Immediately after Roger Goodell strolled to the podium and announced the Detroit Lions have selected Laken Tomlinson, the Offensive Guard from Duke I freaked out. You can find my comment on our Facebook Page saying “Wait till tomorrow. I have to wait for the rage to subside before I can form coherent sentences” in response to a fan asking what our thoughts were about the selection.
Well, it’s tomorrow and I’ll tell you what. Rage has subsided and turned into happiness. I don’t have utter disdain for the pick anymore, in fact I love it!
The main source of my gripe at the time was that when the Lions traded down, they received Manny Ramirez in return. I pegged this trade as their maneuver to fill the vacant starting Left Guard position. I was fine with this considering his $3 million dollar cap hit wasn’t terrible for a player of his caliber. He’s an average starter in the interior of any offensive line and the Lions had no players that could reasonably compete at the NFL level on the roster at the beginning of the night and they added one without having to use a draft pick. That was a helluva a job well done and I was satisfied with moving on to other needs.
Then comes “With the 28th pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions select Laken Tomlinson, Guard, Duke” out of the mouth of the commissioner. I freaked out. Why the heck would the draft another guard less than an hour after getting their starter at Left Guard? I knew who Laken Tomlinson was and was familiar with his draft resume, but I just thought that Lions General Manager had screwed up, taking a player for a position that wasn’t a need anymore.
I typed some more angry things, finished our coverage on TheMajors.com of the draft, and went to bed. I woke up early for my day job, hopped on the computer, and went to YouTube and watched film of Manny Ramirez. I can get over his horrible snap over Peyton Manning’s head on the first play of the Super Bowl a couple years ago, but upon furthur review, I was happy that Manny Ramirez wasn’t going to be a starter for the Detroit Lions.
Ramirez is 32 years old and his best athletic years are past him. His best years are behind him. Ramirez still has a place in the NFL as a rotational/backup player. And that’s exactly what the Lions acquired him to be.
Martin Mayhew didn’t blow it, in fact he aced this pick. Laken Tomlinson wasn’t graded as a first rounder by some draft pundits mostly because he isn’t scheme versatile. He’s not the kind of athlete that can succeed in a zone blocking only offense. Good news for the Lions, they don’t operate in a zone only scheme. What he is is a mauler, who will kick your ass in the run game and won’t be pushed around in the passing game. That is something in the NFL that is incredibly valuable. Replacement level guards like Manny Ramirez grow on trees, but elite guards like Warford and Tomlinson are very hard to find and often require a first round investment.
Tomlinson is a copy and paste of current Lions Right Guard Larry Warford, who’s pretty damn good. Putting Tomlinson on the left side means the interior three will be an impenetrable wall in the passing game and a plow, opening giant holes in the interior running game. This makes me a very happy Lions fan.
My only concern is his intelligence. While everyone sees it as an asset, I find it as a liability considering the significant financial and draft pick investment they made for Tomlinson. He’s already got two college degrees and everyone rants and raves about how smart he is. Laken wants to be a neurosurgeon when his football career is over. What concerns me is that he might walk away prematurely due concussion or hand injury concerns.
You saw Chris Borland, who didn’t nearly have the academic pedigree of Tomlinson walk away making less money than Laken will in his rookie year to do something else over injury concerns. Borland has a history degree, something with no where close to the earning potential of Tomlinson’s other options and Borland walked away. If Tomlinson has the desire to really impact the human race, he’s better off doing it in the operating room instead of on the football field.
Offensive Lineman get in the equivalent to a head on car collision every week. This means his brain will be taking hits each and every week that will hurt his ability to perform medicine after his career is over. Also, if he aspires to be a neurosurgeon or any type of surgeon at all, he has to have steady hands. Football, especially for lineman is brutal on your hands. If he wants to be a successful surgeon, he needs his hands in great shape and a career in the NFL isn’t conducive to that.
There isn’t anything that has been reported that suggests that Laken Tomlinson would walk away with plenty of good football left to be played and I’m not suggesting that he would, but the possibility is there. Most of the other guys in the NFL don’t have other options that can provide the lifestyle they want so they sacrifice quality of life to play. Tomlinson may not do that, which is not what the Lions would want him to do.
If Tomlinson decided to hang it up prematurely, I wouldn’t be mad. I would respect his decision that he wanted to impact the lives of others in a more significant way. However, if my only job is to look out for the best interest of the Detroit Lions, I would have made sure that this wouldn’t be an issue.
Hopefully the Lions have found their Left Guard for the next decade and there are many Pro Bowls in his future.