2014 NFL Draft Grades: Detroit Lions
By Hayden Kane
If you are going to have an area of strength on your roster in the National Football League, you might as well try to make it dominant, right? That seems to be the mindset of at least a handful of teams in this year’s NFL Draft.
Drafting for need can be a fickle business indeed, especially if teams pass on superior talent that could make them a force in certain aspects of the game. On the other hand, it can awfully difficult to justify the decision to leave a hole on your roster unaccounted for depending on how glaring that hole is.
All of this brings us to the Detroit Lions.
Best Pick: Kyle Van Noy, LB
The Lions needed help on defense everywhere but the front four. A guy like Van Noy should be a great place to start. He is versatile, athletic, and can line up in more than one spot. A well-kept secret because of the dominance of Detroit’s D-Line is the fact that they also could use another pass rusher. Van Noy should help in that area as well.
Worst Pick: Eric Ebron, TE
You can reasonably argue both sides of this one. I understand the appeal of adding Ebron as a complement to Calvin Johnson and to give quarterback Matthew Stafford another weapon. To hang in the current version of the NFC North you need to be able to score points. The Lions should be able to do that and Ebron might be a big part of that success.
You know what else you need in the NFC North? Competent players in the secondary. I get it that the Lions did not want to reach for a corner if they did not think he was worthy of their first round pick, but it still seems unfathomable that they did not do more to address what has been a weak spot on their roster for years.
Other notable picks: Travis Swanson, C, Nevin Lawson, CB, and Larry Webster, DE
Grade: C+