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I see little comparison between Ricky Foley and Ese Mrabure-Ajufo.

Foley was regarded highly enough to draw serious interest from the NFL. On more than one occasion.

Ese was seemingly only highly regarded as a 1st round pick by Wally and his staff. He was a reach, taken much, much higher than other evaluations. He looked like a project from the get go. His evaluation by the Lions' staff seemed to be outside the norms, on what basis? Athleticism? Is he superior to Maxx Forde as an athlete? I don't think so. Faster? Bigger? Stronger? Better numbers at the Combine? Did he have awesome stats in college? No.

We threw the dice three times in the draft. Two NFL prospects, and Ese, taken early. Will the gambles pay off? Who knows? But this fan did not like it. And, No, nothing against the young man. Not his fault that expectations were placed upon him that he might not be able to fulfill.

Time will tell how Ese turns out as a CFL player. Not looking good so far.

If we get either Boyko or Covington, then of course, the fans can be happy that a gamble paid off. It worked with Bo Lokombo.

Agreed. Ricky Foley was playing behind Gary Butler early in his career with the Lions, and was clearly miles ahead of Butler in skill and athleticism. A little alarmed that Ese Mrabure-Ajufo is not even playing special teams. We'll see. Certainly way too early to draw any conclusions on how successful he might become, but if the club was honest with themselves he's probably not where they expected him to be at this point.

As for the Boyko/Covington gamble, I can see Boyko here one day, but extremely doubtful on Covington suiting up in black and orange any time in the next several years, if ever.

Murray-Lawrence is the head scratcher to me. Wally said once that he wasn't ready to return punts. Fair enough. The club also said they want to bring him along slowly at RB. A little bit at a time. I get that. But he was a consistent kick-off threat early on and seems to have disappeared from teams, first in favor of Antolin, now Rainey. And never seems to get any touches anymore at RB either, even though at times Harris clearly needs the rest. Something to keep an eye on.


DH

David wrote:Murray-Lawrence is the head scratcher to me. Wally said once that he wasn't ready to return punts. Fair enough. The club also said they want to bring him along slowly at RB. A little bit at a time. I get that. But he was a consistent kick-off threat early on and seems to have disappeared from teams, first in favor of Antolin, now Rainey. And never seems to get any touches anymore at RB either, even though at times Harris clearly needs the rest. Something to keep an eye on.


DH

It is puzzling they aren't using him more. It's a common narrative that rookies who aren't accustomed to the 20-week haul of the season at the pro level can hit a bit of a wall half to two-thirds of the way through the campaign so maybe you want to keep them fresh but even by that standard his workload lately seems rather light.

My thought with mentioning Foley in the same context of Mrabure-Ajufo was the element of rawness and physical gifts he had when entering the draft. What would have helped Foley when he was inserted into the d-line was the presence of a Wake, Hunt, Williams or Johnson; I don't think Foley would have drawn the same level of attention in terms of being blocked as those guys.

Essentially I am surmising the presence of those Players of the Year (Canadian, Defensive, Rookie) and All-Stars are going to raise the level of play from those guys who play alongside them. A guy like Foley is also going to learn a lot from them. He couldn't help but benefit.

The current Lions d-line is a pale shadow of what used to patrol the line of scrimmage. The struggles it has been experiencing this year (maybe they have turned a corner last game?) is not a great context to say a player has been a wasted draft pick.

Brett Boyko is on the Eagles' practice squad but two other Canadian offensive linemen that were cut, Matt O'Donnell and Austin Pasztor, do not appear to have been picked up by other teams or offered places on the Bengals or Jaguars practice rosters.
Don't know anything about Pasztor but O'Donnell spent sometime with the Eskimoes, he is a big boy. Might be worth pursuing if he is available.

Update: Pasztor was claimed by the Browns.

Regarding Boyko, I don't think it hurts that we have his brother on our staff. Probably not a bad thing that he at least get time on the Eagles practice roster. Means he's a worthy prospect and he can learn some things down there. I don't see this being a Danny Watkins situation, and if he doesn't stick in the NFL I expect he'll be with us when the time comes.

The_Pauser wrote:Regarding Boyko, I don't think it hurts that we have his brother on our staff. Probably not a bad thing that he at least get time on the Eagles practice roster. Means he's a worthy prospect and he can learn some things down there. I don't see this being a Danny Watkins situation, and if he doesn't stick in the NFL I expect he'll be with us when the time comes.

I didn't realize that the Lions strengthening coach was Brett Boyko's brother, so thanks for that. It does make for a slightly greater justification for taking an NFL prospect in the draft. For the record I am in favour of taking a Boyko, Covington, Lokombo, Watkins, Mills in a later round because the payoff can be huge, but only if you don't blow your first pick on someone that you could have gotten in a later round.

Yeah. I don't mind the gambles either. Even if only one or two hit over a 6 year period that makes it worth it. But that first round pick was downright terrible. Even if that's the guy you want, you trade down to accumulate another pick and still get your guy.

Darryl Waud would look good on our D line right now. Instead we got a guy who will likely be cut next season.

CardiacKid wrote:Brett Boyko is on the Eagles' practice squad but two other Canadian offensive linemen that were cut, Matt O'Donnell and Austin Pasztor, do not appear to have been picked up by other teams or offered places on the Bengals or Jaguars practice rosters.
Don't know anything about Pasztor but O'Donnell spent sometime with the Eskimoes, he is a big boy. Might be worth pursuing if he is available.

Update: Pasztor was claimed by the Browns.

Pasztor is an Edmonton draft pick from 2012 (4th overall). He remains Eskimo property. O'Donnell would return as an FA. He was originally drafted by the Riders in 2011. The Riders were never able to get him to sign and eventually traded his rights to Edmonton in September 2012.