I am daring to move on with this little draft odyssey(I could make a lame Homeric joke here, but I have already been down that road and at the end of that road lies only sadness and pathetic defeat so I will just move on), and we inch closer to the Millen era. We're not quite there yet, but he looms on the horizon like Judgment Day. I like to view some of these picks as being made by a Terminator from the future sent by Millen to make choices that would lead to both his reign of terror and would ensure that once he had achieved sentience he could reign down fiery death, leaving only piles of bleached skulls in his wake while Lions fans huddled together in terror in subterranean sewers. Like I said before, fun stuff.
With their first selection in the 1999 NFL Draft, with the ninth pick overall, the Detroit Lions selected Chris Claiborne, a linebacker out of USC. I remember being fairly excited that the Lions took Claiborne. He seemed like a stud linebacker who the Lions could build around so they could finally establish a post Spielman defensive identity. The only problem was that Claiborne was never more than adequate. Part of the problem was that he was initially moved outside by the Lions even though he played the middle at USC. I don't think he was horrible by any means, but he certainly wasn't the big time playmaker that the Lions needed or the type of player you would expect to get at linebacker with the ninth overall pick. He ended up spending four season with the Lions as a starter before leaving via free agency to play with the Vikings, where he started for a couple of more seasons. He then ended up with St. Louis for a season where he was a part time starter before going to the Giants where he barely played and then he was out of football after the 2006 season. So, bust? Yeah, pretty much. He was a starter, but he was also a top ten pick, and you kind of expect top ten picks to be difference makers or at least start for you for more than four fairly average seasons. I don't know, maybe I'm being a little unfair here. I am kind of arguing with myself while I write this and this rambling mess is the result. I liked Claiborne, just not 9th overall pick liked if that makes any sense. This is mostly feeble gibberish, but years of being a Lions fan has left my brain soft and mushy, like a baby's. I'll just move on.
Claiborne was actually the jewel of the class, at least when compared with the Lions other first round pick that year, the 27th overall. The Lions took Aaron Gibson, a monstrous offensive tackle out of Wisconsin. Now right away, there were concerns that Gibson was too out of shape, but he was a big time player at Wisconsin and he ran an impressive forty time for such a fat dude. I figured there was at least a chance that he could show up and put it all together. Well, uh, not so much. Instead, Aaron the Hutt or Jabba Gibson, whichever you prefer, brought his planetoid sized self to the Lions and proceeded to be monstrously fat. He missed his entire rookie season with an injury, and then lasted only one more year with the Lions before being cut six games into the 2001 season. He later signed with Dallas and then started one season for the Bears and then found himself out of football, a recurring theme here. Gibson was a huge bust, and really, everyone kinda knew it could end up going that way when he was drafted. I mean, he had a body and presence which just screamed one of two things. Either he was going to mold himself into an ass kicking goliath on the offensive line or he was going to be a doughy disappointment. He was drafted by the Lions. What do you think happened?
I'm going to do a little thing when I feel like it that will probably just make me angry, but hey, what the fuck, why not, you know? I'm going to see who else the Lions could have had in that draft at those particular positions. At linebacker, instead of Claiborne, the Lions could have drafted either Al Wilson or Mike Peterson. Oh, and if they really wanted an outside linebacker, instead of drafting a middle linebacker and converting him, there was a dude named Joey Porter sitting there until the third round. Of course, some players aren't big time prospects but blossom once they hit the NFL so you can't blame the Lions for taking the guy who everyone else probably would have taken in the same situation. I mean, that wouldn't be fair, but fuck it, I don't care, I will point this shit out anyway.
At tackle, there weren't a whole lot of other prospects by that point in the draft. They could have taken Jon Jansen. That would have been better. Then again, anyone who didn't have to potentially wash himself with a rag on a stick would have probably been better. I'm sorry, that was mean. If he had worked out, I would have been defending Gibson like I defend Shaun Rogers, but he didn't and so I am a dick. The Lions make me irrational and cruel and that probably says a lot right there and so I will just stop this right now and I will pick this up with the year 2000 as the horrible presence of Matt Millen draws ever nearer.
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