Detroit Lions' Draft: Waiting Is the Hardest Part

More thoughts from the Beer Thinker:

Lions fans are now less than two weeks away from getting answers.

Will it be Matt Stafford? Aaron Curry? Jason Smith?

How will the rest of the draft shake out? Will Mayhew and Schwartz lean more toward defense or offense? 

There have been many articles written since the end of the 2008 season as well as thousands of comments attached to those articles. Many believe the 2009 NFL draft, as well as the 2009 season, are going to be the most critical in Lions history.

After the mess Matt Millen created when hired in 2001 that culminated to the historic 0-16 2008 season, there has been quite a shake-up from almost the top down to the players.

I say from almost the top since William Clay Ford, Sr. is still in the picture. If there is anyone that can define mediocrity, it's WCF. How can this person take a championship team of the 1950's and NOT EVER WIN AGAIN?

But that's an article for another time. And one that I'm not even sure needs to be written since anyone who is a Lions fan knows how painful it's been for the last 45 years since he's owned the team.

Back to this year's draft. It's a new management team in place as well as a new coaching staff. There have been some well-deserved reservations regarding both Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand.

Both were hired by Matt Millen. In order for them to succeed, if that can be done with the Lions, they will have to prove themselves 50 times over in order to remove the stench of being associated to Millen.

And so far, not a bad job done by Lewand and Mayhew. Granted, they did get off to a rough start by placing seemingly fit players, such as Jon Kitna and Mike Furrey, on injured reserve, effectively ending the 2008 season for both players.

Following the season, Furrey was released and Kitna traded to Dallas getting CB Anthony Henry in return.

Prior to that was the Roy Williams trade, as well to Dallas, getting the Cowboy's 2009 first, third and sixth picks. While we did lose a talented wide receiver, it did mark the beginning of the Lions mantra they were going to build the Lions through the draft. 

And they still have the uber-talented Calvin Johnson who needs a QB to get him the ball. Or does he? After all, he had five different QB's throwing to him last year and he still ended up with 1,331 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns.

As for the free agent market, Lions have signed on solid players, not wanting to bet the farm on big name players. But the type of players signed still smacks of the Lions being tight-wads when it comes to winning. 

Pretty soon, the Lions are going to have to take the next step in order to get to the next level. They may be building a contending team but are they building a Super Bowl team? As it stands right now, with the players they have signed and their approach, I don't see any evidence of that.

In less than two weeks, Lions fans will see just what direction the Lions are going to go.  Time for speculation is over and it's also time to forget the 2008 season. I hope the 0-16 was an aberration that will not occur again.

Come Apr. 25, I hope the dawn of a new Lions age begins.