Fantasy Football GM's

Well, the Lions fans tried to get the organization to draft Aaron Curry by chanting his name at the unveiling of the lions new logo earlier this week, but it wasn't enough to change their minds. Matthew Stafford was signed by the Detroit Lions yesterday for a six-year contract that could include up to $78 million and $41.7 guaranteed money.

I wanted to post my thoughts about the scenario since I am a Lions fan and quite knowledgable about the situation. Personally, I think Curry would have been a much better pick because of his obvious talent but also because of his leadership skills and the amount of money he was willing to sign for. They had a historically bad defense last year, and finding somebody like Curry that could fly around the field and make tackles everywhere like he has shown the ability to do, would be very valuable. They have a huge whole in the middle of their defense that he could have filled and would have also provided some much needed leadership. Every scout and draft expert that I listened to raved about his outstanding character, leadership abilities, and he was widely regarded as the safest pick in the draft. Plus, he was willing to sign for $10 million less than Stafford.

When your team doesn't win a game the whole season last year, you need to pick get your team morale up asap. Curry would have provided the best chance to improve your team now and also change your team culture for the future. Detroit's suffering economy and poor play recently has made it tough for them to fill the seats, which would make even more sense to pick Curry who would have taken less money. I'm sure they wanted to get a new face for their franchise but it doesn't always have to be a quarterback, Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher have been the faces of their successful franchises for years now. I just don't trust the Lions front office with this decision.

While I'm not always a proponent of making the safe pick, the amount of money invested here leaves no room for error. I understand that quarterback is the most important position on a team, however the top defensive teams consistently make the playoffs and that is where teams can get the best value in the early rounds along with offensive tackles. Bill Parcells is the perfect example of a general manager who drafts defense and offensive tackle (i.e DeMarcus Ware, Marcus Spears, Jake Long, Ty Law, Teddy Bruschi, James Farrior, Pepper Johnson). The NFL is very unpredictable and thus makes it realistic for teams to turn around their fortunes if they have the right people making personnel decisions. The Miami Dolphins went from 1-15 to the playoffs last year and many other teams like Atlanta and Arizona have been able to turn their franchises around recently.

I'm sure many other Lions fans like myself are hoping they can make a similar turnaround, however it seems with this draft pick that the re-building process will take even longer now. If they draft defense the rest of the way they may be able to justify this pick but it looks like they will have to get pretty lucky to have quality defensive players on the board with their other pick in the first round (#20) and their high second-rounder.

From a fantasy perspective this move shouldn't have much of an impact this year since Stafford is likely to sit for at least half of his rookie season barring any injuries to Daunte Culpepper. However, Calvin Johnson's numbers could even improve much more if Stafford ends up living up to his potential of having a rocket-arm and the Lions find somebody to protect him.

I'll be back after the draft to analyze the rest of the picks, enjoy!