NFL Draft, Part 3 (rounds 3-7)
As the Detroit Lions picked another tight end (Isaac Nauta, a name most everyone here likely remembers as being a Michigan recruiting target a few seasons back) with pick #225 of the 7th round, it's time to finally get a general thread up for reactions and predictions from the board.
General consensus on the MGoBoard so far is that the front office of the Lions is still as clueless as ever. I think that's a good assessment overall. Any differing opinions?
What about fans of other NFL teams? How's your team's draft going?
And as the 2019 draft winds down, what are your thoughts on the likely undrafted free agent Wolverines (probably including Karan Higdon)?
Team Captain, HEALTHY, skips bowl game.
This is a potential character negative for teams looking to draft a player. If you are a talented enough player it can be overcome. If you have at least some semblance of an injury excuse it can be explained away. When you have neither it can be the difference between the 6th or 7th round and UDFA.
Karan seems like a good kid with a good story and I am pulling for him. It seems like he just made a bad decision or took some poor advice in this situation.
He's a guy ranked around the 200 range or a bit lower. It's not that much of a surprise he wasn't drafted. I would've predicted he was going to, but it's not a surprise.
There's literally 40 guys ranked above him that didn't get drafted either (ESPN). People are too quick to attribute it as it there is no doubt would've gotten drafted if he played in a meaningless game which so many others don't.
Like I was upset when he chose not to, a lot of us were, but it's a major bias and pretty self centered as a Michigan fan to attribute your own feelings of what he did wrong to how NFL teams would view him.
I think it's more people overestimating his talent and then rationalizing the outcome.
He looked really good at times last year and his stats were very solid. However, a lot of RBs would have looked that good based on scheme alone. Plenty would have looked much better.
He was a good, not great college RB. There are a lot of those out there.
when this came up at bowl time i had the same thoughts as azblue. i understand the business part of the decision, but when you are captain of the team that rises above 'business'. you don't sit out. you might not play a ton, but you don't sit out.
Um, no. Such a bad look that tons of guys sat out and were drafted high. If you think teams care if you play in a meaningless bowl game you don't understand the NFL. He'd given his four years of indentured servitude and was smart to sit out. He owes us nothing.
The list of juniors and others who left with eligibility but didn't get drafted should be published in every college newspaper every year.
Why, so no one reads it?
It appears Bob Quinn has a Johnson fixation, as he chose one in each of the last two rounds (RB Ty Johnson in the 6th and DT PJ Johnson in the 7th)
Extreme trivia: I was looking over the 7th-round list and saw a familiar (well, at least to someone who's half-followed the Detroit Lions over the years) name: Elliss.
Kaden Elliss (of the Idaho Vandals) is a LB and the son of former Lion Luther Elliss.
A decent Wisconsin OG is still available.
Pretty shocked myself that Higdon didn't get taken.
Maybe the league wasn't aware his teammates were calling him at halftime of the bowl game for advice since he was a captain? Lulz.
Off topic but Maxx Crosby went in the 4th round to Oakland. Undersized but dudes gonna kill it!!!
Lions third day was the best day of their draft by far. No major qualms with any of our picks. First two picks, I’m not happy with at all. Not that I think they’ll be bad players, but definite reaches for where we drafted them
2019 Mr. Irrelevant: UCLA TE Caleb Wilson, going to the Arizona Cardinals, one of the few teams more irrelevant than the Lions.
Cardinals have been to a Super Bowl recently, so probably not more irrelevant.
I am a Niners guy, and was pretty disappointed with our performance today. Our whole draft was up and down.
While it will piss off a ton of people on the board, I was a huge fan of the Bosa pick. He’s a freak of nature, and is gonna be a beast. But we seemed to select some underwhelming guys throughout the draft, and picked up a kicker in Round 4!!! No excuse for that stupidity.
we did make positive offseason moves, but - overall - I’d give our draft grade a C+.
Did they keep Mullens? He looked really good after Jimmy G went down.
Good question! I actually had to look it up! There were tons of trade rumors about him going into the draft, but I can’t find anything that says he was actually traded. So - I don’t think he was traded but can’t 100% confirm.
He definitely performed well. With an average defense, he could have won a few games. But that’s been the story of the Niners since Coach Harbaugh left. Our defenses were viscous under him.
Deebo Samuel is really good, that was a nice pick too.
Totally agree. He’s a versatile player, and I think Shanahan will have some good schemes for him. I get the sense the Niners are stockpiling a lot of players to run a KC-like offense...
But - guh - our defense is brutal, and burning a pick on a punter instead of CB or Safety was a rough pill to swallow.
Yeah seems like yall had one of the worse pass defenses last year. One DB in the final pick probably isn't ideal. Maybe they're just banking on the pass rush getting so good that the secondary doesn't need to be much better (probably a bad plan).
Also find it funny that people think Higdon playing in a game where he would have looked bad (because the team did not care) would have helped his stock. He did well at Senior Bowl practices and his combine. If he wasn’t drafted off those plus 30+ games of film in college - he wasn’t gonna get drafted by playing in a bowl game
I wonder if Higdon went undrafted due to skipping the bowl game. His measurables and production were better or comparable than every back taken today. But NFL coaches can become easily fixated on one flaw, especially if it's perceived as a character flaw
As for the Lions, I thought Quinn redeemed himself a bit today, although it's still unclear to me who the backup QB is going to be this year. Connor Cook? Really? I'm pretty meh on Hockenson, unless he turns out to be the next Kittle, and Tavai was a massive reach who easily could've been the pick at 88. But I really like the BC safety, Clemson DL, PSU CB run in the middle.
Overall, I think that as long as Stafford is able to focus this year given his wife's recovery, the Lions can get back to 9-7. The schedule sets up really well after a tough first month, so if they come away from the MNF game in Lambeau no worse than 2-3, I think they'll at least be in contention for a wild card.
Rounds 3-7 I give a B+. Covered our needs, got a few guys that probably could’ve been picked higher.
Rounds 1-2 I give a D. Hockenson will probably be a solid TE. But if you’re taking one in the top 10, he’s gotta be an All Pro level TE. Rather had a pass rusher or OL there or traded down. Tavai would have been available two rounds later. And if not, that’s fine. Several ILB lasted well into the later rounds that were projected higher. Two reaches.
I still say that Caldwell waa a good coach....
I think he’s pretty solid. You’re not gonna overachieve with him, but you’re not gonna underachieve. I was fine with them letting him go, but when we opted to hire Patricia, I was wishing we hadn’t. I have no faith in Patricia and when Quinn hired him, I thought it showed Quinn to be a fraud
Everyone calling out Karan in this thread is a bunch of whining bitches. Stop shitting on Karan. He came back for his senior year. He played for the team. He made a public guarantee vs. OSU for the team--he put his neck and body on the line plenty. He's done more for this team than anyone on this blog by a country mile (except the few on the blog who played for UM).
Most of the arguments are ludicrous. The idea that the only reason the Pats took Chase was b/c he played in the bowl game is silly. He was a second round talent available in the third round. I have massive respect for Chase playing in the bowl game, but come on. Everyone who is mad Karan didn't play in the bowl, feel how you want, but don't let that cloud your logic on his draft status. He was a 6th-UFA player whether or not he sat out the bowl game. He was one of the next 3 top available RBs. A whole bunch of mgobloggers were crapping on Gentry for leaving early--where'd that go now the he got drafted?
Bottom line: support the men who play for Michigan, especially when they are good humans like Karan, Bush, Chase, et al. When they make a choice you disagree with, don't let that let you lose sight of the bigger picture. Go Karan, go blue.
so the lions pay a lot to get a TE in the offseason. then they draft a TE in the top ten. then they draft another TE. i don't get it.
What is there to get?
They're the Lions...
ya, they will probably go to the run n shoot offense again in a couple years and cut all those TEs loose.
ya, they will probably go to the run n shoot offense again in a couple years and cut all those TEs loose.
If Lions take Oruwariye in the 2nd and Tavai in the 5th this whole draft feels way better to me.
It's painful to see such an unremarkable LB taken in the top half of the 2nd round when there were so many talented players still available. This is one of the deepest drafts I've ever seen. Several 2nd and 3rd round picks will make huge impacts. Tavai is not one of those players. Feels like when Millen took the DE out of Hawaii in the 2nd 10 years ago (Alama-Francis?)
i am with you on tavai. i don't understand why teams reach like this (eh, giants QB). cbs had tavai as #195 and #17 LB. why the hell reach that high, even if you like him. take him a round (or 2) later. if someone jumps in unexpectedly, take the next LB. it would be a good one and i doubt anyone questions it.