Sunday 29 April 2012

Matt Millen's only great move

 We all remember how Matt Millen's tenure as president and CEO of the Detroit Lions went down. In his 8 year tenure, the Lions were routinely the worst team in the NFL compling a record of 31 wins and 81 losses with a winning percentage of.277. On top of that, from 2001 until 2003, they were 0-24 on the road before winning their season opener in 2004 at Soldier Field in Chicago. As well, the Lions became the first team ever to go 0-16 in 2008.
  Normally with a team having horrible seasons year in and year out, they would normally get a very high pick in the draft which would help the team going forward. Well in the Lions case, it did not pan out as Millen choose three noticeable draft choices which turned into busts such as Joey Harrington in 2002, Charles Rogers in 2003 and Mike Williams in 2005. However only one draft choice he made actually turned out to be a success. That happened to be Calvin Johnson.
   Nicknamed "Megatron", he was drafted in 2007 out of Georgia Tech. In his 5 year career, he has had 3 1000 yard seasons and averaged at least 16 yards per catch. His breakout season was just last year where he had 96 receptions for an whopping 1681 yards. His efforts helped the Lions make the playoffs for the first time since 1999 and a brand new contract. The contract is an 8 year deal worth $132 million dollars with $60 million of it being guaranteed. As well, he was named by EA sports the cover athlete to Madden 2013.
   So after all theses failuers, Johnson was the only bright spot that Millen had drafted in his controversial tenure in the Motor City.