The 2010 NFL Thread

[JStarr]

Wonder if Denny Green's son is who he thought he was: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/07/09/jeremy-green-nfl-analyst-and-ex-scout-arrested-on-child-porn-c/

Even money says this story never gets anywhere near ANY ESPN programming.

EDIT: Eh, color me surprised. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5367617

[Lint]

With the release of Josh Bullocks last week, none of the 40 players drafted by Matt Millen are currently on the team >_<

[Meacon Keaton]

All those top five picks and no one is left? Wow. Imagine what kind of Super-Team you all could have had with a real GM.

[Lint]

WEll, lets review their first round of every year..

2002: Joey Harrington (Out of the league)

2003: Charles Rogers (Out of the league)

2004: Roy Williams (traded to Cowboys, not performed to expected standard)

2005: Mike Williams (Out of the league)

2006: Ernie Sims (Traded to Eagles, expected to start next season)

[livid]

Actually, Mike Williams is on the Seahawks.

[Lint]

Oh I had heard they didn't sign him..my mistake.

[MyKILLv2.0]

You said none of the players selected by Matt Millen were still on the team? I don't pay attention to the Lions much, but wasn't he the CEO for 8 years? If so to be fair, you forgot to mention his last two years of CEO where he drafted this guy named Calvin Johnson......and Gosder Cherilus. That's your best offensive player,and a starting tackle right there. In fact, his first round selections weren't all that horrible. Now, I'm not trying to make the argument that Matt Millen was an amazing GM, but I think he gets clowned on WAY to much over his first round selections. I went back and looked up all of his first round picks. What I found was that you can make justifications for all of this picks.

2008: Gosder Cherilus...... Not great, but solid tackle for a team that needs offensive line help.

2007: Calvin Johnson.... I think he might turn out to be a decent WR (Y)

2006: Ernie Sims.... Very good linebacker, who I believe is now starting for the Eagles.....a pretty credible defense.

2005: Mike Williams.... Probably the worst draft pick he made. However if Mike Williams would have been a top five player had he been able to come out the year before. It was a "risk" pick, but if it had worked out, no one would be calling the pick a dumb one now would they? Plus it isn't like Millen is the first general manager EVER to take a risk in the draft.....See Tim Tebow

2004: Roy Williams & Kevin Jones.....Roy Williams was the man in Detriot. I know he has had his problems in Dallas, but Matt Millen didn't draft Roy Williams so that he would be a good player for DALLAS. He drafted him to be a good player for the LIONS, which he was. And Kevin Jones averaged a 1,000 yards a season and eight touchdowns a year. Those aren't too bad of numbers, especially for a late first round pick.

2003: Charlie Rogers.....Bad pick in hindsight, but at the time it was the DREAM PICK. He was a instate product....so Millen had NO CHOICE but to take this kid at number two. I don't blame Millen for this pick either.

2002: Joey Harrington.... Again, it is a case where the pick just didn't work out. However remembering where Joey Harrington was when he entered the draft, I don't see this as a 'bad pick' at the time.....the player just didn't work out.

2001: Jeff Backus..... I believe this was his first pick.....and he is the other starting tackle for the Lions.

Again, I'm not trying to make the point that Matt Millen was a great GM. He wasn't. He deserves a lot of the blame, and never to be a GM of another team again. However his picks in the first round weren't INSANE by any means. They just didn't work out. The New England Patriots have picks in the first round that don't work out....it doesn't mean they are 'bad picks'. But having your picks 'not work out', and doing INSANE stuff (such as what the Raiders have done over the last couple years) are two totally different things.

[Vendetta]

Chris Johnson and the titans have come to terms on a new deal.

[JStarr]

Even as a Colts fan, this makes me happy...because living in Tennessee, a month-plus of Titans fans weeping hysterically from window ledges was going to get really annoying.

That, and I can actually draft the fucker in a fantasy league with some confidence.

[HailtotheYo]

... but I think he gets clowned on WAY to much over his first round selections. I went back and looked up all of his first round picks. What I found was that you can make justifications for all of this picks.

2008: Gosder Cherilus...... Not great, but solid tackle for a team that needs offensive line help.

2007: Calvin Johnson.... I think he might turn out to be a decent WR (Y)

2006: Ernie Sims.... Very good linebacker, who I believe is now starting for the Eagles.....a pretty credible defense.

2005: Mike Williams.... Probably the worst draft pick he made. However if Mike Williams would have been a top five player had he been able to come out the year before. It was a "risk" pick, but if it had worked out, no one would be calling the pick a dumb one now would they? Plus it isn't like Millen is the first general manager EVER to take a risk in the draft.....See Tim Tebow

2004: Roy Williams & Kevin Jones.....Roy Williams was the man in Detriot. I know he has had his problems in Dallas, but Matt Millen didn't draft Roy Williams so that he would be a good player for DALLAS. He drafted him to be a good player for the LIONS, which he was. And Kevin Jones averaged a 1,000 yards a season and eight touchdowns a year. Those aren't too bad of numbers, especially for a late first round pick.

2003: Charlie Rogers.....Bad pick in hindsight, but at the time it was the DREAM PICK. He was a instate product....so Millen had NO CHOICE but to take this kid at number two. I don't blame Millen for this pick either.

2002: Joey Harrington.... Again, it is a case where the pick just didn't work out. However remembering where Joey Harrington was when he entered the draft, I don't see this as a 'bad pick' at the time.....the player just didn't work out.

2001: Jeff Backus..... I believe this was his first pick.....and he is the other starting tackle for the Lions.

First, I would like to share this:

"His eight-year tenure as head of the franchise led to the worst eight-year record in the history of the modern NFL (31-97)"

It started with is picks.

I don't even count '01 because it was his first year.

Starting with '02 ... Harrington himself wasn't a bad idea, except: He had zero line, and Millen brought in Coach Mooch who employed a very convervative and much more technically proficient West Coast style offense that Joey simply couldn't work under. Taking Harrington was pretty f'n dumb if you hadn't lined up line help (which he hadn't), didn't plan on getting it the next few years (which he didn't), and drafted him even though you'd signed a coach with pretty much the exact opposite philosophy as the guy (which he did). Retarded pick.

'03 ... I'm sorry, but no you don't HAVE top pick Rogers. See: Houston Texans/Vince Young. If it isn't what your team needs, you don't pick him. I get the whole Michigan boy thing and all that, but seriously, so what ? The Lions had much, MUCH more concern that "taking the home state guy" ... Who was going to throw him the ball ? Even if Harrington wasn't at odds with the system he'd still be on his ass because there's no line. Jordan Gross, George Foster, Jeff Faine, Kwame Harris are the guys he had to pick. Rogers was a dumb move.

'04 ... So we get another WR ? What exactly was the purpose of the Roy Williams pick ? Sure, he was good an all ... but why did Millen pick him ? Why wouldn't you have taken Shawn Andrews or Vernon Carey ? You NEED those guys. You'd already picked up your WR last year ... but ok ok, whatever you've got another pick in the 1st ... oh wait, Kevin Jones ? Sure he did fine as well, but you still didn't adress the actual issue with your team. Since you dicked up the high draft pick why in the hell wouldn't you pick up Chris Snee, Jake Grove, or Justin Smiley ? You NEED LINEMAN, yet you haven't taken one, why ? While the players themselves were fine, the picks were stupid for Detroit to make. ESPECIALLY THIS YEAR ! Take the lineman with one of the first rounders and get a "good player" with the other, don't douche them both out on guys that you can't use/protect.

'05 ... Wait, what ? A THIRD WR ? Fucking brilliant. Yeah, who needs Jamaal Brown, Alex Barron, Chris Spencer, or Logan Mankins ? Pffft ... whatever, we can just toss it to one of our three studs. We don't need to block, anyone, ever. Absolutely retarded pick, period. This isn't a "risk" pick when you've taken a WR with your previous two first round picks and still have done nothing to deal with your lack of lineman.

'06 ... Ernie Simms was a good pick. It was a specific need. Finally, good job. But then again you blew it in the 2nd though. Did you pick up Lutui, Daryn Colledge, Marcus McNeill, or Andrew Whitworth ? No, you picked up a shitty safety. Fantastic.

'07 ... You got the best player in the draft, and I absolutely love the pick. Of course, you're in the position that you have to take him because you shit the bed from '03-'05 with your WR picks. So, by the grace of suck, you've got Calvin Johnson. While I won't argue against the pick at all because I love it, I'd still think that Joe Thomas and Levi Brown would have been the smarter pick for your team. Because you know, this trend of doing nothing to fix the most glaring issue with your team.

'08 ... HOLY SHIT A LINEMAN ! ... five years too late. Congrats on getting it right on your way out the door. Perhaps had you taken a look at what your team actually needed, you wouldn't be gone now.

Millen's picked sucked absolute ass in terms of what he needed, who would fit, personnel already with the team/coming into the team. He had no clue what he was doing and his draft picks eximplify that. Just because you drafted a "good player" doesn't mean that the draft pick itself was good/smart. David Carr was a good player, but absolutely the wrong thing for Houston. You don't take a potential franchise QB when you don't have a way to protect him (you know, like that Harrington guy).

[mystikz]

I really can't stand all these holdouts going on but with CJ, the guy was the lowest paid running back on the team and probably one of the lowest in the nfl. he really deserved a new deal.

[GhostMachine]

I really can't stand all these holdouts going on but with CJ, the guy was the lowest paid running back on the team and probably one of the lowest in the nfl. he really deserved a new deal.

Yes, he did.

However, he's said his goal is be the highest paid offensive player in the NFL. That won't happen. He might eventually be one of the highest paid offensive players, but I can think of a few QBs *cough*Peyton Manning, Tom Brady*cough* and probably a few WRs who will still make more money than him.

[NobBe Nobbs]

HTTK, posting from the warm glow of hindsight, ignores that he's being ferociously stupid in doing so.

[HailtotheYo]

Except for the fact that the glaring issue with team was the O-Line, which was the one thing he didn't address ... at all.

[livid]

Not really, they did try addressing the O-Line need in Free Agency, they just didn't pan out. Not to mention I wouldn't want a majority of the O-Linemen in the draft you listed anyways.

Also, since when it is smart to draft for need in the Top 10 instead of best player available?

[SeanDMan]

A lot of times the top ten is based on hype. If you're consistently getting top five picks in the draft and you pick the consensus pick at those spots, you're going to end up with a shitload of tackles, defensive ends, and quarterbacks, and pretty much nothing else. While Detroit could have certainly used the help at tackle, unless they could teach some of those defensive ends how to run the football or if they thought they could teach Matt Leinart how to mark a recierver and play Cover 2, they'd be a pretty bloody thin team.

While by no means should you be leaping off the board and taking a guy who is a projected third rounder in the top ten, at a certain point you have to say "Okay, we have 5 wide recievers now, we can move on and draft something else".

[gunnar hendershow]

You build championship teams in the later rounds not the earlier rounds. You'll get a few gems in the first round, sometimes you'll get two future hall of famers in the same draft in the first round (96 Ravens). But the guys who add that much important depth come in the later rounds, and hey, some of them turn into all-time greats *cough Tom Brady cough*.

[JStarr]

I'm far from a Cowboy fan...but I must say, I rather like that Marc Colombo is now following me on Twitter.

[Evil Chase K]

Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher's wife Kaye passed away today at the age of 54 after a private battle with skin cancer.

Such a shame, 54 is way too young. I'll always have a soft spot for Coach Cowher in my heart. He is Pittsburgh through and through and even though he had his faults as a coach the guy is a genuinely great human being. I feel so sad for him and his three daughters.

[gunnar hendershow]

That's something I didn't even know was going on, and it of course is sad news to hear. Putting rivalries aside, Bill Cowher comes across as one of the nicer and more genuine guys in the NFL. Of equal importance, he seemed to have fun when he was coaching. I feel even worse for his three daughters.