OT: Lions sign Stafford to six years and 41.7 million
ESPN just broke this story.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4097641
April 24th, 2009 at 11:10 PM ^
I think The Onion shares my opinion on this one...
Link
April 24th, 2009 at 11:11 PM ^
You can change the people in charge, you can change the logo...but you can't change the outcome.
Mindnumbing incompetence.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:16 PM ^
I won't believe it unless I hear it from Kirk Herbstreit.
April 24th, 2009 at 11:28 PM ^
same old shit .... 78 million WTF stop watching on Sunday !
April 24th, 2009 at 11:32 PM ^
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK
April 24th, 2009 at 11:33 PM ^
I bet the same thing happens to him that happened to Joey Harrington...
April 24th, 2009 at 11:34 PM ^
Can he block, tackle or rush the passer? No? Perfect, fits right in!!!! Absolutely pathetic! Is Millen still on the payroll?
Funny how a team that starts free agency with appx. 25-30 MILLION signs not one significant player and overpays for some of its own off of an 0-16 team. The reality is Mayhew was Millen's FLUNKY, but I will hold off and see what he does with the rest of the early picks. There are going to be some pretty good players left at 20 and 33. Remember the uproar that Atlanta was in when they took Ryan last and then reached for Baker with their 2nd first rounder. Maybe this will work out! I doubt it, but......
April 24th, 2009 at 11:49 PM ^
I can't wait to watch him throw perfect rocket spirals to opposing defenders.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:04 AM ^
You always hear defense wins championships! That's why the lions always draft Offense! Watch Arron Curry Turn into one of the leagues top defensive players and Stafford change his name to Couch! I could run a team better than this!
April 25th, 2009 at 12:15 PM ^
No you couldn't.
People act like the Lions are passing on Lawrence Taylor. Aaron Curry had nine sacks in four season at OLB. He had six interceptions -- four in one season. He's not guaranteed to be an impact player. There are no sure-fire stars in this draft. So they are rolling the dice on a guy with all of the physical attributes to be a star QB. Hopefully they can develop him.
And don't compare Stafford to Couch. Stafford played a pro-style offense against the best defenses in college football. Tim Couch played in a John L. Smith style passing spread offense in college that did not require him to read coverages and did not have a professional arm. I'm not saying Stafford is the next Peyton Manning or anything, but don't just conjure up the name of any former first pick busts and use them to bolster your argument that Stafford will fail. He might, but it won't be because he's like Couch. They have nothing in common except being the first pick.
You talk about him playing against the top defenses last year. Let's go with that against what IMO the 4 best teams he played last season Florida, Alabama, Vanderbilt, and LSU. Stafford averaged 235 yrds with 6 TDs and 6 Ints. Those are pretty average numbers for a first overall. While Curry averaged 100 tackles past 2 years. I believe last season Patrick Willis led the NFL with something like 115 tackles. Curry is a tackling machine and that would be a pleasant addition to a team that seemed to miss every other tackle. We have culpepper for say 2 more years at least and next years QB crop IMO is better. You can say all you want stafford is nothing like couch leaf or harrington but with that risk. I say Ford is an idiot and Curry was the best choice. So lets get Oher with 20 draft a TE in the 2nd and loose games 42-35 this year.
Not for nothing, but he completed 65 percent of his passes against LSU. He was bad against Florida, I'll concede.
And it's not a given that next year's QB crop is not better. It has McCoy and Bradford. Both are perceived as more accurate, but they play the spread which means that their completion percentages are inflated by dump off passes (when is that going to work for us?!). Bradford was just as bad as Stafford against Florida in the NCG.
As I said in my first post, the problem isn't that this is a weaker QB draft -- it's a weak draft all around. However, the Lions will most likely have a high pick again next season. Brandon Spikes will be available. He's a much better LB than Aaron Curry, especially since the Lions were going to take Curry and make him play a position that he has never played before (MLB). Taylor Mays will be available too. I'm hoping they can get Robert Ayers or Peria Jerry with the second pick and Max Unger with the 33 to play him at guard.
If we get spikes next year then maybe i'll agree. He would have been top 3 this year and won't drop any for 2010. I predict lions get somewhere between the 7th n 10th pick next year and miss out on both Spikes and Mays. (It's just in the lions nature to win when we're not supposed to)
I will give you a +1 on Ayers he's a beast but I hope we snag Alphonso Smith or DJ Moore with 33
also I read a ESPN article that outlines our picks: a few were
Matt Stafford, Knowshon Moreno, Asher Allen, Dannel Elerbe
anyone see a pattern here?
Stafford was a choking dog. He disappeared during big games. And he was terrible at reading the faster defenses he faced. Since all NFL defenses are a lot faster than even the best in college, this does not bode well.
This pick is even worse than Joe Dumars' Darko Debacle. That cost the Pistons Carmelo and probably a couple of more championships, but at least the Pistons were good at the time and it was sort of a "bonus" pick. The Lions definitely were bad enough to earn the first overall pick, and have a lot of needs more pressing than QB. Picking Stafford will cost the Lions at least five more years, plus two for rebuilding again.
That means that it will now be at least 2017 until the Lions have a chance of getting to the Super Bowl or even pretending they can get there.
Unless, somehow, they trade Stafford tomorrow for two picks.
Otherwise, 50 years of poo just became 55 years of poo.
"Stafford was a choking dog. He disappeared during big games. And he was terrible at reading the faster defenses he faced. Since all NFL defenses are a lot faster than even the best in college, this does not bode well."
This is exactly what everyone said about Peyton Manning that led many NFL talking heads to say that Ryan Leaf was a better option. I'm not saying he's going to be Peyton Manning. I'm just saying that you can't kill a kid because he played bad against Florida. Florida and Alabama had perhaps the two best defenses in college football last season. They did that to a lot of people, including Sam Bradford.
EDIT - I should have read down one post!
That's the same thing they said about Manning and Brady coming out of college. The pro game totally different. Besides, at some point you've got to roll the dice with a high-priced young quarterback. Are you really going to be that much more excited about Sam Bradford next year?
Stafford certainly has all the tools and it sounds like he's actually excited about playing for Detroit. At this point I don't think the Lions can do much better than that.
Stafford did not instill confidence whilst he overthrew wide open receivers in the Capital One Bowl against an overmatched MSU secondary in the first half. He ended up doing well, but his tenure in Georgia was sort of up-and-down. His freshman year was atrocious, Cox v. Stafford looked like Threet v. Sheridan down there. He improved quite considerably but I still am more nervous with him than with other players. Curry is by no means a lock, but the Lions could have traded down and picked up Sanchez and maybe Oher in the first round. Maybe if Detroit took a flier on... Pat White...(?) in a later round and ignited some excitement around the franchise... still probably not...
April 25th, 2009 at 12:19 PM ^
No. If you think Stafford isn't going to be a good QB, why the hell would you "take a flier" on someone who almost certainly will NOT be a good pro QB when they have needs at every other position? No fliers in this draft, please.
Hah, Pat White would be an Antwaan Randle-El type player except with more experience. Slot reciever, punt returner, quarterback in a wildcat type offense. I don't see how a franchise could not get a playmaker in this draft... at least one. Pat White would add excitement with a low pick. He sure isn't a safe pick, but he'd be a high reward, medium risk prospect.
Look at the Dolphins' gimmick use of the wildcat, it was a tremendous asset, but with White it'd be better. that's not to say he'd be solely a wildcat quarterback, he'd return kicks and punts, and play slot.
Listen, I wanted Aaron Curry just as much as everyone else here. However, I refuse to panic over this for a couple reasons. One, we just traded for Peterson, and although he is declining, we did upgrade the linebacker corps. Plus, there may still be Maualuga and Laurinaitis available at #20. Second, these guys have scouted this guy relentlessly. Mayhew didn't fall in love with him after he threw one good pass at the combine, like Millen did with Harrington. The management and coaching staff all agreed he was the guy and took him, so I think he must have the potential to be successful. Stafford is just one player, and it is more important that they use their next picks wisely throughout the rest of the draft. And as far as trading down is concerned, the number 1 pick did not have a high value because there was no clear-cut #1 player. I know your patience is wearing thin, but I think Stafford deserves a shot.
I was pro-trading down, but I think you're right about that. In this draft no one wanted the number one pick so we didn't have a choice of trading it. But why not take the best Oline choice? A pro bowl left tackle makes a pro bowl qb.
ive been a lions fan too long to have trust in this organization. stafford is a joke, in any other draft he would be a second round pick. hell, john navarre woulda gone the first round in this thing. there are NO qbs. seriously, the top 3 are underclassmen??
and on top of that they throw 41 million dollars guaranteed at this man? what happened to all the leverage the lions had? what the f. was stafford asking for originally. 60 million??? jesus. there is one thing being a fan, but i think the organization has gone too far. i need a new NFL team to root for on sundays.
HATE THIS MOVE.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:21 PM ^
Then you go root for that other team. "Gone too far"? By signing who everyone agrees to be the top QB? Get over it.
"In any other draft he would be a second round pick". Really? That is worse then anything I've heard Kiper say. Have you ever watched a single Georgia game?
Please, please, please Lions handle this right. You have Daunte and looks right now to be in the best shape he has been since Minnesota. Please don't play Stafford this year. I don't care if you have to start Henson. Let him sit and learn and you greatly increase your chances of Stafford succeeding.
You've been hearing all week from every source except the guy on the Huge Show that the Lions were going to pick Stafford. You've watched them draft poorly for the last 8 years. You're shocked and outraged that they signed Stafford? No, you're not. You're shocked and outraged because you hoped that a Ford-run Lions with a Millen-hired GM would somehow be different. Grow-up and put your hope in Rodriguez and college kids, not executives and professionals!
The Fords are still running the show. Anybody who thinks that Mayhew and Schwartz can really call the shots are fooling themselves. The pick of Stafford has all the classic Ford-owned Lions earmarks: make a choice not based on what's best for the team, but based on what they think will sell tickets. I can't believe that Schwartz, as a defensive guy, really thinks this is the best move with the pick.
As a kid I was a big Lions fan in the early 60s when they were one of the better teams in the league. Ford bought the team in '63 and it pretty quickly went into the dumper, and I haven't been a Lions fan for over 20 years.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:04 PM ^
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nthoH__l88M
Not sure if this will make anyone a Stafford believer but it's still pretty sweet.
i'm not a lions fan so i really don't care. i happen to be a steelers fan that lives in NW Ohio, so i hear a lot about the lions. just an opinion, but i think the lions would have been much better off filling other spots of need then picking up Chase Daniel later in the draft.
Before you post anything rash, dig this, everybody plays the fool sometime, there's no exception to the rule.
Anyone I see making grand pronouncements on what Stafford will or will not do, I chalk up to emotional outbursts, from hurt Lions fans.
The majority of the pundits rate Stafford highly and as the best QB available and one of the top players overall. Please spare me with painting him as some worthless prospect that anyone with 2 eyes can see is going to fail. Calm down, get a grip, time will tell.
I am glad the Lions are getting a QB this year. Hopefully he will be brought along slowly. Remember the Lions will more than likely have a top ten pick next year, so they can get the stud offensive tackle next year. Also, we have 2 more early picks yet this afternoon too address our multitude of needs. Go Lions.
We're going to have to ask you to leave.
Seriously, I have to agree. Let's wait until the Lions demonstrate that they've screwed the draft up before we criticize them for it. Frankly, it'll be hard to tell for a few years. The Lions haven't drafted worth a damn since the Wayne Fontes era.
I will be pretty discouraged if he hits the field next year in anything but mop-up duty.
Stupid. He might be worth a first round pick, but 1st overall? Give me a break.
Daunte is going to be the QB this year anyways (well that's the plan at least) and next years draft has waaaaay more talent at QB. I would probably take Bradford in his rookie year over Stafford in his seconds year, but that's a long ways off.
Hopefully I'm wrong. A lot can happen. I would just rather have had a much more stable pick.
First, I would have liked to have seen them trade down. Pity none of the other teams wanted to.
Second, eh, I'm not entirely convinced of that. Next year's quarterbacks have all done very well in their systems, but that's not necessarily going to convert to success in the NFL.
Third, and pardon me for shouting, ARE YOU SAYING YOU WANT THE LIONS TO DRAFT TIM FUCKING TEBOW? Because he is going to be in the draft next year, and, well, the Lions did draft Andre Ware.