I spent, oh, about 20 minutes watching the Detroit Lions rookies work out this past Friday; and then the media was herded up and packed into a 20 x 15 room/cell, where we proceeded to spend the next hour trashing the Lions.
You'd think I was being sarcastic, and I wish I was. Turns out the guys from Flint feel the same way about this draft class as we from Grand Rapids do. It was a veritable who's who of Lions insiders and beat writers, and everyone had a varying opinion on what kind of players this year's crop of Lion's rookies will produce. I heard everything from "well-scouted diamonds in the rough" to "a bunch of no-namers who were drafted because among other things, they lack expectations to fail".
I entered Friday's workout firmly sitting on the fence, and here's what I witnessed during the session the media were allowed to view:
Calvin Johnson = As Advertised. This dude looks to be everything he was billed to be. He was extremely fluid running his routes, has a great stride, and caught everything thrown to him. He stood about 6 in. taller than everybody else the Lions had in catching balls, but in no way looked lumbering. I'm convinced this dude is going to have a great year, and with Roy's help, Kitna will too. It's like when Scott Mitchell was throwing to Herman Moore and Brett Periman...no matter how crappy a quarterback is, having good receivers to go catch his mistakes can help cover for his deficiencies (unless, of course, he's constantly being sacked 2.5 seconds after the snap). But you could see Drew Stanton drooling over the prospect of C.J. going up and grabbing his crappy passes. Speaking of which....
Drew Stanton = Quack Quack. Lock of ducks flying around Allen Park Friday, and most of them came off the arm of Stanton. Drew's never been known for his tight spiral, and you can expect him to struggle early on as Mike Martz completely remakes his delivery. You can look at it two ways: Either the Lions took a player with great intangibles and handed him over the best quarterback crafter of the past 10 years; or they overrated an under-skilled hometown boy and blew yet another chance at drafting an impact player at a different position of need (which is everywhere). There's plenty of people on both sides of this argument, but I'll reserve judgment until Game 3 of the preseason.
Ikaika Alama-Francis = Long name, Good player. I like this kid out of Hawaii, and not just because of his various tribal tattoos. The guy is huge, but as Coach Marinelli pointed out in the interview session after practice, he's very lean for his size, and looked pretty fluid and athletic running through drills. This is a guy who's only been playing football for about 4 years, so he'll take some time to develop, but you can't really put a ceiling on his development. Can't say that about many Lions draft picks, past or present.
So after spending a couple hours in Allen Park...I'm still confused. I've been burned so many times, I'm scared to give myself to this team. But honestly, it's the Lions. I should be numb to this by now. So I'll concentrate on the positives. I liked the energy the coaching staff showed during the practice. I like how Rod Marinelli runs his business. I like that Calvin Johnson should be a superstar, and Alama-Francis could be one. I liked the fact that they wrapped up in time for me to listen to the Smack-Off on the way home. So I'm happy. At least until the full team reports for training camp. Then...who knows.
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