frees them up to do so in the earlier rounds.

As I've said before, I don't watch college ball, so I was going on what I've read, and since the Lions are not in need of a safety - I haven't looked at them. Good info to know.

my apologies to all for not making the above more clear as a tongue-in-cheek compliment. I see it as similar to my friend who sold his house in 06 when price around here peaked, but didn't immediately buy a new home and is renting right now -- in hindsight it was a great move, timed perfectly for the market -- but really at the time it was because he got canned for being late to work all the time and had to.

Anonymous said...

No, No, No

My comments are dripping with sarcasm, too. I agree 100% that these guys would only think of something like that in hindsight.

Nobsnubber

Anonymous said...

The other thing is sites like Walterfootball.com actually show what next year's draft is supposed to look like.

It would not surprise me if some of that goes into the equation.