Calvin Johnson- another year, another wide receiver

Calvin Johnson- another year, another wide receiver - Blogging the draft dead!

by James on April 29th, 2007

NFL Football at its best. NFL Football at its craziest.

Calvin Johnson is falling over backwards at being picked by the Lions!

Ok, ok, most of you heard about someone blogging the draft live.

Your gallivanting author is blogging dead as in dead tired, but still pumped up.

Matt Millen picked Calvin Johnson and kept him. That took some guts! Matt does not always get a fair shake with the media, me included, but this time he did great.

Even after the pick, your vocal author was doing a podcast for Suicide Fan. com (live by the way) and explained that the pick was great, but may still be traded.

Matt Millen says they are keeping him.

The Oakland setup

The draft unfolded with Oakland taking JaMarcus Russell. They almost had to take Russell, but there are a lot of questions surrounding that pick.

Sure, JaMarcus can really throw a ball (they played a clip where he threw a ball 64 yards from his knees, it was awesome), but he does not have a lot of college games under his belt.

Can he read a defense, can he understand the playbook, does he have a presence in the huddle, can he lead?

That stuff remains to be found out.

The Door opened and Calvin walked in

The Oakland pick of Russell opened a door for the Lions.

The Lions waited for all kinds of deals to roll in for Calvin Johnson and the deals did roll in, but Matt was greedy, because he new that Calvin is going to be a great receiver, and if there is one thing we know and love about Matt, it is his affinity for wide receivers.

The Lions signed about 3 of them in the off season, plus resigned Mike Furrey.

Matt has now drafted wide receivers in 4 out of the last 5 drafts!

Yes, Matt likes his wide receivers.

Offensive coordinator Mike Martz, often hailed as an offensive genius, was absolutely giddy all week just thinking of the possibilities.

Martz joked about how he left notes for Marinelli that were supposed to be from Johnson but that he had written.

“I think Calvin was over at Rod’s house last night,” Martz said. “He raked the leaves in the back yard and emptied the trash. He left a note: ‘Please draft me.’ Ironically, it was in my handwriting.

“We left notes all through the week, just teasing Coach, notes from Calvin. That’s how excited we all are about this selection.” source

The mind reels with the thought of Roy Williams, Shaun McDonald (picked up this winter from the Rams), Mike Furrey, and now, Calvin Johnson all in a Mike Martz offense.

Goodbye Josh and Mike

Mike Williams and Josh McCown were traded to Oakland for a 4th round pick.

Williams, the wide receiver the Lions picked 10th overall in 2005, was a titanic disappointment. He had several issues with the Lions, most notably his weight.
…
McCown, one of the quarterbacks the Lions signed as a free agent last year, didn’t play a snap at QB last season behind Jon Kitna. source

The Josh McCown deal was going to happen the minute the Lions let Josh play wide receiver last year. You do not let your backup QB play wide receiver.

Enter Drew Stanton

To make up for the loss of Josh, the Lions traded down with Buffalo in the second round and 9 picks later grabbed Drew Stanton from my school, Michigan State University.

Drew is a QB that was allowed to be on the punt return team while waiting for QB Jeff Smoker to graduate and get picked by the Rams. How fitting that he is called upon to replace Josh McCown.

Drew grows up from Lions fan to Lions quarterback

Drew will be all blood and guts as a leader and has a deceptive running style that makes him hard to tackle. His passes sometimes don’t look like great spirals, but he put on a show in the combines and really did not throw the power long ball too often under Coach John L. Smith’s free wheeling catch and run offense.

Although Drew is excited to go to the Lions after playing at nearby MSU, he is more excited to be coached by a great offensive teacher like Mike Martz. Perhaps Martz can fix some of Drew’s delivery problems.

Anyway, in your humble author believes it is always good to have a Spartan!

Even more excited than Drew is Coach Rod Marinelli.

Coach Rod Marinelli like the desire and intensity Stanton displayed in college.

“Football’s everything to this guy,” Marinelli said. “He’s our type of guy.” source

Hmm, Calvin Johnson and Drew Stanton, not a bad day for Matt Millen at all!

NFL Football Fan Question Is Calvin the real deal and the next big superstar like some analysts are saying?

As always, any NFL Football related comments are welcome.

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