2011 NFL Draft: Overall Final Grade for the Lions Two Second Round Picks

So here we go again.  Another two picks that seemed to come out of nowhere. I love the Detroit Lions and I'm sure that there is a method to their madness of drafting philosophy this year, but it has felt a bit like throwing a dart at the draft board.

I'm not going to criticize the team that has my full support but I am going to scratch my head for a while. 

With their first second round pick, the Detroit Lions select WR Titus Young. They trade up to the 57th pick of the second round and select RB Mikel LeShoure.

Did the Lions need another WR to compliment Calvin Johnson and to put Nate Burleson back in the slot? Yes.

Did they also need another RB to help take some of the weight off of Jahvid Best? Yes, especially since they have decided that Kevin Smith is not ever going to be that guy. 

But what happened to the enormously glaring needs at OLB?

I'm no GM but I would have focused on CB, OLB or OG/C with these picks and then gone for the best WR and RB available. That philosophy may be exactly why I am just a fan and not a GM.

My take? They must be looking for young talent at certain positions and will either get the rest through free agency (which we don't even know if we'll have) or are confident that they already have all the players they need on the roster.

The last scenario would actually be a testament to how much faith Martin Mayhew (GM) and Jim Schwartz (head coach ) must have in the current nucleus, because it is this core that has to be able to hold up the weaker parts of the whole. 

The entire idea would revolve around the big time players and veterans becoming the force that holds all other players to a higher standard. We saw that with Kyle Vanden Bosch last year but he may have his hands full with our first round pick, DT Nick Fairley.

Nate Burleson will be mentoring WR Titus Young and Maurice Morris will have to mentor RB Mikel LeShoure.

Okay, that all sounds good, but who will be working the OLB position? Who will the Lions have to lead the decreasing group of linebackers on the roster? Bobby Carpenter?

I know it is early and these guys may end up joining the list of many of the other great draft picks from the past two years, yet I am still dumbfounded about not filling the one position we don't have any players in reserve to fill. Julian Peterson is gone. Zack Follett is a huge question mark for next season. 

Maybe the plan for the puzzle of the missing OLBs is to ask other players to switch to the outside. I'm curious about who that might be but am hopeful that Mayhew and Schwartz have already figured that part out. They were not making any moves to take an OLB high in the draft so I am left to believe that they must know something that we don't.

I will eagerly wait to see what happens tomorrow.

For today, with the two picks in the second round, I reluctantly give Mayhew and Schwartz a B. 

This grade is due to the pure value of the picks and out of believing there must not have been a player that impressed them enough at the OLB or CB positions to get them in the early rounds.

I have no real concerns about the players they chose, but I do have concerns about the players they didn't choose.

Source: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/684790-2011-nfl-draft-overall-final-grade-for-the-lions-two-second-round-picks

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