After Matthew Stafford, Lions Draft Brandon Pettigrew, Louis Delmas

The Detroit Lions took all the suspense out of the first pick in Saturday's NFL draft by signing quarterback Matthew Stafford to a six-year contract Friday night. But the Lions made a couple of surprising picks later in the day, drafting Brandon Pettigrew with the 20th pick and Louis Delmas with the 33rd.

Pettigrew is a talented tight end from Oklahoma State who will be a good target for Stafford, but I'm not convnced he was the right pick at 20. I would have preferred a player like Florida wide receiver Percy Harvin or Illinois cornerback Vontae Davis.

And I'm even less convinced that Delmas was the right pick at 33. I really thought USC linebacker Rey Maualuga would have been a great addition to the Lions' defense at 33. For that matter, I would have liked Maualuga to the Lions at 20. I'm surprised by how far Maualuga fell.

The Lions have so many holes on the roster (thanks, Matt Millen!) that I'm sure Pettigrew and Delmas will step right in and play as rookies. But overall I think the Lions' first draft of the post-Millen era is off to a rocky start.

Note: I mentioned that Pettigrew and Delmas were surprising picks, but not everyone was surprised. Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News pegged Pettigrew at 20, while Tom Kowalski of MLive.com called Delmas at 33. Kudos to Gosselin and Kowalski for seeing through the smokescreens and getting a couple of tough picks right.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-25-2009 @ 10:08PM

Yohncc said...

Michael, let's see how the rest of this draft turns out before you give the Lion's another bad grade. I agree with you on Louis Delmas, however after reading his bio, I believe he will only return kicks for the Lions. I am concerned that they reached to get him as they could have taken James Laurentis (a Second coming of Chris Speilman perhaps).

While the Lions need to address their offensive line, I think getting Brandon Pettigrew is risky at best as he will primarily be needed to block, thus taking away his pass catching ability for the most part. If he turns into a David Sloan type that's fine, however the Lions have basically no line to protect Matt Stafford so why draft (and seriously over pay him? Aaron Curry would have been a much better choice with the 1st pick.

When will William Clay Ford ever learn (lol like he is ever going to)?

4-25-2009 @ 10:17PM

TROY said...

go lions

4-25-2009 @ 11:34PM

nc0gnet0 said...

I disagree, the lions having drafted Stafford made a good pick in petigrew. I do beleive however they would have been better of selecting Curry first, and then the Petigrew pick would not have made sense. I also think the lions should have stuck with offense and picked an OT with the third pick. Look, you can't fix all the Lions problems in one draft, however, you could build the offense to a point it didn't need much help other than expierance and work on the defense next year.

4-26-2009 @ 1:44AM

You may not be able to fix them all in one year, but face it. The Lions Defense last year was beyond herendous. That's why James Lauritis and AAron Curry made more sense then them drafting who they did. Too bad William Clay Ford, Tom Lewand, and Martin Mayhew are intelligent enough to figure that out yet.

4-26-2009 @ 9:17AM

Your half right yohncc, but as we all know, rarely is a qb ready his rookie year, there is a learning process involved. Better to save the defensive overhaul for next year. the last I checked, you win the game of football by scoring more points than your opponent, which is very hard to do if you don't score at all. Keep the defense of the field and they immediatly improve.

4-26-2009 @ 4:32PM

Donna said...

I know that everyone has their choice of where they want their college players to go, but we don't always get what we want. I feel that these guys are going to do their best no matter where they go. I hope Stafford does a great job and proves a lot of people wrong. I am a big Georgia fan and will pull for Stafford no matter where he goes.

4-26-2009 @ 5:37PM

Rogie said...

Take the under for 8 wins. After a couple more years of that bet I'll be able to retire. With our O-line we need Fran Tarkington. And our D will still give up 26+ points per game. Nice new logo though.