Zach Follett, Go. Run. Hit.

Passing on Rey Maualuga not once but twice caused many - okay most - Lions fans to go berserk and start contemplating scaling Ford Field dressed like extras from Mad Max, pitchforks and torches in hand, and hatred in their hearts. And while a good deal of this animalistic frenzy is simply the byproduct of having been repeatedly whipped and beaten by the brutal shitbeasts who have run this franchise for oh so many painful and inglorious years, a portion of the disgust was due to the Lions dire situation at linebacker, specifically in the middle, where the Lions were set to apparently dress Roary, the ridiculous Lions mascot, in the guise of a middle linebacker and then pray that he wasn't beaten enough to sign autographs and pal around with the slackjawed young Lions fans, poor terrified children who would need the comfort of a dude in a giant lion costume after presumably witnessing the horrors of Lions football for the first time, all while their fathers shook in their seats, drunk and terrified, beaten like junkies with post traumatic stress syndrome. Horrible, horrible. But I have wandered off track with that epic run on sentence and so I will try to steer back towards the point, and that is that the Detroit Lions were in woeful need of help at linebacker and at first glance seemed to say fuck it, bizarrely comfortable with the notion that come the first game of the season, they would be left with poor Roary and little else.

This is, of course, ridiculous. Soon after the draft ended, it became clear that DeAndre Levy was drafted specifically to be the middle linebacker of the future and while there has been some question as to the wisdom of this move, much of the immediate concern has been allayed by the Lions signing of Larry Foote to start in the middle next season. And with the outside backers seemingly set in stone with The Lizard King, Cinnabon Sims and Julian Peterson, more and more fans are starting to come around to the idea that the dudes who were selected by the Lions might not be so terrible after all.

I have already written about Levy and now I will discuss the second linebacker who the Lions drafted, a seventh rounder out of California, Zach Follett.

A fairly highly rated recruit coming out of high school, Follett signed with the Cal Bears and immediately found playing time on a pretty good team. He was a productive player who got better with each season - always a good sign. In fact, Follett was a pretty highly decorated player, picking up conference honors in multiple seasons, culminating with a first team All Pac-Ten designation following his senior season.

Follett made his name as an attacking player, racking up plenty of tackles for loss and sacks during his time at Berkeley. He flashed pretty good speed and an impressive ability to hit the shit out of anything that moved. And what's more, he seems like the type of dude who loves to play football, someone who wants to go out there and smack everyone else in the mouth like King Kong on PCP. I mean, there's a whole lot to like here.

So how did Follett slip all the way to the Lions near the end of the seventh round? Well, he had some injury problems in college, particularly the dreaded neck stinger, and that probably caused him to fall some. But, unfortunately, the simple fact is that Follett probably isn't quite good enough to be a productive starting linebacker in the NFL. He does hit - and hard - but he lacks ideal fluidity, and will get lost in coverage. His aggressiveness can also work against him, particularly when he tries to blow into the backfield only to overrun the ball carrier. He's probably not the most instinctive player, and he's not exactly a student of the game type. He just seems like one of those guys who really, really wants to fuck people's shit up, and hey, that's cool.

I think Follett will probably be the sort of guy who will make a couple of huge HOLY SHIT type hits, maybe a couple of sacks here and there and will bring a shit ton of energy to the game whenever he's in there - all valuable things to bring to a team. He will probably stand out the most on special teams, where he can just run down the field and murder people with reckless abandon, and then be tethered to the bench in between by a choke chain so he doesn't wander into the stands and start wailing on poor unsuspecting drunks. He's going to be a popular player. There's no doubt about that in my mind. He has fan favorite written all over him, but he's probably one of those players who is just a hair shy of being good enough to be a starter in the NFL. He kind of reminds me of a 4A player in baseball - prospects who are talented enough to dominate at the Triple A level but who aren't quite good enough to get it done with the big club.


What they could have done differently: Look, when you're into the seventh round like this, there is really no point in speculating about what could have been. Everyone at this point is a crapshoot. I guess if you want to talk about the position itself, well, then I suppose the Lions could have taken Maualuga or Laurinaitis(fuck it, I am not checking the spelling - if they're right, they're right, if they're wrong, well, life's full of disappointments, I'm sure you'll move on from this one.)


What to expect this season: Special teams demolition derby. Maybe he'll see a few snaps at linebacker, but from the sounds of things, he seems like he's pretty lost out there so far during the Lions OTA's.

Early pick grade: A. This dude is pretty much the blueprint of the sort of dude you want to get in the seventh round - passionate, aggressive, highly productive in college, a surefire contributor on special teams with some potential for more down the road. A great pick.