Warren Report: The 10 best draft choices in Detroit Lions’ history
The Detroit Lions have had many great draft choices (as well as many more poor ones) during their history. With the draft kicking off on Thursday, here are my choices for the ten best draft picks in Lions’ history. I also chose not to rank the choices and instead just list them in alphabetical order.
In making my choices, I put more of an emphasis on where a player was chosen (the later the better) relative to their production as opposed to just selecting “no brainer” picks. That is why you will not see Calvin Johnson, Ndamukong Suh, Doak Walker or Alex Karras on this list.
I also took into account the impact that the player had on the success of the franchise upon their arrival. Which is why you see two 1st round running backs on this list. Of course, all of this is subjective. If you disagree, hit me up on Twitter @iamDougWarren and let me know.
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Lem Barney, 2nd Round (34th overall), Jackson State in 1967
Jackson State, a small Division II school in Mississippi, has produced more than eighty-five football players who’ve went on to play in the NFL, including Pro Football Hall of Fame members Walter Payton and Jackie Slater. However, it is safe to say that no Jackson State footballer made a bigger impact in his first NFL game than Lem Barney. Starting at left cornerback on opening day 1967, against the defending Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers, Barney intercepted the first pass thrown in his direction. However, Barney’s first pick was anything but ordinary. Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr had sent Packer running back Elijah Pitts into the flat behind receiver Boyd Dowler to test the young defensive back. Barney read the play and broke on the ball, making a diving interception. He then somersaulted onto his feet, and raced 24-yards the other way for a touchdown.
That was the first of Barney’s 10 interceptions in his rookie season, which tied him for the league lead. He returned three of them for touchdowns, earning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year honors and the first of his seven trips to the Pro Bowl. He would end his career in 1977 with 56 interceptions. Barney, nicknamed “The Supernatural,” by longtime Lion beat-writer Jerry Green, proved to be a big playmaker on special teams too. During his career, he averaged 25.5 yards on kick returns, and 9.2 yards on punt returns. He also scored 11 touchdowns on 7 interception returns, 2 punt returns, a 98-yard kickoff return, and a 94-yard missed field goal return. He also recovered 11 opponents’ fumbles, and performed double-duty as the Lions’ punter in 1967 and 1969.
Lem’s defensive backfield coach Jim David, who was himself a stalwart member of the Lion secondary during the 1950’s, once described his former pupil this way: “If there was ever anybody better than Lem, I never saw or heard of him. Nobody before or since measured up to him.”
Stephen Boyd, 5th Round (141st overall), Boston College in 1996
As a rookie, Boyd collected 1 sack in a reserve role as a rookie playing behind fan favorite Chris Spielman. The next year Boyd replaced Spielman (who had left for Buffalo as a free agent), but would miss half the season with an injury. Then in 1997, he recorded a career-high 192 tackles (123 solo), which remains the second-highest total in franchise history behind Spielman’s 195 in 1994.
Stephen would go on to record tackle totals of 156, 184, and 166 during the next three seasons. He holds four of the top six tackle-totals in Lion history. Boyd was voted the Lem Barney Defensive MVP by his teammates in 1999 and 2000. He also earned his two-career Pro Bowl trips after those seasons as well. He remains the third leading tackler in franchise history, behind Spielman and Bennie Blades. A serious neck-injury early in the 2001 season forced Boyd into a premature retirement.
Roger Brown, 4th Round (42nd overall), Maryland Eastern Shore in 1960
Roger was a 6-foot-5, 298 pound cat-quick, bull-strong defensive tackle who quickly moved into the Lions’ starting lineup as a rookie, teaming with Alex Karras to form what would become the most feared defensive tackle duo in the entire NFL.
Brown earned a Pro Bowl selection at the end of the 1962 season. It would be the first of Brown’s six-straight appearances in the all-star game. Throughout Brown’s career, his size, quickness, closing speed, and brute power made him truly a player that was ahead of his time. Brown’s last Pro Bowl appearance came in 1967, as a member of the Los Angeles Rams.
Jack Christiansen, 6th Round (69th overall), Colorado A&M in 1951
Jack Christiansen was quite simply a man who forever changed the way NFL football was played. He was a two-sport star in college (football and track-and-field). The Lion brass felt that Jack had the talent for professional football, but because of his lack of size, they also felt he would be immediately put at a disadvantage as a full-time NFL ball carrier. It was then that Lion head-coach Buddy Parker made a decision that would come to revolutionize the way NFL teams built their defenses.
During the early 1950’s, most NFL coaches chose to put their most talented backs on offense. Many of them, like the New York Giants’ Frank Gifford, played on both sides of the ball. In the Detroit Lions camp of 1951, rookie-skipper Buddy Parker’s first order of business was to shore up his pass defense. In 1950, the Lions had given up twenty-one or more points in 7 of their 12 games, including a team record 65 points against the high-flying Los Angeles Rams. Knowing that Jack was undersized for offense, he moved him to defensive-safety full-time. It was maybe the best coaching decision Parker ever made.
Christiansen was fast, smart, and a tremendous hitter. Most importantly, he was a playmaker. Joe Schmidt, Christiansen’s Hall of Fame teammate, recently described Jack to this author in these loving terms: “he could run like hell, come up and knock the shit out of ya’.” Because of Christiansen, Buddy Parker expanded on his theory of putting his best backs on defense. As a result, Christiansen would become the leader of the NFL’s most famous and feared secondary. Upon teaming with cornerback Jim David and safety Yale Lary in 1952, the group would soon become known as “Chris’s Crew” in honor of Christiansen. That same year Chris’s Crew would help the Lions win their first championship in 17 years with the stingiest defense in the league, allowing an average of only 16 points per game. Jack, Jim, Yale, and the rest of the Crew would intercept a total of 205 passes from 1951 thru 1958. Christiansen accounted for 46 of them himself, including league leading seasons of 12 (1952), and 10 (1957), respectively. The unit’s ball-hawking, hitting and big plays were a major reason why the Lions won three championships during the decade.
However, Christiansen’s biggest impact on the NFL came from his dominance on special teams. Before Jack’s emergence, NFL punt coverage teams would usually line up in tight formations to help with blocking. Jack’s speed, daring and vision changed all that. Twice during his career, he returned two punts for touchdowns in a single-game. The most remarkable thing about the feat however, was that Jack did it both times during his rookie season. He averaged an astonishing 19.1, and 21.5 yards, respectively, on punt returns during his first two-seasons. Because of his exploits, NFL teams created the spread-punt formations that remain today’s standard. Christiansen returned a total of eight punts for touchdowns during his career, which until recent years, stood as the NFL record. His 11 return touchdowns (8 punts, 3 interceptions) tie him with Lem Barney for most in Lions’ history. His career punt return average (minimum 75 returns) of 12.75 yards, still places him third on the NFL’s all-time list.
During his career, Christiansen was named all-pro six-consecutive years (1952-57), and went to five-straight Pro Bowls (1953-57). In 1972, Football Digest named him one of the top 25 players ever to play in the NFL. Jack Christiansen is a true NFL legend, not only of his time, but for all-time.
Jim David, 22nd Round (261st overall), Colorado A&M in 1952
Pound-for-pound, Jim “The Hatchet” David is likely the biggest hitter in Lions’ history. The 5-foot-11, 178 pound terror attended college at Colorado A&M (now Colorado State), where he was a teammate of 1951 Lion rookies Jack Christiansen and Thurman McGraw. Both Christiansen and McGraw recommended that Lions coach Buddy Parker and GM Nick Kerbawy pick up the scrappy David, who had finished second in the nation in pass receptions as a senior in 1951.
It was in the Leos’ defensive backfield where David would build his legend. Coach Parker would team David and fellow rookie Yale Lary, with Christiansen and veteran defensive back Bob Smith, to form what would later become known as Chris’s Crew. Named in honor of Christiansen, Chris’s Crew would become the most feared secondary in the entire NFL.
While all four men were skilled ball-hawks, there was no debate as to who the biggest hitter was. The Hatchet would solidify his reputation in 1953, when he would break San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Y.A. Tittle’s jaw and Los Angeles Rams’ receiver Tom Fears’ back, on consecutive Sundays. David would talk about the incidents years later: “Tittle was an accident, but I kinda went after Fears because he went after our Yale Lary earlier in the game. We policed our own game in those days.”
David would be one of the cornerstones of the Lions’ 1950’s dynasty. He would be selected to six-straight Pro Bowls from 1954-59, as well as be named All-Pro twice in 1954 and 1956. He would retire after the 1959 season with 36 career interceptions, which still places him fifth on the Lions’ all-time list. David would later go into a successful coaching career, spending the 1967-72 seasons as Lion defensive backfield coach, working with head coach and former teammate Joe Schmidt.
DeAndre Levy, 3rd Round (76th overall), Wisconsin in 2009
Drafted by the Detroit Lions in the third round of the 2009 NFL Draft, DeAndre Levy, started 10 games as a rookie. After in injury-plagued second season, he broke out in 2011 with 109 tackles (73 solo) and also collected an INT and sack. In 2013, Levy vaulted himself to a Pro Bowl level with 119 tackles (85 solo), 6 INTs and 15 passes defensed (which tripled his previous career high). He continued that production in 2014 with 151 tackles (117 solo), 2.5 sacks and 1 interception. Amazingly, Levy still has never been named to a Pro Bowl squad. This last season, he also moved into a defensive playcalling role for the NFL’s second-ranked defense when Stephen Tulloch went down with a season-ending injury.
Barry Sanders, 1st Round (3rd overall), Oklahoma State in 1989
Sanders, the 1988 Heisman Trophy winner, had set 13 NCAA rushing and scoring records by the end of his junior year. Foregoing his senior season, the Lions made the 5-foot-8, 203 pound Sanders the third-overall pick of the 1989 draft. Ten years, 15,269 yards and 109 touchdowns later, he walked away as still the most feared player at his position.
During his ten-straight 1,000 yard seasons, Sanders surpassed the 1,500 yard mark five times, including an NFL record four straight from 1994-97. Barry was the NFL’s official human highlight film. He was one of the few players in league history who was literally a threat to score every time he touched the ball.
Sanders kept himself in tremendous physical shape, which attributed to his durability. He suffered one major injury, a knee, which caused him to miss the last five regular season games of 1993. He only missed two games during the rest of his career. In addition to his durability, he simply didn’t fumble. In 3,062 career carries, he only fumbled 41 times, with 10 of those coming in his rookie year. You may wonder why I don’t consider Barry Sanders a “no brainer” pick like I do Megatron and Suh? Well, in 1989, Barry’s selection wasn’t a no brainer, as four of the top five picks (Troy Aikman, Sanders, Derrick Thomas, Deion Sanders) in the 1989 draft now have busts in Canton, Ohio. And arguably, among those four players, Barry was the best of that immortal bunch.
Charlie Sanders, 3rd Round (74th overall), Minnesota in 1968
“Charlie Deep” is simply the greatest tight end in Lion history. No one has come close, before or since, and it is very likely to remain that way. Those who saw him dominate his position still speak in awe of his play. He could run like a wideout, block like a lineman, and catch like a cold. He played in the days before the NFL’s revolutionary 1978 rules changes, which opened up the passing game as never before. Even so, his 336 career receptions remain number-six on the team’s career list, behind only the 1990’s foursome of Herman Moore, Johnnie Morton, Brett Perriman, and Barry Sanders and curent Lion, Calvin Johnson. His 14.3 yard-per-catch average trails only Leonard Thompson (16.9) and Gail Cogdill (16.1) among the teams’ top-ten pass catchers.
“There was no book on Charlie,” said former Lion teammate and quarterback Greg Landry, “Charlie was strong enough to work against anyone in the secondary . . . he was fast enough that strong safeties had problems covering him in the open field. He was a wonderful target with his size, and an intelligent receiver who knew how to find open spots, or adjust routes to make it easier for me to reach him.” On Charlie’s blocking, Landry added this: “He just crushed the corner when he came off the ball, regardless of whether he was lined up against a defensive lineman or a linebacker. It was like having a third tackle in the game.”
Sanders was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and a two-time All-Pro during his ten seasons with the Lions. In 2007, “Charlie Deep” was finally enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Cory Schlesinger, 6th Round (192nd overall), Nebraska in 1996
After a stellar college career as an all-purpose fullback in Lincoln, Schlesinger was used mainly as a lead blocker and on special teams during his first six-seasons in Detroit.
The arrival of the famed West Coast Offense to Detroit in 2001 gave Schlesinger a chance to finally showcase the skills that many observers felt he had all along. In 2001, he established career-highs in rushes (47), rushing yards (154), receptions (60), and receiving yards (466), all while maintaining his dominance as a lead blocker. He was named as an alternate to the Pro Bowl three times (2002-04). Schlesinger’s special teams play had always been strong. From 1995-2001, no other Lion recorded more tackles on those special units than Schlesinger’s 118.
Joe Schmidt, 7th Round (85th overall), Pittsburgh in 1953
Schmidt arrived in Detroit as an unheralded, injury prone, seventh-round draft choice out of the University of Pittsburgh. Despite those odds, he was an opening day starter and by mid-season he was calling the team’s defensive signals from his left linebacker spot. By the end of his rookie year, Schmidt had become a defensive force. His forced fumble on Cleveland Browns’ quarterback Otto Graham during the opening quarter of the 1953 championship set up the Lions’ first touchdown, on their way to a 17-16 triumph, and second-straight NFL title.
In the years before Dick Butkus, Joe Schmidt was the NFL middle linebacker against whom all others were judged. During his thirteen-year career, the 6-foot, 222-pounder was named all-pro eight times, and was selected to play in nine consecutive Pro Bowls from 1954-62. He was also selected by his teammates as their MVP four times (1955, ‘57, ‘58, and ‘61) and was NFL co-MVP (with Philadelphia QB, Norm Van Brocklin) in 1960.
Billy Sims, 1st Round (1st overall), Oklahoma in 1980
Sims, the high-stepping 6-foot, 212 pound Heisman Trophy winner, burst onto the NFL scene with a spectacular, 153-yard, three-touchdown debut versus the Los Angeles Rams in 1980. He never let up until suffering a career ending knee injury in 1984. Through it all, Billy Sims etched a place in the hearts of all Lions fans who saw him perform.
Sims was a three-time Pro Bowler, and finished his career as the Lions’ all-time leading rusher with 5,106 yards, on 1,131 attempts (4.5 avg.). He scored 282 points on 47 career touchdowns. He was also a skilled receiver, once catching 11 passes in a game as a rookie versus San Francisco. Many of his team records have since been eclipsed by Barry Sanders. But, leave there no doubt that during his time Billy Sims was the heart and soul of the Lion franchise. It’s my belief that the Lions would have ever made the playoffs (1982, 83) or won a division title (1983) during the Monte Clark era had Billy Sims never played in a Lions’ uniform?
