Advice to Lions: Pass on QB No. 1
Open Mike | by Mike O'Hara | 01.9.2009/8:18AM
If you are a team in the NFL that needs a quarterback, you had to be disappointed by what you saw from the top prospects in this year’s college bowl games.
You had to expect more, or hope for more – at least from Sam Bradford of Oklahoma and Matt Stafford of Georgia.
The Lions have two first-round picks in the April draft – first overall, and No. 20, from a trade with Dallas. If they are determined to draft a quarterback – and no one in their hierarchy has said that’s the case – they should consider doing it with the 20th pick.
There will be no franchise quarterback in this year’s draft – not Stafford, not Bradford, and certainly not Tim Tebow of Florida.
First things first. Stafford already has announced he will give up the remainder of his eligibility and enter the draft. Bradford and Tebow have eligibility left and have not announced their intentions.
What they do should have no impact on the Lions’ No. 1 pick – unless it involves trading down to a team that wants one of the quarterbacks.
Before Thursday night’s national championship game, one analyst said that there is “no Matt Ryan” in this year’s draft. That’s an allusion to the rookie from Boston College who was drafted third overall last year and led the Falcons to the playoffs.
Based on what I’ve seen, there is no Joe Flacco, either. Flacco, from Delaware, was drafted later on the first round by Baltimore and led the Ravens to the playoffs. He isn’t as polished as Ryan – not yet, anyway – but he’s big, strong and a playmaker.
The 2009 class of senior quarterbacks is not strong. Stafford and Bradford would be first-round picks.
Here’s what I see from the top three, including Tebow:
Matt Stafford: Strong and athletic with a good arm. He played well in the bowl game against Michigan State and completed passes on a windy day. But he isn’t dead-on accurate, and that will limit him in the pros.
Sam Bradford: He looked shockingly nonathletic against Florida. He showed no movement in the pocket. He’s slightly built, with skinny legs, which raises the question of how he will hold up against a pro rush. He’s accurate, with a quick release, but didn’t show anything special.
Tim Tebow: A great, great college football player, but his skills don’t translate to playing quarterback in the pros. He won’t run over people in the NFL. Most likely, he’ll be a third- or fourth-round draft pick and play H-back, where his multiple skills can be used.
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Behind the Scenes on Rob Parker’s Split
Open Mike | by Mike O'Hara | 01.7.2009/11:18AM
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At least one huge kernel of information is missing in the media pile-on in the events that led to Rob Parker parting ways with The Detroit News.
Parker has taken a buyout from The News, for whom he worked as a sports columnist for nine years. Details of the buyout are not known. In general terms, the Guild contract specifies two weeks pay for every year of employment, to a maximum of 52 weeks.
The payout is not as issue, except to Parker and the IRS, but the circumstances that led to the buyout are – specifically, in my mind, Parker’s relationship with former Lions head coach Rod Marinelli.
In the interest of full disclosure, let me precede with the following:
I took a buyout from The News in August of 2008 after 43 years with the paper. I covered the Lions as a full-time beat reporter from 1977 through the end of the exhibition season in 2008.
Rob Parker is a good friend and colleague, and I have spoken to him off and on through this recent ordeal – including late Tuesday afternoon.
Also, I have never covered a coach with more personal integrity than Rod Marinelli.
None of that changes any of the facts.
Parker got in trouble for a question he asked Marinelli after the Lions’ 42-7 loss to New Orleans in their final home game at Ford Field. Parker has asked Marinelli repeatedly during the season if he thought he should fire defensive coordinator Joe Barry, Marinelli’s son-in-law. He asked that again.
At the end of the press conference, Parker asked Marinelli if he wished his daughter had married a better defensive coordinator. Parker prefaced the question by saying something to the effect “in a lighter area.”
Marinelli did not respond, but he was steaming. Nothing is more sacred to Marinelli than his family.
The media backlash and fallout was immediate and negative toward Parker. In his Monday column in The News, he wrote an apology to Marinelli, but also stated that he and the coach had a “unique relationship.”
That caused some media members to dump on Parker further.
And they are wrong.
I am not defending Parker’s comment to Marinelli. I wrote earlier that I thought it was wrong, but also said I thought it was callous as opposed to malicious. In other words, he said it without considering the consequences, as opposed to trying to embarrass a family member. In that case, it was Marinelli’s daughter, Chris, who, I’ve been told, was crushed by the remark.
But here’s the rub: Parker had reason to think his relationship with Marinelli was different than the public – and most media – perceive.
Earlier last year, Parker mistakenly reported on a late-night TV sports show that Michigan State backup quarterback Kirk Cousins had been implicated in an off-campus assault. That was not true.
Parker’s column did not appear in The News for a couple weeks. He told me he had been suspended for the Cousins incident.
Parker also told me this: the one person who called to offer support was Rod Marinelli. I later confirmed that the call was made.
Let’s make this clear: Marinelli did not accept the apology for the remark about his daughter. Frankly, he had no obligation to do so.
But the idea promoted by many that Parker fabricated the nature of his relationship with Marinelli is just that – a fabrication by people who do not have access to all the facts.
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