Detroit Lions: 6 Most Surprising Moves This Year

Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz have never been the most predictable brain trust in the NFL. They appear to thrive on doing the unexpected.

Generally speaking, Mayhew and Schwartz disagree with the fans as to what areas of the team need help and by how much. As a result, it has become commonplace for the Lions to make a move and the fanbase's collective jaw to drop.

This season was no different, and better yet, it was all concentrated in a few major areas. Since the only moves made were during either the draft, the week-long frenzy that constituted free agency or the most recent roster cuts, fans were treated to one of two extremes: High drama or absolutely no news at all.

Here we'll focus on the former. These were the most jaw-dropping moments of the strange, sporadic 2011 offseason.

Drafting Nick Fairley with the 13th Overall Pick

Since about the mid-point of the 2010 season, there was an steady buzz about the prospects of the Lions getting Prince Amukamara.

Would he fall to the Lions? How great would it be if they were able to supplement the defense with one of the corners on the market, who also happened to be Ndamukong Suh's former teammate?

The only people who ruled it out did so because they assumed he'd come off the board somewhere in the top 10.

It turned out that the Lions ended up in the best-case scenario, with four quarterbacks (the only position the Lions were guaranteed not to draft) going in the top 12.

As a result, Amukamara fell to the Lions at 13, and cheers went up from Lions fans to drown out most of the Vikings fans booing Christian Ponder.

And the Lions responded to their ideal pick by taking...Nick Fairley. Another defensive tackle. Was it right or wrong? Who knows? Fairley and Amukamara (who ended up going 19th to the Giants) have both spent the vast majority of their professional careers injured.

Regardless of whether it works out (and this will be a common thread on all these slides because I'm interested in what had shock value, not what was or was not a great move), the reaction to the Fairley pick was quiet shock, confusion and almost unanimous acclaim from NFL analysts.

That last part brought even more confusion. Lions fans are not accustomed to NFL analysts praising their team's great draft move.

Cutting Ricardo Silva

Ricardo Silva could not have done much more to earn himself a roster spot in preseason action.

In limited action over four preseason games, Silva notched two interceptions (one off Tom Brady) and a forced fumble. He very nearly had a third pick against Buffalo, which would have given him a turnover forced in every game he played.

Yet the Lions cut the training camp hero, leaving many to wonder what more he could have done to beat out Erik Coleman or John Wendling for that extra safety spot.

According to Jim Schwartz, Silva was a gamer who didn't practice well. Perhaps Schwartz was afraid of the UDFA safety's high-risk, high-reward style, or perhaps he was sending a message to any of his other players who don't take practice time seriously enough.

Still, the Silva cut brought a great deal of surprise (or anger) to Lions fans. He was signed to the practice squad, but who knows how long he'll last there?

Signing Stephen Tulloch

Maybe this was only a surprise to me, I'm not sure. Everybody else seemed to think it was imminent. And in this instance, it appears everyone else was right.

I had Stephen Tulloch pegged to get a multi-million dollar mega-deal when free agency finally opened back up, but that deal didn't come.

So he went to his former defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz, looking for a one-year contract that would set him up for the big payday next year.

And that's the story of how the Detroit Lions ended up with one of the biggest free agents on the market with discount pricing. Everything about the deal was a shock, from the price to the timing to the fact the it represents a major shift in the way free agents look at joining the Detroit Lions.

Or maybe it was only a surprise to me, I don't know.

Aaron Brown's 11th-Hour Cut

Though he still appeared about as interested in the Detroit Lions' playbook as Miguel Cabrera, Aaron Brown could run, and he was a play maker throughout the preseason.

And that, in addition to a number of injuries to top running backs, was expected to be enough to keep him on the roster. And when final cuts came down Saturday, Brown had indeed made the final 53-man roster.

The next day, the Lions cut him (psyche!), eventually using his roster spot for Washington castoff Keiland Williams.

This was another surprise, as the initial report had Brown cut in response to "a waiver claim." The big name floating around was Chester Taylor, and so finding out the player in question was Williams brought the question "who?" followed by a lot of Google searches for him.

When the Lions drafted Mikel Leshoure in the second round, most figured that was the end of the line for Brown. But then Leshoure (and Jahvid Best and Maurice Morris) went down with injury, and Brown seemed capable of producing with the first team.

Clearly it wasn't enough.

Trading Up to Draft Mikel Leshoure

This move has been both one of the most surprising and most divisive of the 2011 offseason.

And Leshoure hasn't helped anything by hitting the shelf until next season.

Lions fans were shocked and/or outraged when the Lions gave up one of their (already limited) draft picks to get back into the second round and nab Leshoure.

Most of the angst centered around more pressing needs in the secondary, linebacking corps and offensive line. Two-thirds of those needs have since been addressed, but Leshoure himself will have to wait until next year to state his case.

Though the Lions' pickups of Jerome Harrison and Keiland Williams are beginning to illustrate just how great a need the Lions felt they had when they drafted Leshoure.

Ryan Donahue over Nick Harris

Of the players facing battles in training camp, nobody expected to be talking about this one.

Nick Harris isn't a future Hall-of-Famer or anything (is any punter?), but he was a fixture for nearly a decade in Detroit. So to be beat out of camp by a rookie is a shock.

Granted, we all know by now that this was little more than a cost-cutting measure by the cap-strapped Lions, but they wouldn't have made the move if Donahue hadn't fought Harris to a draw in camp.

Nobody likes to see the punter take the field, but at least punts in Detroit will have some intrigue, as the team and its fans try to feel out the former Iowa Hawkeye.