So, skill positions, then.
Remember when drafting skill position players early on gave a feeling of impending doom?
Sure glad those days are over.
Titus Young and Mikel Leshoure became the newest Detroit Lions Friday night, and both are likely to pull mixed reviews.
I've already given my grades on Young and Leshoure individually. You can find them here.
Click here for Leshoure's grade.
And in case you missed it, you can also click here for my Day 1 grade.
Read those first, because they were written in reactionary fashion, where this one is an overall perspective coming after the dust (and my mind) settles.
What has happened here in this draft is Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz have sent a message about their defense.
Namely, that they like the majority of it. And it's honestly no wonder why.
While most fans were clamoring for a stub linebacker or cornerback, the Lions' front office calmly sat back and said, "Maybe. It depends how well we like him."
Because that, really, has been the story of the draft for Detroit so far.
Here is the checklist for Lions draft prospects as it has been to this point:
Do we like this guy? Is there anyone we like better?
Can we use him immediately?
Why isn't his name already on the card yet?
In truth, the Lions have been drafting players in areas where they weren't supposed to have great need. But in doing so, they've taken three "strong" positions (DT, WR, RB) and made them "complete."
Coming into the draft, those three positions were somewhere between acceptable and good. Now all three are beyond improvement.
Seriously, with their current construction, how do you improve those positions now? They are all young, productive, and versatile.
The counter-argument to all this is, "what about the needs? Sure, maybe they're set in those positions, but what about linebacker and cornerback?"
The biggest current problem with the Lions' back seven is that it's extremely young and mostly unproven. How exactly does getting younger and more unproven fix it?
What you're getting from Detroit here is one of two things. Either they're confident they can fill needs in free agency, or they're confident they can win with what they have.
And why couldn't they? The Lions' linebackers weren't an All-Pro unit last year, certainly not the most rangy group of guys. But late in the season, Ashlee Palmer stepped up huge and Bobby Carpenter started coming into his own.
In the secondary, Alphonso Smith looked like one of the more opportunistic corners in Detroit since Dre' Bly before he was injured.
Aaron Berry was a stud in the preseason and training camp, but didn't even get to show up for a whole game.
Amari Spievey could move back to corner as safety depth has been established with Louis Delmas and Erik Coleman, with Randy Phillips in reserve.
Almost every one of those secondary players is within their first three years of NFL play. Nathan Vasher provides a safe veteran presence, and even he played well down the stretch last year (remember the tackle at Miami?).
Maybe we didn't notice it, but maybe Mayhew and Schwartz have the secondary in exactly the position they want it, and they're just waiting for it to develop?
Just about every player in Detroit's back seven is either too young to have scratched the surface of their potential, or getting into a scheme that fits their skills better than their last one.
Could it be that Mayhew and Schwartz know something we don't? Is the Lions' defense about to take a huge step forward, just because of development and experience?
Maybe, and maybe not. I can't speak to the needs that haven't been filled.
What I can say is that every Detroit pick to this point is confounding through one lens (that would be the "need-based" lens) and genius through another.
Nick Fairley doesn't fill a major need, but he was the best football player Detroit could possibly have gotten there.
Titus Young fills a small need, but his speed should make a big impact.
Mikel Leshoure cost an extra pick on the trade up, but he brings some much-needed thunder to the Lions' backfield (and completely justifies the release of Kevin Smith).
All three picks so far have been cataclysmic at first glance, and increasingly intelligent the more you think about them.
And I've had lots of time to think about them.
Overall Grade for Days 1 and 2: A-
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