Zack Follett: Mayhew's Seventh-Round Pick To Replace Millen's First?

Ernie Sims is widely considered to be among Matt Millen’s strongest first-round picks. He’s not a Calvin Johnson-caliber player, but he was the best defensive player for the Lions, almost from the time he was drafted.

Now Millen is gone, as is his regime of coaches, and Sims, while a great athlete, no longer fits the Lions’ defensive scheme. So he was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, leaving what is perceived to be a gaping hole at weak side linebacker.

The chatter since the deal has suggested that the Lions would not have pulled the trigger on the deal if they did not have an idea of how to fill the hole left by Sims’ departure.

Most of that has concentrated on projecting another deal in the works (with former Titans' star Keith Bulluck garnering most of the talk).

A couple of days ago, I suggested that Jordon Dizon might be ready to earn a role with the defense, based on the positive reviews given to him by Gunther Cunningham last year during training camp.

Which begs the question: Why did nobody, myself included, think about Zack Follett?

Okay, okay, calm down. I’m not giving the kid the job out of training camp or anything. He fell to the seventh round for a reason, and just because he’s blown some people up on special teams, doesn’t mean he’s a starting quality linebacker.

But it doesn’t mean he isn’t, either. Follett is a linebacker, after all. That’s how he’s listed on the roster. He played that position all through college, and he was drafted to play it professionally.

With Sims gone, and no immediately apparent plans to replace him from the outside, Follett is on the short list of players who could step into that starting role.

But the focus here is not whether or not he will earn the job. The simple fact that it is being discussed at all is enough to cause excitement.

Consider the implications here. Ernie Sims was selected ninth overall in 2006. He should be approaching his prime, and given his draft position,  he should be a perennial Pro Bowler.

Zack Follett was drafted 235th overall, and given his draft position, should be either on a practice squad or a used car lot somewhere.

Regardless, Ernie Sims, a former top-10 pick, could now very possibly be replaced by Follett, a seventh-rounder nobody expected to make the team, much less start.

Depending on whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist, you can say that speaks more to Matt Millen’s incompetence, or Martin Mayhew’s savvy.

Either way, it’s a good sign for the future. And maybe it makes you think about the seventh-round pick that came along with that trade.