TSN’s Vinnie Iyer on Michael Crabtree
January 27, 2009 on 3:03 pm | In Uncategorized |The Sporting News’Vinnie Iyer has recently written an interesting article about the difficult decisions that teams atop the ‘09 draft board will face when they make their upcoming selections.
Iyer essentially claims that in spite of the rapid success of both Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco, who each lead their respective teams to the NFL playoffs during their inaugural season, it is a shrewder, safer bet that WR Michael Crabtree will be the next Larry Fitzgerald, than Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez eventually becoming the next Flacco and Ryan.
The scary prospect is, Iyer may be right, to the chagrin of the psychically-damaged Lions fan base who have suffered through SO MANY wide receiver misfires during the recent Matt Millen-era.
If Michael Crabtree is the best prospect in the draft, and the combine and assorted workouts bear that fact out, what will Martin Mayhew and company decide to do in that spot?
How would Lions fans respond, if the Lions chose to add Crabtree and pair him with Calvin Johnson? I wrote Iyer and email reminding him, if he didn’t recollect, that the decision to draft another wide receiver by the Lions would be an exercise similar to the heavily-publicized “waterboarding” torture tactic that has been utilized in “Gitmo”. (This is not meant to be insensitive, either) I am honestly uncertain that an embattled Lions fan base could overcome such a decision.
Hopefully, a lead dog emerges at the combine, that is not a QB or Crabtree, and that player makes it abundantly obvious for the Lions that they are the complete package worthy of the number overall pick, and they are eminently signable, too.
Otherwise, a whole fan base could be rife with anger, compulsive hand-wringing, and ambivalence. Wait, that’s actually quite familiar territory for Lions fans.
2 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Powered by WordPress with Pool theme design by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^
While I definitely don’t have a problem with a WR being taken in this draft, even a higher pick, I couldn’t abide by the #1 overall pick going to wide reciever. Calvin Johnson was–by far–the best overall prospect available in the draft last year, and many talking heads were saying he might be the best overall prospect of the past five-to-ten years! Crabtree looks like a stud in the making, but I don’t think that any t-shirt-and-short peformance from here on out could (or should) elevate him that far above the rest of the crowd. Unfortunately, this looks like a year where you could make a compelling case for any one of 4-5 guys at the #1 overall spot.
Comment by ty@thelionsinwinter — January 28, 2009 #
TY–I agree. Crabtree will be a spectacular player but, it so freakin’ obvious, even with the lack of depth the Lions currently have at wideout (Johnson, John Standeford, Adam Jennings, and ?).
A lot of my gut feelings depend upon what Cunningham/Schwartz come up with for a defense. If it is a combo 3-4/4-3, then it’s DE Michael Johnson.
If they remain in a 4-3, then draft a LB/DB with pick #20 and select an OL with the top pick. That being said, a lot of things have to play out between now and April.
Comment by Steve — January 28, 2009 #