N E W   D E A L   L I O N S

#02-New Deal-DL-Allan Covington

New Deal gave up a great quarterback and a good halfback 
for this pick. You have to admire a GM who is willing to gamble 
on the draft to fill holes. The Lions knew they were strong but 
thin on the DL, and this move really helped. Of course, any 
team in the league would have been helped by Covington.

#11-New Deal-QB-Scott Hennig

Another nice pick, but it could have been used for something 
besides a QB replacement if the deal for #2 hadn't gone 
through.  As it stands, Matt Thomas is an every-down back. 
He's good, but not so agile.

#23-New Deal-LB-Tad Ramsey

Ramsey was one of my favorite players in this draft. It's hard 
to fault New Deal for taking him, but the team was already 
very strong at linebacker. Now it's near-perfect. The Lions are 
one of those teams that is so good, small upgrades are 
enough.

#35-New Deal-WR-Glen Heller

Perhaps the groaner of the draft. A truly horrible pick. The AMI 
says he was picked nearly 5 rounds early (it's only a seven 
round draft!) and IMPACT says nearly 4 rounds early. He went 
between James Friedrich and Donnell Sims, to give you an 
idea. This is a player who will never get any better than he is 
right now, on a team that already has Herman Helms, a very 
strong possession reciever with better speed. Heller will help 
near the goal line, but that's WAY too small a role for pick 
#35.

#47-New Deal-FB-Rick Hasty

I didn't like Hasty much. He has the mammoth strength you 
want in a fullback, but he is a horrible pass blocker and a 
horrible run blocker. This draft was simply not the place for the 
Lions to get a fullback. They were right to address the need, 
but the race was over when Newnan went at number 7. 

#59-New Deal-CB-Tad Millnichik

A fantastic pick, who would have thought this guy would fall 
so far? Unfortunately, New Deal already has one of the best 
pairs of corners in the league. Millnichik is great trade bait 
on this loaded roster.

#71-New Deal-QB-Ron Utterbach

A very nice pick for so late in the draft. Chris Bishop and Matt 
Gainer are on their way out.

#83-New Deal-HB-Dwight Larson

Can't think of  a role for this guy, but he was picked at #83.

OVERALL:
When a team is this good, the best it can hope for are small 
improvements. In retrospect, New Deal missed some 
opportunities. They should have let Covington go and taken 
Newton Newnan with the second pick. Henning would still 
have been available at number 11, and they would have had 
a much more complete offense. As it stands, their DL got 
better, but their FB situation is still bad.  They also need help 
at safety. Even with his problems, Donnell Sims would have 
been a better pick in round 3. He's not close to Tad Ramsey's 
caliber, but he would have improved the Lions more than 
Ramsey.

GRADE: C -