Quote Originally Posted by Thruster315 View Post
Our poor Lions were the victim of the days when top draft picks were paid a shopping cart's worth inside of Fort Knox. We had to pony up the cash to pay high draft picks like Calvin, Stafford & Suh.
We can't deny that we're the "victims" of the system that was put into place then but that being said with all of those high draft picks, we should be light years ahead of other teams then. Instead we're not. We've got some amazing top notch talent yes, but not enough of supporting talent around for them to make any noise.

A close comparison might be to our Red Wings with all of that free agent talent they acquired back in the day [[Hull, Robitaille, Hasek, etc.)- they wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the Cup if the chemistry wasn't right and if it wasn't for the muckers & grinders. For every amazing talent such as a Federov, a team needs a Maltby.

This Lions team has some solid Pro Bowl caliber talent in Calvin Johnson, Matt Stafford & Ndamukong Suh- but we also need the second tier talent to step it up too. For this team to step up, we need bigger games from the likes of younger guys Mikel Leshoure, Ryan Broyles, Dwight Bentley, Tahir Whitehead, Don Carey, Jonte Green, Ricardo Silva, and most noticeably Riley Reiff needs to step into [[and contribute in a solid way) a starting position soon.

Now some of these poor souls got injured early or just played like bad rookies last year- but all one has to do is look around the league and see how they have rookies taking charge. Our last draft had no sense of urgency or immediacy to it. We drafted luxury picks.

Martin Mayhew needed to, and with this year's draft has to be more desperate in getting starters. And not just any starters- he needs to be able to get starters and contributors in the second, third and later rounds. I would even say it's fair to say that Martin Mayhew's later round picks have not panned out well.

All one has to do is remember the likes of Derrick Williams, Zack Follett, Jordan Dizon, Johnny Culbreath, and the troubled Titus Young.

Regardless of how they handle our own free agency signings [[which is daunting to say the least), the Draft needs to be solid from the first to the last. No more of these guys that look great at the combines, have great Senior Bowls, have impressive collegiate stats, etc.- they need to step up and contribute on this Lions team in a meaningful way. Mayhew's got to find them by hook or by crook. The honeymoon's over and they need to produce.