Welcome to the yearly event that is Ash Thompson’s Draftmas.
We set out with a tiered draft board,
which is quite sure to be abhorred.
Mock drafts galore will be explored,
and all group-think will be ignored.
The rumor-mill may cause discord,
as motives become underscored.
But Draftmas brings a great reward,
three glor’ous days we move toward.
Each of the picks I will record,
and give the team their just award.
Draftmas Is Here for The Detroit Lions
Welcome to Draftmas. For those of you who are new to the Detroit Lions Podcast and wondering what the hubbub has been surrounding this on the pod, let me go over what this is. If you are looking for a dead serious coverage of the draft, that is not what this will be. You will be inundated with a ridiculous amount of draft information (and snacks) by the end, do not get me wrong. The delivery, however, is not going to be that of a professional. I do not claim to be one of those. I am a blind squirrel searching for nuts and occasionally finding them. Nobody gets every call right.
What you are going to get in the days before, during and one day after, are the most fun draft articles of the year. I will do my best to help those of you who have not spent the last 360 days preparing for this moment. If you have not been listening to several weekly or daily podcasts and spending your spare time staring at college line battles, you can get caught up here. Those covering the draft often forget that most fans of the sport have not read everything they’ve ever written, and do not care to. You do not have to have read a single draft related item this offseason for Draftmas to make sense, but if you have, it will likely make more.
The Tiered Lions Big Board
Draftmas 2019 kicks off with a tiered Lions draft board. I am going to start with a quick description of what it is not. It is not a top to bottom ranking of players based on a grade that I have given them. A talented boundary zone corner is less valuable to the Lions than a two-gapping, run stuffing, doughnut downing defensive tackle because of the scheme they play on defense. I do not hate Byron Murphy as a player but he is behind names like Kahlen Saunders and Rennell Wren on this big board It is likely the only one on the internet where that is the case. This board is based on a player’s value to the Detroit Lions immediately, and as long as Matt Patricia, Paul Pasqualoni, and Derrell Bevell are the brain-trust behind player deployment. This is my best effort to predict the way the Lions feel about the players in the draft this year.
Each day of Draftmas I will go over a few of the details within the tiered big board. There are a few things therein that will likely lead to some highly critical commentary and a few questions. I will do my best to address these as Draftmas rolls on. Also; as is the Draftmas tradition, each day will add a new feature to the series. On the second day of Draftmas, I will give you two realistic trade scenarios. Each new feature will continue for the remaining days if the series. until the end of the draft process. The day after the draft I will grade the draft and profile each of the players the Lions drafted. Merry Draftmas to all, and to all a good night.
