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| Sports Illustrated |
What don't the Lions need? The departure of Cliff Avril to Seattle takes away all their sack production off the edge. They lost both starting offensive tackles, but appear happy enough going into 2012 with Riley Reiff and Jason Fox, I guess, protecting Matthew Stafford, even though they're not really sure right now if Reiff can play LT or if they're going to have to kick him inside to guard. Pretty wide range of outcomes there. And speaking of Stafford, here's one of the shock statistics of the 2012 season: despite having Calvin Johnson to throw to, Matthew Stafford had fewer touchdown passes last season than... Sam Bradford. Reggie Bush should be a big help for Detroit in the red zone, but remembering last year's Titus Young meltdown, and that Ryan Broyles is apparently going to snap an ACL every other year, couldn't you argue one of the Lions' top needs is a wide receiver? RamView was a heartbeat from sending Tavon Austin to Motor City.
I can't do that, though, with Mike Mayock's #1 player and PFW's #2 player still on the board. The Lions are also down a starting guard from last year, Stephen Peterman, who was poor anyway, they don't have anyone beyond a journeyman to take over, and given the dropoffs they're already likely to experience at tackle, they'd better get someone to shore up the offensive line, and Chance Warmack is one of the best guards to come out of college in a generation. He's a big, nasty, dominating run-blocker with all the skills he'll need to also be a top pass protector. He's athletic and explosive, quick out of his stance and covers ground well.
I'd consider Detroit's main options here to be Lane Johnson if they don't trust Reiff at LT, or Jonathan Cooper, who doesn't have to take any step back to Warmack. I'll rave about him later, but I think he could play anywhere on the offensive line. It's hard to take a player who doesn't score TDs this high, especially if you're a Detroit front office that loves to draft WRs, and your team identity is fast-break offense, but getting targets for Stafford doesn't mean much if you can't keep him upright.
The Browns are on the clock!
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