It only took two hours into the NFL Draft For Detroit Lions fans to start overreacting and acting like this was the “ same old Lions.” You can cut them a little slack due to the many terrible regimes they’ve endured, but it’s still too early to hate these players. Today I will explain why they are overreacting to the draft and why their overreactions are completely irrational and simple-minded.
Why Lions Fans Believe This Was A Bad Draft
The number one reason fans are hating on the draft picks is that NFL analysts thought they were a reach or didn’t have them that high on their big board. For some reason, Detroit fans believe that NFL analysts know everything and what they say should go. So once the Lions didn’t do what the NFL “experts” said they should do fans started hating and acting like the analysts know better than the scouts and GM in the actual organization. This casual way of thinking is the reason many fans believe the Lions will never be anything and the main reason why fans see this as a bad draft class.
The other big reason why fans saw this draft class as a bad one is because of the strong belief in positional value. Positional value is the belief that whether a player is better overall than another player if that second player plays a position of necessity like Quarterback or EDGE rusher, then you should take the second player over the first player. In this case, in the first round, the Lions took two of the least valuable positions as labeled by the media Running back and Linebacker. Even though these picks were both the best player on the Lions’ board and in positions of need, fans believe they were bad picks because of the value of their positions.
Why These Beliefs Are Irrational and Simple-Minded
The belief that NFL analysts are always right and their mock draft and big boards are what’s set in stone is probably one of the most casual fan beliefs out there. If these analysts were always right about players and knew more than NFL Gms then they would be the in the front offices of teams in some way, not talking about what the people in the front office will do. While these guys still do their extensive research to provide content with background knowledge for their respective programs, it comes nowhere close to the research that NFL scouts and Gms do throughout the whole year. So just because these analysts do mock drafts throughout the whole year when teams keep their plans and scouting as private as possible, it doesn’t mean they know more than NFL Gms or what will actually happen in the draft.
The reason the belief in positional value is simple-minded is that if your team just needs excellent football players, you should not go for the worse player just because the public doesn’t believe the position matters as much. If you have to decide whether to have Josh Jacobs on your team or Mitchell Trubuisky, you shouldn’t take Trubuisky just because he’s a Quarterback, you should take Josh Jacobs because he is by far a better player and will make a bigger impact for your team and will help you win more. Brad Holmes said himself he doesn’t care about positional value, he cares about getting the best players on his football team to help them win immediately. So even though people don’t view running back and linebacker as valuable positions it’s idiotic to call them bad picks purely because of their positions.
The Truth About The Lions’ Draft
The Truth about the Lions’ draft class is the Lions got some of the best players in the draft that will not only help their team at the moment, it’ll help them in the future. Brad Holmes has two drafts under his belt that have played at least one year in the league and in those there are only two players that haven’t made a significant impact on the field. The Lions ended up with five top 50 players in the class, so it doesn’t look like Brad Holmes is ending that streak he has. So just because it’s not the player the analysts had the Lions taking, or because the position isn’t valuable, remember Holmes is one of the best talent evaluators in the league and knows what’s best for his football team.
