Lions Can Trace Futility to NFL Drafts
By LARRY LAGE
AP Sports Writer

DETROIT -- The Detroit Lions have lost 75 percent of their games since Matt Millen began running the franchise, in large part because nearly half of his first-round picks have been busts.

Joey Harrington and Charles Rogers were traded and cut, respectively, last year. Mike Williams might not make it to a third season in Detroit.


"You invest a lot of time and money into people you pick high and they're supposed to be game-changing players," Millen's first No. 1 pick, offensive tackle Jeff Backus, said Thursday. "You need them to pan out and be worthy of the pick.

"Nobody gets first-round stars every year, but we've had to go to free agency to fill some holes because at some point you need draft picks to develop."

Millen will have at least one more chance to get it right in the first round on April 28, when the Lions make the No. 2 pick overall or trade down to add picks and fill many needs.

If Detroit sticks with its spot, no one seems to know what Millen will do because arguments can be made for drafting any of the following: Georgia Tech wide receiver Calvin Johnson; LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell; Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn; Wisconsin offensive tackle Joe Thomas; Clemson defensive end Gaines Adams; or Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson.

All of those players have recently visited the Lions, except Peterson, who is scheduled to be at the team's headquarters Friday.

"This is one of the most interesting drafts of all time," NFL draft analyst Gil Brandt said. "Everybody knows who the top 10 players are, but nobody knows what team is going to take them and in what order they're going."

Draft-day misses, particularly in the first round, have led to Detroit posting an NFL-worst record of 24-72 since Millen became the team's chief executive in 2001.

The only other stretch of futility in league history that compares is Tampa Bay's 12 straight double-digit loss seasons from 1983-94.

Millen got off to a good start in his first draft after leaving a low-stress, lucrative job as a TV analyst.

Backus was selected 18th overall in 2001 and has been durable and effective enough to start every game -- and get a new contract. Second-round pick Shaun Rogers turned into a Pro Bowl defensive tackle, and another second-rounder, Dominic Raiola, has started each game at center the last five seasons.

Wide receiver Roy Williams and running back Kevin Jones were drafted with savvy moves in the 2004 first round. Linebacker Ernie Sims had a solid rookie season last year, making Millen feel good about taking a defensive player for the first time with a first-round pick.

Millen's first three picks -- Backus, Raiola and Shaun Rogers -- bolstered the lines, perhaps fittingly for a player that won Super Bowls as a tough linebacker.

Then, Millen invested millions of William Clay Ford's money in some picks who didn't appear to fit his image as a gritty player.

Harrington was taken third overall in 2002 to end a decades-long search for a quarterback. Rogers was added with the second pick the next year to give Harrington a go-to receiver.

Millen stunned everyone by taking Mike Williams 10th overall two years ago, making him the first executive to take wide receivers in the first round three straight years since the NFL and AFL merged drafts in 1967.

"The league now is like the AFL was from 1965-69 -- it's a throwing, wide-open game," Millen said, explaining his reasoning in a 2005 interview with the AP. "That all points to catching the football."

The experiment failed miserably, helping to create a bleak present and questionable future for a franchise with only one playoff victory since winning the NFL title a half-century ago.

"If you miss too much with the draft, like the Lions have, it's hard to overcome," said Brandt, who was vice president of player personnel for the Dallas Cowboys from 1960-89.

Millen clearly missed on Harrington and Charles Rogers and all signs are pointing toward Mike Williams being another draft-day mistake.

Harrington was traded after four lackluster seasons to Miami for a fifth-round pick. The Dolphins cut him this offseason and he's now in Atlanta.


Charles Rogers was released just before last season and is still looking for work. His career in Detroit ended with just 36 receptions for 440 yards and four touchdowns, along with two broken collarbones and a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy.

"Looking back on it, and I've told Joey this, it would've been hard for him to succeed because he was thrown right in the mix and had the weight of the team on his shoulders," Backus said. "Charles obviously had off-the-field issues, but I'll always wonder if he would've avoided them if two broken collarbones didn't take him away from the team for basically two seasons."

Millen has acknowledged the franchise couldn't afford to regret taking Harrington and Charles Rogers.

"They can't do it alone, but in order for us to get where we want to get, we can't look back and say we missed with those guys," Millen said in 2003.

To be fair, taking Harrington and Charles Rogers was hailed almost universally. It simply didn't work out for them in Detroit, just like first-round picks each year don't pan out for other teams.

But taking Mike Williams was regarded as indefensible at the time and still is today.

He had to sit out the 2004 season at USC after trying to enter the draft as an underclassman and giving up his eligibility. Detroit has fined Williams for being overweight and played him sparingly in just eight games last season, hoping to motivate him, but nothing seemed to work. Williams has skipped voluntary workouts, making it closer to a lock that his future is elsewhere

Brandt said he has known Millen a long time, spent a lot of time with him at the NFL combine, and respects his knowledge of the game. That's why he's so puzzled at Millen's lack of success on draft days.

"It's hard to figure why he's missed on some of the players he did and why he took (Mike) Williams in the first place," Brandt said. "To me, Matt is like Charles Rogers because they both have talent and seem to work at it, but I can't put my finger on why it hasn't worked out for either of them."

Report: Top NFL Prospects Admit Drug Use
By The Associated Press

Top NFL prospects Calvin Johnson, Gaines Adams and Amobi Okoye reportedly admitted to marijuana use during interviews with teams in February.

Pro Football Weekly, citing anonymous sources, reported the three players, all expected to go early in the April 28 draft, made the admissions at the NFL combine during routine interviews.

On Thursday, the University of Louisville publicly supported Okoye, who at 19 is the youngest player in this year's draft.

"Amobi spoke to an NFL team in confidence and a team leaked out the information which is truly unfortunate for Amobi," the school said in a statement. "Anyone Amobi has come in contact with during his time at the University of Louisville knows the character this young man has. The Cardinal football program stands behind him 100 percent."

Ian Greengross, Okoye's agent, did not return a message seeking comment.

Okoye is a defensive end, as is Adams, of Clemson. Johnson is a wide receiver from Georgia Tech. Both Adams and Johnson were first-team All-Americans last season. Okoye made the second team.

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When i decided to Blog this, i spoke to a close friend and fellow Professor at my School who is a political Blogger: his take is thus: How can You punish someone for admitting to past use?? You can't bacause Past use is not the same as a failed Test!!

(Bill-Draftnik)

Giants' Reese first puzzle piece for draft
BY ARTHUR STAPLE

Jerry Reese has a new chair in the Giants' draft war room, but this isn't a completely new endeavor for the new Giants general manager - he's run the last five drafts as VP of player personnel, a job he still holds in addition to the GM spot.

"I'll break the ties," Reese said yesterday in the traditional GM's pre-draft meeting with reporters. "We want everybody to like the player that we pick. We don't want to just say, well, this is Jerry's pick. I don't want to overrule the scouts. They go on the road for 200 days. They know the players better than anybody. So we want everybody's opinion."


Other than that, Reese didn't offer too much insight into the way his first draft as GM is unfolding. There have been a few changes - the Giants brought in around 25 draft-eligible players for visits over the past few days, among them former USC wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett, Ohio State wide receiver Ted Ginn Jr. and Florida State linebacker Lawrence Timmons, instead of a group half that size that former GM Ernie Accorsi used to bring in.

Reese also changed the group that administers the Giants' psychological profile, from Joel Goldberg to a company, Human Resource Tactics, employed by nearly half the NFL.

Little else is different, except perhaps for the relative inactivity of the Giants during the seven weeks of free agency. Reese flirted with a few big signings, including offensive lineman Leonard Davis and a trade for Broncos linebacker Al Wilson, but the money being thrown around scuttled most of Reese's plans, and Wilson failed the team's physical.

"The money was out of control," Reese said. "... We didn't feel like it was smart for us to do that."

So the Giants have more than a few areas of need heading into April 28 and the start of draft weekend. Reese likes his team's No. 20 spot. "I think in that 10-25 range, there's a lot of guys with some value," he said. "There could be somebody ranked in our top 10 that falls down to us."

He didn't rule out trading up, though he added that "it would have to be a honey of a deal for us" to consider trading away a first-day draft pick, or any pick of the Giants' eight (seven rounds plus a late compensatory pick) this year.

As for the current hot-button issue of character, Reese has been with the Giants for 14 seasons as a scout and personnel executive. He knows that the organization has long steered clear of questionable people and put a premium on high character, as it did last year, when the Giants traded down in the first round and took Mathias Kiwanuka.

"We really probably didn't need a defensive end but the guy was valued so high for us that we picked the guy," Reese said. " ... In the room at the time I asked them, 'Does anybody in this room think Mathias Kiwanuka is not going to be a Pro Bowl defensive end?' No hands went up. I said, 'We are going to pick this guy. I know we don't need him at this point but at some point he is going to be a good player for us.'"
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By not making lots of moves,.Reese has made a great move. Now just have a decent Draft, and he can plusa few holes