The Detroit Lions have a chance to be really good next season. They went 10-6 this season and made the playoffs despite injuries to the likes of Nick Fairley, Jahvid Best, and Mikel Leshoure. With some good moves in free agency and the NFL Draft, the Lions could maybe even contend for the NFC North.
Obviously, the NFL Draft isn't until late April, and free agency will happen before the Draft does. However, we're got to wait for players to get franchised and what have you, so that will be discussed later. Plus, I love the NFL Draft and with the Senior Bowl this week, I figured I'd discuss potential targets for the Lions in the 2012 NFL Draft. I will cover defense later, but this shall be a look at players the Lions may take on offense.
The Lions draft 23rd overall this year, so they won't quite have the selection that we have grown accustomed to. However, Martin Mayhew and company have drafted well, so they should be able to figure something out. Obviously, the Lions won't take a quarterback, and if they take a wide receiver it likely won't be until very late. The same goes for tight end.
I could see the Lions taking a running back, but not in the first couple of rounds. They have Best and Leshoure returning healthy. Of course, Best's health is always in question, and we haven't seen Leshoure just yet. Taking a running back in, say, the fourth or fifth round is possible. If they want speed, a sort of Best-lite for when he's banged up, they could go with Jeff Demps or Chris Rainey from Florida. If they want somebody bigger, perhaps Mississippi State's Vick Ballard.
The one place where the Lions don't feel truly set on offense is the offensive line. More to the point, the right side of the offensive line where Stephen Peterman and Gosder Cherilus reside. This is what I would like to see the Lions address in the first round. I have suggested the Lions more Cherilus to guard before and getting a new right tackle, but I think drafting a guard in the first round would be a good option as well. Unfortunately, other than David DeCastro, there might not be a guard worth taking in the first round, and he is going to go too high for the Lions to get him.
However, while Todd McShay has Cordy Glenn, a guard from Georgia, at 38th overall, Mel Kiper Jr. has him way up at 17. Glenn is a big, durable player, and while admittedly I don't exactly have a ton of sense of how good of a guard he is, he seems like he would be a player worth taking with the 23rd pick. Of course, guards tend to go later in the Draft, so they could still get a good one in the second round. Or, in the third round, they could take Brandon Brooks from Miami (OH), who is, at the very least, utterly massive at 6'4'' and 353 pounds.
Unless they improve the offensive line in free agency, and being a 10-6 playoff team draws in more free agents than a 2-14 team does, then I definitely hope to see the Lions take an offensive lineman, ideally a guard, in the first two rounds. At this point in time, the Lions have most of their key pieces in place. Now they just need to put the finishing touches on the team in hopes of turning them into a Super Bowl contender.
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