Posted by Mike Florio on March 22, 2009, 7:30 p.m. EDT
The Detroit Lions hold the first overall pick in the draft. And they have the ability, if they so choose, to sign the player to a contract in advance of the draft.
According to Tom Kowalski of Mlive.com, the Lions have commenced the process of negotiating a contract with “their first-round draft pick.”
The player has yet to be identified.
Though the early portions of the report from Kowalski imply that the Lions are talking to only one player, quotes in the story suggest that the Lions plan to expand the process.
“We have to have robust dialogue with the agents of the players we’re interested in,” Lions president Tom Lewand said. “We’ve started that process and we’ve made it very clear to all of them that we have to have that as this month draws to a close.”
Consequently, we must break from our recent habit of bashing the Lions and applaud them.
The Lions should be talking to multiple players, if for no reason other than to leverage their actual favorite into taking a lower deal. If, along the way, their second choice is willing to take a much lower contract, then the Lions might decide to take that guy, instead.
“We won’t put a timetable on it,” Lewand said. “From our standpoint, it’s whenever everything that needs to come together, comes together. There’s no timetable one way or the other. If we make the decision and [G.M.] Martin [Mayhew] and [coach] Jim [Schwartz] and everybody else is comfortable with it and we can come to a contract with the guy, there’s no reason we can’t do that tomorrow. If we can’t — and any one of those pieces isn’t in place — and it doesn’t get done until the night before the draft, that’s fine, too.
“Whenever the muffin rises above the tin, it’s time to eat.”
OK, that last part was stupid. But we otherwise agree completely with everything Lewand is saying.
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LIONS ALREADY HAVE SETTLED ON SMITH?
Posted by Mike Florio on March 22, 2009, 11:14 p.m.
Amid comments from Lions president Tom Lewand indicating that the team will talk to multiple possible candidates for the No. 1 overall pick in the draft before making a final decision, the folks at KFFL are reporting, with Salisbury-esque certainty, that Baylor tackle Jason Smith will be the pick.
There’s no ambiguity in the one-sentence report: “KFFL has learned the Detroit Lions will take Baylor OT Jason Smith with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft.”
If the Lions already have made that decision, and if Smith is the only person with whom they plan to negotiate, then the Lions deserve to go 0-16 for sixteen more years.
Frankly, we don’t think that even the Lions are quite that stupid. Our guess is that someone at KFFL has at best caught wind of the fact that the Lions are negotiating with Smith’s agent.
But this hardly means that Smith is the pick.
Said Lewand: “We have to have robust dialogue with the agents of the players we’re interested in. We’ve started that process and we’ve made it very clear to all of them that we have to have that as this month draws to a close.”
That said, maybe Smith ultimately will be the guy. Based on Lewand’s comments, we’d be shocked if that decision already has been made.
. And although I love Curry as a player, A.Smith(cb) actually made more plays on defense for them. If I had to choose between
