Editor’s note: This is an opinion piece from MLive.com reporter Kyle Meinke.
ALLEN PARK -- How unusual has the Detroit Lions’ draft effort been so far?
Consider this: They used a top-seven pick on an offensive lineman for just the second time in their history, in this case Penei Sewell. Fair enough. He was the top offensive lineman in the country, and most folks can understand why the Lions would take him even if they had bigger needs to fill.
Now consider this: They came back the next night and invested back-to-back picks in defensive linemen, the first time they’ve taken multiple players at that position in the first three rounds since Dan Owens and Marc Spindler all the way back in 1990. What’s more, the guys they took on Friday night -- Washington’s Levi Onwuzurike and N.C. State’s Alim McNeil -- aren’t even big sack artists who make splashy plays on the edge or whatever. They’re big, meaty defensive tackles who spent the near-duration of their college careers swapping paint between the tackles.
These aren’t sexy picks. Pair them with Sewell in the first round, and the Lions -- whose needs are considerable all over the field and on both sides of the ball -- have invested their first three draft picks in 938 pounds worth of trench warfare. And while it’s a rare investment for any team, it shouldn’t be surprising for this one.
After all, they’re not playing for 2021. They’re not tanking either, and hope to coach up the guys for as many wins as possible. But this regime is also pragmatic about what they inherited, which is a roster that was decimated by botched draft picks, dumb free-agent signings and garden-variety mismanagement. That’s especially true on defense, where they just allowed the second-most points in NFL history and -- surprise, surprise! -- just spent three of their first four draft picks.
But no matter what they did in this draft, they were always going to still be at least another year or two away from competing. They know that too. So all their decisions are made with 2022 and especially 2023 as the primary focus.
“My view of this, and (Brad Holmes’) too, honestly, is where are we two years from now?” head coach Dan Campbell told me a few weeks ago. “Not this year. What do we look like in two years? That’s the way I really view this. And so any piece that we (add), any free agent that’s added, any draft pick that’s added, like, those players have to be our core foundation two years from now.”
They hate the word “rebuild,” but the Lions are very clearly taking the long view to this organizational reset. So, yes, doubling up on defensive tackles and tripling up on linemen doesn’t really solve their issues at linebacker. It definitely doesn’t help them at receiver or safety or tight end. But it doesn’t really matter either. When this season is a wash anyway, plugging immediate needs becomes secondary to acquiring the best fits possible, both in terms of talent as well as culture. That’s exactly what this approach is about.
Campbell has been saying he wants the Lions to get bigger and meaner and more physical since the day he walked into that building and put his opponents’ kneecaps on the menu in the cafeteria. That’s the culture. So it’s no wonder they spent the seventh overall pick on Sewell, a 331-pound road-grader who has been throwing bodies through the back of end zones in Oregon since he was 17 years old.
“This is exactly what (I’m) on this Earth to do, to block somebody, to hit them in the mouth,” Sewell once told former Lions offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz. “When we’re on that field, I’m a whole different person. I want to come, I want to ruin your day. I want you to hate me at the end of the day on the field.”
Does that not sound like a Dan “Bite Your Kneecaps Off” Campbell kind of guy to you? This is exactly the kind of player Detroit wants to build this thing around -- huge, freaky athletic, talented of course, but mean as hell too.
“Big man!” Campbell told Sewell when he picked up the phone with the first-round pick on Thursday night. “Hey, we are fired up my friend. You’re going to change the culture for us, man. We’re going to build this thing around guys like you, you hear me? You come in and play just like you’ve been playing, man.
“You be just as nasty and dirty as you’ve been, and you’re going to help us turn this thing around. We’re going to be winners, man, all right?”
Anyone who is surprised by what the Lions have done so far, just listen to what these guys are saying. This isn’t Quinntricia anymore, where everything from who they were drafting to the brand of coffee they stocked in the break room had to remain a very top secret. These guys are literally telling us what they want to do, and then they are doing it. They say they want to get bigger and meaner and more physical, and then they drafted one of the biggest and meanest and most physical -- and most talented -- offensive linemen in the country. A day later, they kept getting bigger and meaner and more physical by taking two freakily athletic defensive tackles who tested off the charts. Hell, they even explored trading up -- perhaps even back into the first round! -- to make sure they got Onwuzurike because they liked him so much.
Listen to that guy for 5 seconds, and much like Sewell, you’ll understand why too.
“I like (bleeping) people up,” Onwuzurike said after the pick. “I like to get off the line and just put my helmet and my hands on an offensive lineman and (bleep) up an offensive scheme, pretty much. I like pushing them back 2-3 yards and just making them feel like (bleep).”
Holy bleep, it’s another Campbell guy.
And when they were back on the clock in Round 3 and their favorite player left happened to be another defensive tackle, they had no problems taking McNeill too, adding yet another pass-rushing piece to an interior that generated just nine quarterback hits last season. Yes, nine.
“It’s pretty much how the board fell, I would say,” Holmes said. “We try not to anchor ourselves into positions, per se. We try to make sure that we get the best football player.”
Listen, obviously the Lions can’t just spend the entire draft selecting every single offensive and defensive lineman in the United States (and American Samoa). They do have other needs to get around to, and should look to address them when the final day kicks off at noon today. That includes receiver, although it’s difficult to say how much a fourth- or fifth-round guy is going to impact the team next year. They might need a safety, although perhaps the third-round selection of defensive back Ifeatu Melifonwu -- a 6-foot-3 cornerback from Syracuse who could flex to safety and slot assignments in the NFL -- helps address that. They could use more bodies at tight end and running back. More than anything, look for them to add guys who will contribute on the new-look special teams.
But in these very early days of a very considerable rebuild, which almost certainly will take multiple years to dig the Lions out of their grave, the focus has to be on acquiring the best pieces possible. The Lions think they’ve done that with Sewell, Onwuzurike, McNeill and Melifonwu. It’s not sexy, and hate to break it to you, won’t lead to a Super Bowl this season. But this is how foundations are laid in the NFL. This is the work, boring as it might be. And while it remains very much to be seen whether it will work out, the approach at least makes sense for a team that hasn’t made sense for way too long.
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