Millen's plan was to use third round picks or lower and add a free agent or two along the way. Problem was the WRs only got to face those bad DBs in practice. It wasn't the theory that failed, it was the players Millen drafted.īesides, I think his motive was the more bad DBs in the league the better his WRs look. When teams like New England and Indy follow a theory it's not a bad idea to listen to it. Now, before you say something like "you have to save those picks for wide receivers" or "DBs just weren't sexy enough," it should be pointed out that it was a popular theory for a while. One draft philosophy Millen apparently had was don't waste high draft picks on the secondary. It was his execution we have problems with. Within two years Millen had totally remade the secondary and considering what he started with, there was nothing wrong with the intention. Well he obviously saw the secondary as a problem area and he gave it his full attention. What we didn't know at the time was that those were the good years. The Lions had a spurt of decency in 19 (13th and eighth respectively), but it didn't last long and by the time the "Dark Ages" started in 2001 the secondary was in the bottom third again. However, the Lions secondary fell back into the bottom third of the rankings for the rest of the 1980s and well into the 1990s, despite adding Bennie Blades in '88 and Ray Crockett in '89.Ĭrockett left after the 1993 season to pick up a couple of Super Bowl rings with the Broncos while the Lions burned high draft picks on Ryan McNiel, Bryant Westbrook and Terry Fair. They even righted the ship a little when the 1985 secondary ranked fifth, then fourth in 1986. They were the core of the secondary from 1983 through 1985. They had a great draft in 1982 for defensive backs when they took Bobby Watkins in the second round, Bruce McNorten in the fourth round, and William Graham in the fifth round. Unfortunately, it didn't last long as Bradley never really panned out while Hunter had injury problems and by 1982 they were ranked 18th in yards given up. Still, this secondary played well as they ranked sixth in 1978, second in '79 and ninth in '80 for fewest passing yards allowed. ![]() He never played for the Lions but went on to make four Pro Bowls and earn two Super Bowl rings with the 49ers. Of course, maybe the best draft pick was Dwight Hicks from Michigan in the sixth round of 1978. Add in the free agent safety from Pittsburgh, Will Allen, and we had the starting secondary for the late '70's. The first post Hall of Fame secondary was basically built by drafting James Hunter (first round in '76), Walt Williams (second round '77) and Luther Bradley (first round '78). ![]() We can deal with the picks after 2000 as the term drafted by Millen has a totally different meaning. ![]() That may not seem like a lot but than that is about 20 percent of their high picks which is probably about right. While there were very few Pro Bowlers over that time the Lions did have some pretty good secondaries at times, and from 1976 to 2000 they used five first round picks and five second round picks on defensive backs. Over that same stretch of time the Lions had six different Defensive Linemen combine to make the Pro Bowl 17 times, and four different Linebackers made the Pro Bowl eight times. That's right, 32 seasons and the only Pro Bowlers were Bennie Blades in 1991 and Dre' Bly twice in 20. Unfortunately, 1977 was a very long time ago and while there has been some decent defensive backs like James Harris and Ray Crockett over the years only two Lion defensive backs have made the Pro Bowl since then.
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