Lions May Not Want to Trade #2 Pick

There is always talk, every year, that the Lions should try and trade their first round pick away to gain more picks. This year with such a deep talent pool in the draft, it is a larger subject that usual. Yet this year might be the one year that it would not make sense.

The Lions own the #2 overall pick in this years draft. By most every account, the Rams who own the first pick overall are expected to draft either DT, Ndamukong Suh or QB, Sam Bradford. What the Rams do should weigh heavily on whether the Lions are willing to trade down.

If the Rams take Bradford, that would leave Suh standing there for the Lions to take. Suh is the most dominant Defensive Tackle to come out of college in a very long time. His talent should take the Lions already solid Defensive Line and make it a great one. That would in turn, immensely improve the Lions defense. Nowhere else in the draft are the Lions going to be able to draft a player who would single-handedly improve their defense to the extreme that Suh would.

Another thought to consider is that more often than not, a rookie needs time to develop. Even the better rookies often need time to get accustomed to the speed and talent level of the NFL. As it stands, the Lions have QB-Matthew Stafford, TE-Brandon Pettigrew, S-Louis Delmas, MLB-DeAndre Levy, and DT-Sammie Lee Hill, all rookies last year as starters on their team. That is already five players who are very young and do not have a lot of experience behind their belts. Even as good as Delmas played, he is still learning. If the Lions do not trade their picks, they would very possibly be adding another 4 or 5 starters who will be rookies. So, as it stands, the Lions could very possibly have 9 to 10 starters with 16 or less games of experience. That is nearly half of the team! Now I am a believer that it is always good to have some good young talent on the team, but to add more than that this soon would be asking for trouble. However good a player is, he usually still benefits from having veterans to help him along. The Lions right now are on the verge of spreading those veterans too thin.

However, if the Rams were to take Ndamukong Suh in the first round, I may have a different opinion. I am not a believer that McCoy is as good as he is touted. His stats in college do not come close to Suh's and then he did not come close to matching Suh in the combine. Other than people touting him because they fell for the hype, I have no reason to really believe he is anything special. So if the Lions cannot get Suh, I am a believer that there is not another player they can draft who will dramatically improve the team. Some may argue S-Eric Berry or CB-Joe Haden. Both are players who would improve the Lions in their prospective positions. Same with LT-Russel Okung. If the Rams take Suh, and the Lions took any one of these players, I would be fine with it. Yet if Suh is not available and then the Lions traded down, they may very well still end up with one of those players as well as the extra pick.

Either way about it the Lions are going to have a very young team. A very inexperienced team. When a team has this many inexperienced players, it is important to add players who will make as big of a difference as possible. Add the surest things you can. If you cannot add a player who will make a huge difference, who you are sure is a sure thing, then you add quantity over quality and hope that some turn out to be good.