Tonight, is the Detroit Lions Super Bowl – The NFL Draft. I think the Lions fans enjoy this night/weekend more than most other teams’ fans. Not only because of the lack of success but it brings hope to an otherwise dim outlook, and the Lions have one of the best and most loyal Fanbases in the NFL. On to the draft and in particular the #3 Overall pick. As I write this there are several rumors concerning the Lions trading out of their current position to anywhere from the #5, #7 and #9 picks. My preference would be to trade and gain some much-needed draft capital. We will evaluate the trade when/if it occurs. I will say this right up front – I am a huge Isiah Simmons fan. He is unlike any other player we have seen in the NFL, perhaps ever. He can play End, OLB, Safety and if needed he could even play DB, I mean he is faster than Jerry Juedy!! He also brings another factor into the mix – In this age of versatility and roster limits he is 3 extra players on a 53-man roster. I would personally take him at # 3, but my biggest concern is would Coach Patricia use him in a creative fashion?? We have all heard that he does not change his scheme much and most players have a defined role. This would needlessly box in a great athlete. Just my .02 Let us look at a few different scenarios. If the Lions are not able to trade back and stay at #3 conventional wisdom and most prognosticators are projecting CB Jeffrey Okudah to the Lions. I would not be unhappy if it plays out this way. I think Okudah has a chance to be a really good to great CB in the NFL. He has all the measurables and fills a position of need. It may be a bit high for a CB (how many CB’s taken in the top 5 have won a Super Bowl in the last 15 years??). Derrick Brown at #3 I would not be happy with. Typically, I am a fan of drafting the Big Uglies early and often, however at the #3 spot and the DT position, the player better be the equivalent of Ndamukong Suh or Aaron Donald. Brown is neither. He is a solid DT that is great at stopping the run. His pass rush ability while not great is good. I just feel he does not bring the talent level that coincides with the #3 overall pick. I am really hoping the Lions trade down and they would potentially have a shot at these same 3 players. The Miami Dolphins are the Wildcard and will steer the Draft into one direction or another. If the Lions stay at #3 I think the pick will be Jeffrey Okudah, if they trade back every option is open to them. It is going to be fun either way!

2020 NFL Draft Tailgate Special Not only do we like to talk about Football and the Lions we also like food, and in particular BBQ. Until this year I was a Competitive BBQ Cook. I would travel around the Midwest doing BBQ comps on most weekends from May-October. We will share some recipes and tips from time to time that you can do in your backyard or at your next tailgate. For the Draft I have come up with an easy yet unique menu to get you through the weekend of watching the Draft. Appetizer This one goes way back in the BBQ world; we call it a Moink Ball. It is a bacon wrapped meatball that you can smoke or grill and is a very flavor bite. Your will need: 1 lb of your favorite bacon. Try to stay away from thick cut as it takes longer to cook 1 1lb bag of traditional meatballs. Do not use Italian Style 1 Shaker of your favorite bbq rub. I use a rub called Smoking Guns Hot. 1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce. I use Blues Hog Original Toothpicks, enough for the amount of meatballs you have Directions: Cut the bacon into thirds (measure using a meatball and wrap a full piece of bacon around it once to get the length you need) Wrap the bacon around the meatball and stick a toothpick through the bacon and meatball so it is all the way through. The toothpick will hold the bacon on the meatball. Do this for all the meatballs that you want to make. Using your favorite rub, season the meatballs and bacon on all sides. Once you do that set aside and fire up your grill or smoker. I like to throw a chunk of Cherry wood into the fire right before I put the meatballs on. The trick here is to get the bacon done the consistency you like. I like using the indirect method on my Weber Kettle and shoot for about 350 degrees. I put the moinks on a tray with holes in the bottom, they are made to grill veggies so they don’t fall through the grates. This work sperfect for the moinks. I place the tray on the cool side of the grill and shut the lid. I check them about every 15 minutes and give them a little turn. Once the bacon is done to the consistency that you like (some like it more crisp than others), usually around 30 minutes or so (the meatballs are pre-cooked so they just need to be heated through to at least 140 degrees) get your favorite sauce and a brush and glaze the sauce onto the moinks. Be sure and get all sides. Once that is done close the lid and let the sauce tack up real good for about 5-10 minutes. Pull them out, let them cool off a bit and dig in!! You have made Moink Balls. You can serve with a bowl of bbq sauce for extra dipping. Main Course (sort of) Grilled/Smoke Bologna – This takes plain ole bologna and turns it into a flavor explosion!! You will need: 1 1lb chunk of bologna. You need uncut bologna. You can usually find this in your grocery store in the cold cuts section, if not ask the deli for a 1 lb chunk 1 shaker of your favorite bbq rub – For this I use Butcher BBQ Wild Cherry Rub 1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce – For this I use Blues Hog Original BBQ Sauce Directions: You can put your knife skills to work here and score your chunk of bologna down the length of the chunk several times and then score around the chunk if you would like or you can leave it whole. Season the chunk of bologna (remember to take the covering off if there is one) with your favorite rub. Using the same method as above for the moink balls, put the chunk of bologna on the grill again using the indirect method. I am looking for 350 degrees, if I was doing this in a smoker, I would be at 250 degrees and it would be fine, it would just take a little bit longer. The time it takes to cook will vary but since it is already cooked, I go by color, usually after about an hour I have reached the color I am looking for. Glaze the bologna with the bbq sauce, again making sure to cover the whole piece of bologna. Let it tack up on the grill for 5-10 minutes. You can cut it up into smaller chunks for snacking or I like to cut a nice thick piece off and while my grill is still hot put it right on the grill and grill it up for a few minutes each side, put a piece of cheese on it and make fried bologna sandwiches. These are not your mom’s sandwiches!! Dessert Grilled Strawberry Shortcake – The grilled shortcake adds a whole new layer of flavor. This is actually a pretty simple dessert, use your favorite strawberry shortcake recipe to make the strawberry mix (strawberries and sugar usually). But use an Angel food cake for the cake piece. You will need: Strawberry Mix Angel Food Cake Whipped Topping Again, using your grill and setup for indirect cooking at around 350 degrees – slice the angel food cake into the sizes you want to serve. Place the angel food cake pieces (1 or 2 pieces at a time) on the grill near the fire, not directly on top but near. This will go fast so stay alert. Once you get a good golden brown color on one side (about 30 – 45 seconds) turn to the other side and so on. The grill will caramelize the sugars in the Angel Food Cake. Pull from the grill and cover with the Strawberries and whipped topping and enjoy!!

Looks like the lions did some light housekeeping today ahead of the draft by resigning Exclusive Rights Free Agent CBs Dee Virgin and Mike Ford . Because each player was tendered the minimum contract for an ERFA, they could only sign with the Lions. Both Ford and Virgin are more Special teams players than Defensive contributors, although Ford has started 6 games the last two years with some success. Virgin is fast, running a 4.44 40, but lacks ideal height that the Lions want at CB and will likely fight for Special teams snaps again. Ford has the length and is more quick than fast (4.48 40) for what the Lions look for and will likely be competing for the 4th CB spot along with Special teams snaps with the likes of Mike Jackson, Tony McRae, Virgin and Daryl Roberts. More importantly, this brings the current roster to 78 players, with 9 picks to make this weekend, now leaving the Lions with slots for 3 UDFAs or Veteran players.

I was lucky enough to attend portions of the NFL Combine this year. Here is a short write up on that visit. First, the NFL does have a limited amount of tickets available for free to attend certain portions of the drills. I waited too late to take advantage of that. However, they do allow anyone to attend the bench press part of the drills and it is interesting. I made it the NFL Combine Experience Friday afternoon, it is in the Indianapolis Convention Center (which is next door to Lucas Field), they have some Combine drills setup for the kids and they have the Lombardi trophy there so you can get a pic with it. They also had a display of all the Super Bowl Rings there. On to the Bench Press - Friday was the Defensive Lineman and Linebackers. First group was the Edge/Ends (I am not a fan of the word Edge). They have bleachers setup on 2 sides and the actual stage where the bench press was performed. The fans had the straight on view and the coaches/scouts had the view from the side. The players that are not benching at the combine they have come out and take a microphone and face the coaches/scouts and tell them why they are not doing the bench press and if they will do it on their pro day or not. Then the players that are going to bench come out and they lift in numerical order. Again, the players take a microphone, say their name and what college they are from and then they bench. The Redskins Strength and Conditioning coach is the spotter and an NFL rep is also there to ensure they do the reps correctly and they "warn' them if they are not fully extending and if the player does not adjust, they will deduct a rep. They encourage the fans to cheer them on as they are doing their reps. It is a pretty cool environment. So, each player goes through and they are benching 225lbs, every player does that weight. The Ends did pretty good, Chase Young did not bench but he was there. No one really stood out to me on the bench - however Jason Strowbridge looks like a Football player, and he did pretty good at the bench. I believe he is projected 2nd/3rd rd guy. He looks the part. The Defensive Lineman came next -same routine. These are the big guys. Saw Derrick Brown, he completed 28 reps and he is a big man!! Kenny Willikes from MSU had the most reps for this group. Linebackers were next Simmons sat out the Bench but was there. He is a tall guy. No one really stood out rep wise. Kalake Hudson (UofM) appeared to do the most reps. That was it for Friday. Saturday was Defensive Backs - Again 2 groups - 1st Group Safeties, 2nd Group CB's One Safety that stood out to me was Jeremy Chinn 6'3" 221lbs and a 4.45 40. He looks like a football player. The CB's as expected were not putting up as many reps as the previous day’s positions but Lavert Hill and Josiah Scott from UofM and MSU both did well. Okudah not so much, he only did 11 reps and he struggled with those. Of course, he does not need to be able to push a lot of weight!! A few notes: The NFL should open the Combine to the public and charge a small fee and donate that to charity. It would be so cool to see the 40's and the other positional drills. UofM and MSU must have very good strength coaching staffs, they all did really well at the Bench and surprisingly the SEC schools did not do as well. It was a lot of fun to just watch the bench press. There were a lot of Lions, Bengals, Browns, and Steelers fans there. Oddly not many Colts fans. I am already making plans for next year!!

One of my favorite draft past times is helping out Justin Rodgers at the Detroit News chasing down UDFAs that sign with the Detroit Lions at the conclusion of the draft. Once the draft concludes on Saturday evening, there is usually a mad scramble to sign UDFAs by teams. However, with the Corona Virus running rampant still and teams likely losing offseason productivity, the Lions took what I think is a smart approach and filled their roster with proven veterans , especially at the WR, DB and LB positions. Adam Schefter tweeted out earlier today the list of contracted players on each teams roster: Cut off from the tweet is the bottom of the list that has the Lions tied with Broncos for 3rd most players on a roster with 77. So, with 9 draft picks currently (could be more with trades), the Lions are likely to only be looking for 4 UDFAs at the conclusion of the draft to get them to the offseason roster limit of 90 players. A couple of cuts or trades between now and then can alter the amount needed, but as it sits, there will be significantly lower number than the usual 9-12 they have signed in the Bob Quinn era.

While the Detroit Lions have found themselves drafting in the top 5 more times in the last 11 years than I would have liked, they always seemed to grab their guy and never really entertained any offers to trade back and stockpile some extra picks.  Those three opportunities were in 2009 (Mathew Stafford #1 Overall), 2010 (Ndamukong Suh #2 Overall) and in 2013 (Ezekial Ansah #5 Overall), with each one presenting a hold-your-breath-moment for every Lions fan hoping to net a haul like WAS did from NO when Mike Ditka traded his entire 1999 draft plus 1st and 3rd picks in 2000 for Ricky Williams. Looking back through those drafts at any top 10 trades and what players were taken after the Lions made their selection, and I am convinced that they made the right choice to select all three players instead of dealing back for extra picks.  All three were pro bowlers, and both the 2009 and 2013 drafts had pretty bad Top 10s outside of the Lions players selected.  The Suh draft was littered with talent in Top 10, and no trades took place until #11 and #12, with teams moving back to #16 and beyond, missing the talent at the top. Having said all that, here we are sitting on the eve of the 2020 NFL draft with the Lions apparently in control of the draft with the #3 overall pick.  It sure seems to be a foregone conclusion that Joe Burrow is going to CIN and that Chase Young will go home to WAS.  That leaves the Lions in control of the draft at #3 with several impact defenders in CB Jeffrey Okudah, LB/S Isiah Simmons or IDL Derrick Brown along with the top OT and next two QBs on the board. Anyone that covets Tua or Hebert or possibly even one of the OT or Simmons will need to deal with the Lions, and unlike the other years I mention above, this finally has the feel that the Lions may actually pull of a deal, yet still get their guy. A deal is still contingent on finding a trade partner who covets a player, so that variable looms large.  You also have the unlikely scenario that Chase Young slips past the Redskins due to them trading out or taking an OT, which should immediately negate any trade opportunities.  In that scenario, Bob Quinn would be doing a virtual sprint to the podium to turn in his card with Young’s name on it so quickly that the Giants would feel the breeze all the way over in New Jersey. Let's dispense with the Young fantasy and assume a trade does take place, with the likely partners being Miami or the Chargers, with each competing over the QBs Tua and/or Hebert. I personally believe the likely partner is Miami with the Lions getting multiple picks in return (#5, #26, #56 and possibly doing a later rd. pick swap in Rds. 5, 6 or 7.)  This would allow Miami to get their QB, and the Lions to still grab one of Okudah or brown at #5 and fill in some depth at OL and WR with the extra picks.  The Giants are unlikely to go CB having used a 1st last year and spent heavily in FA at the position, but they will likely go Simmons or OT to protect last year’s 1st rounder Daniel Jones. Regardless how Thursday night shakes out, the Lions are in a Win/Win whether they stay put at #3 and take an impact defender, or trade back a bit and get one and pick up extra draft picks in the process.  While the unicorn scenario is Miami giving up #5 and #18 in addition to some Day 3 picks and the Lions still able to draft their guy, I would be happy with just their guy at this point.

Like everyone else, I have been stuck inside with life turned a bit upside down due to the Corona virus that has struck everywhere.  I find myself missing sports the most, whether it be professional, college or middle school baseball with my 14-year old son. Fortunately, we received a little taste of the NFL when it held fast and kicked off 2020 Free Agency period on time just a little over a month ago (March 18th).  We watched from afar as the Detroit Lions plugged some holes and created a few new ones, but apparently have come out of the initial waves of free agency a team with better depth but with a little less star power after trades, losses and signings. Fast forward to this week, and the NFL is once again able to serve up some appreciative sports content with the 2020 NFL Draft set to start Thursday night (Rd 1) and continue Friday (Rd 2 &3) through Saturday (Rds. 4-7) evening.  For those of us that have been looking for any sports related material to digest, this is a godsend.  Being a Detroit Lions fan, it is even sweeter, as success has evaded the team for much of our adult lives and we have relied on the yearly draft to be our “super bowl” of sorts to distract us from the frustrations of being stuck in mediocracy.  Although the draft will be nothing like we are used to (GMs in their basement offices, no fans, no hoopla and likely social distancing on the sets of the networks), it’s still a glimmer of that light at the end of the tunnel that sports fans are craving. I can unequivocally say I am ready for this.  Ready to get into my yearly draft routine of ordering my pizza for Thursday night.  Ready to log into our draft chat with a group of Detroit Lions fans and friends of 20+ years, including a few that are my partners here at The Grey Manes.  Heck, I am ready to start chatting with our favorite Brit that loves himself some LBs where we will have to rationally explain to him why Simmons won’t be a Lion over Brown and Okudah.  I don’t care that he comes from across the pond where they spell it “futbol” and think the ball is supposed to be round, having him up to 4:00 a.m. GMT to finish out the round Chatting with our group is something I always cherish.  All I know, is that regardless how the draft turns out for the Lions, I am just thankful that we are able to forget about what is going on in the world, even if it is for a few nights, and get back to a bit of normalcy