2011 NFL Draft: Final Grade for the Detroit Lions Picks

The Detroit Lions rounded up their final 2011 draft picks with OLB Doug Hogue and OT/G Johnny Culbreath.

With these picks, we now have addressed the need at OLB and what some believed to be a huge need for the Lions at OT.  Culbreath is also known to play at the OG position, so he could be used in either role.

No one knew what the Lions would do during this draft.  They stayed the course and went for the best players available. Martin Mayhew (GM) and Jim Schwartz (head coach) reported feeling good about the players they drafted this year.  They felt that they got the guys who would bring the most to a team that now has the attention of the entire NFL.

With the addition of DT Nick Fairley, WR Titus Young, RB Mikel LeShoure and now OLB Doug Hogue and OT/G Johnny Culbreath, the Lions have built on their present and their future.

More players will be added through free agency.  Our corners will be dynamic or get an upgrade in the offseason.  Our offensive line now has so many weapons, no team will know how to cover them.

Our defense...well that brings us to the rest of the story.

The defensive line got another DT who will help take some of the pressure off of Ndamukong Suh and create a bigger and scarier front than the Vikings' "Williams Wall."

It was suggested that the Lions get a nickname for their new line.  Whatever it is it should strike fear as soon as it it uttered.  Suggestions?  Maybe something to do with the strength of the Motor City itself.  We are not the steel capital of the United States...we are the comeback capital of the United States.

No, we did not suffer the devastation of a hurricane, but we did and still are experiencing a financial crisis that almost brought the city of Detroit to it's knees.  What could have been a picture of hopelessness and despair is now one of a city's tenacity and sheer will to push forward toward greatness.

The people of Detroit don't know what giving up is and neither do the Detroit Lions.

For the last round picks, the Detroit Lions score an 'A'.  Not based on what I or anyone else, believed they would do, but what they did do. There is hope in Detroit.

Say goodbye to "Hockey Town".  This is "Football Town" now and the Lions will bring pride back to a city that almost wasn't.