Lions Will Sign Top Pick Before Draft

A recent trend in the NFL is teams picking first overall in the draft signing their pick before the actual draft day. Most recently, the Texans did it with Mario Williams, then the Dolphins with Jake Long.

It's a move that makes sense, since you don't want to be stuck watching your top draft pick holding out. That's pretty embarrassing for an organization. Apparently, even the Detroit Lions are smart enough to avoid such embarrassment.

On MLive.com, Tom Kowalski reminds us the Lions will sign the first pick in the draft before it is announced by the commissioner. Doesn't matter if the Lions really want Matthew Stafford or not. They're going to sign him first.

You can argue that such a stance hurts your ability to get the player you want, but if you're going to use signability as a qualification for being that top pick, you have to follow through.

In all honesty, the Lions are in a great position to do this. There are no real areas of strength on this team. They could easily justify taking Stafford, Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree, one of the big offensive linemen named Smith (Andre and Jason), defensive tackle B.J. Raji, or a linebacker like Aaron Curry of Wake Forest.

In the past, there have been some areas that teams picking first overall had to address more than others. The Lions can go in a bunch of different directions in this draft. They should be able to use that fact to make sure the player they end up picking really wants to be there.

(And, yes, there will be a player in this group that sincerely wants to be a part of this team.)

Regarding Stafford, Kowalski has another article up where he compares him to Cleveland's Derek Anderson.

If the Detroit Lions are interested in Matthew Stafford, it would make sense that they also would be interested in Cleveland quarterback Derek Anderson. They're basically the same guy, right? Both are young players who have rocket arms and still struggle with bouts of inconsistency.

Ouch. And to think Stafford is still the favorite to be picked first overall. Kowalski actually makes a good point. Anderson is cheaper than Stafford would be, and you know he can start in Week 1. With Stafford, you probably won't know for sure until training camp if he can start the opener.