Detroit Lions' 2009 Draft: Left Tackle or Quarterback?

I’ve been involved in some heated discussions about this. Should the Lions take a left tackle to shore up the line and provide better protection for whomever the Lions' quarterback will be for 2009?

Or should we take a chance on a quarterback who is the most visible player in the field and one of the most important?

There are strong cases to be made for both.

 

Taking a left tackle

Over the past three seasons, the offensive line has allowed 166 sacks, and we still have two games left in the 2008 season. In 46 games, that’s an average of 3.6 sacks allowed per game.

· 2006 – 63 sacks

· 2007 – 54 sacks

· 2008 – 49 sacks

Now, I’m not the world’s smartest guy but I think I see a disturbing pattern here. True, none of these quarterbacks would be considered marquee players. But Kitna threw for over 4,000 yards in 2006 & 2007, Culpepper is a former Pro Bowler, and Orlvosky has proven himself capable.

The jury is out on Stanton, he hasn’t played enough, and the verdict for Henson is in: He’s terrible.

So can a left tackle make that much of a difference? Let’s take look at recent top 10 left tackle picks.

Joe Thomas was drafted No. 3 by the Cleveland Browns in 2007. The Browns had their own issues in 2006 with sacks with a total of 53. Since Thomas was made the starting left tackle, Browns quarterbacks have been sacked a total of 32 times for both the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

The results were evident in 2007, as the Browns went 10-6 and narrowly missed the playoffs. Injuries at the QB spot plagued them this year but sacks are only at 18 as compared to 49 for Detroit.

Jake Long was taken last year by the Miami Dolphins, a team that went 1-15 in 2007, a team that allowed multitude of quarterbacks to get sacked for a total of 42 times. In fact, the Dolphins' situation in 2007 is not all that different than this year’s Lions.

The Dolphins had four different quarterbacks in 2007 and this year, the Lions have trotted out five.

Dolphins installed Long at left tackle, sacks have dropped to 24 and Miami has a 9-5 record and currently in first place in the AFC East. Granted, Chad Pennington is a bit better than Cleo Lemon and John Beck but you still have to give props to the offensive line for reducing sacks by almost half.

 

Taking a quarterback

The quarterback, the most important position on the team, the leader, the field general, the engine to the offense. Without someone with the technical and leadership skills, a team can and will flounder. And for most of the Lions' history, this most critical position has been one that has had the least success either through free agency or the draft.

But there has been an influx of quarterbacks this year that have done better than anyone has suspected.

Matt Ryan transformed a 3-13 Atlanta Falcons team in 2007 to a contending 9-5 team in 2008. He has made Atlanta forget about Michael Vick and has them in the playoff hunt. Granted, the addition of Michael Turner has helped a lot.

But that 2007 team had everybody’s favorite whipping boy, Joey Harrington, who was sacked 32 times of the total 50 times all Falcon QB’s were sacked.

But Harrington was no leader and the GM knew that. But rather than make a panic free-agent signing (re: Dante Culpepper), he rode out the season and focused on the future.

After the 2007 coaching mess, where Bobby Petrino left after 13 games and interim coach Emmit Thomas did the best he could, Mike Smith was hired...new game plan, new QB and new RB.

Joe Flacco has been a pleasant surprise for the Baltimore Ravens. Taken No. 18 in last year’s draft, Flacco has managed the game well, improving the Ravens from 2007 5-11 season to an 8-4 and a possible playoff appearance.

He hasn’t actually lit up the field but with head coach John Harbaugh’s game plan, that’s not his job.

 

So there you have it, two sides of the coin on which way the Lions should go for the 2009 draft. Both have pros and cons.

Taking a left tackle isn’t the splashy pick but could be the safest one for the Lions. Reducing the number of sacks needs to be a priority. Allowing an average of over 50 sacks a year is having the quarterback in the ground way to much.

The other side of the coin, taking a top flight college QB such as Sam Bradford, Matt Stafford, or Colt McCoy could do more for the team’s image, which needs a lot of repair.

Ticket sales would more than likely increase and with the recent success of Ryan and Flacco, perhaps the stigma of starting a rookie QB won’t be an issue. Granted, the last rookie QB the Lions had as a starter was Harrington. But he wasn’t ready and then-head coach Steve Mariucci knew it.

But Matt Millen forced Mariucci to play him and we all know how well that turned out.

All of this is pure conjecture on my part. We don’t know what the GM situation will be in 2009, or if Rod Marinelli and company will be around next year. As always, we Lions fans will have to take a wait-and-see approach.