With the college football season essentially behind us (see Senior Bowl, Texas vs. The Nation Game), Lions fans can now spend the next three-plus months wondering who will be anointed the next savior. When pundits often look at the Lions needs during April’s NFL Draft they often do not know where to begin. If we can take two things out of the 2008 season they would have to be 1) that it is possible for a team to go 0-16; and 2) a QB can turnaround a franchise in a hurry.
Time will only tell if Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan develop into quarterbacks that other teams will envy for years to come. Of the eight starting QBs remaining in the playoffs, six of them (Arizona’s Warner and Carolina’s Delhomme went undrafted) were first round picks. Detroit has three of the first 33 picks, an opportunity to get that much needed MLB (Laurinaitis or Maualuga), perhaps another defensive stalwart (Orakpo, M. Johnson, E. Brown) and the QB of the future.
So who will that QB be? If it’s Stafford of Georgia that pick would have to come early. Kansas State’s Freeman or Clemson’s Harper would be solid options later on. I am very skeptical of Sam Bradford potentially making the move – Freeman looks to be the cream of the crop coming out of the Big XII.
The man on the left will be on television this NFL draft, the man on the right will be in Chicago