The 2019 NFL Draft officially opened yesterday at 8pm, however, the Detroit Lions were not “open for business” as General Manager Bob Quinn had indicated earlier in April. About an hour and a half into the draft NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell walked to the podium and said “with the 8th pick the Detroit Lions selected T.J. Hockenson, Tight End, Iowa.”
Am I mad about the player selected? No.
Am I mad about the resource used to select the player? Yes.
Jon Gruden and the Oakland Raiders made the first blunder, unsurprisingly, when they reached for Clemson DE Clelin Ferrell with the No. 4 pick. Just two picks later David Gettleman and the New York Giants pooped the bed when they passed on drafting Ohio State QB Dwayne Haskins to select QB Daniel Jones out of Duke. These two picks likely led to a lot of draft boards changing on the fly during the first round last night.
After these jaw-dropping decisions by two failing organizations a number of star players remained on the board for the Detroit Lions after Josh Allen was selected No. 7 by the Jaguars:
Ed Oliver – DT, Houston
Dwayne Haskins – QB, OSU
Devin Bush – LB, Michigan
Rashan Gary – DE, Michigan
Christian Wilkins – DT, Clemson
In early April Bob Quinn told the entire world that the Lions were open for business when he said “I always like draft picks…If I could ever move back a few spots, get a really good player in the first round and add another pick, I think that’s something that would be great.” This something great could have happened, but it didn’t…
Quinn missed an opportunity to move back by striking a deal with the Washington Redskins, who desperately needed to draft franchise quarterback and Dwayne Haskins was ripe for the picking at No. 8 overall. Heading up to Draft Day it had been rumored that the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins may look to draft a quarterback in the first round.
Cincy still has Andy Dalton under contract until 2020, however, they are coming off of three consecutive losing seasons and in his four trips to the playoffs Dalton has come up empty; so why not add your future quarterback?
When you look at the Miami Dolphins, they look to be going with Ryan Fitz-“magic”-patrick this season. We all know that Fitzpatrick is a stop gap, the magic only lasts so long each season that he plays; he is not a long term solution and his backup is Jack Rudock who does not have starter caliber skills for the NFL either.
The Lions and Bob Quinn held all the cards with the No. 8 pick last night, but chose to do nothing, when they could have pressured Washington into swapping the No. 15 and likely either a 2019 second or third round pick for the No. 8 pick. With the defensive heavy draft and other teams focusing on adding offensive lineman over skill positions there was a high probability, in my mind, that Hockenson would still have been on the board at No. 15. If Hockenson was no longer available at No. 15 his teammate and TE Noah Fant would have been there and EDGE rusher Montez Sweat, who also fits the needs of this team, would have been available as well.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like T.J. Hockenson, I think he is a good fit for this team, I just think the Lions reached a little. The young TE has good hands and decent blocking skills. He will serve as a nice dump down safety blanket for QB Matthew Stafford with the well documented departure of Golden Tate via trade last season.
I’ve seen a lot of people bring up the “why sign Jesse James if you were just going to draft T.J.” comment, let me tell you why….
Lions new offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell
The offensive scheme is going to look much different in 2019 under new OC Darrell Bevell than it has under former OC Jim Bob Cooter. Matthew Stafford and the offense will likely be running a lot of plays out of two TE sets, placing Jesse James and T.J. Hockenson opposite of one another on the offensive line. If Bevell stays true to form, the Lions are going to become a Run-Run-Pass or Run-PA-Pass style offense, benefitting Kerryon Johnson and C.J. Anderson in the backfield, while attempting to setup third-down and five or less to run short dump routes to the TE position while taking their shot down the field to Kenny G a few times a game.
Hockenson fits the needs of the team but I feel that he could have been gotten later in the round and the Lions could have had an extra pick headed into day two of the draft.
Only time will tell how rounds two through seven go…
What do you think of the No. 8 pick DSA Nation?!?!?
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