Hondo talks to scouts about Lion's picks...

Very interesting article on Hondo's Blog. He talked to some unnamed scouts who gave their take on the Lion's picks.

#1 17th Overall Gosder “GOZ” Cherilus OT Boston CollegeScout 1: “This was
a very solid pick of the Lions. When they made the trade with the Chiefs
we called this in our war room. We looked hard at Gosder and we really
liked him. He is a street fighter with a mean streak to match. We
felt he was (behind Jake Long) the best zone blocking OT in this draft. We
also loved his durability and that fact that he loves to practice. It was
no secret that Lions had to address the T situation and when Long went #1 we
felt that the Lions would go with this kid. He fits what they want to do
big time. If I was a Lions employee the only player we could have gotten
better for our needs would have been Jake (Long) and that wasn’t going to happen
without giving away the farm and they had too many needs to do that. When
you (Hondo) told me that they want to keep him at RT that made me laugh.
As soon as he (GOZ) is ready, Backus will move. He is to good to keep on
the right once he gets the NFL game. He certainly will be a major upgrade
from Backus on the right ”

Obviously Backus wasn't a right tackle, but if Cherilus can nail down this position and stay healthy, he's an obvious upgrade over the previous (Foster) tackle. Notice the scout mentions that he's a good fit for the zone blocking scheme, which Otah isn't in my opinion. With the way the tackles went off the board, he wasn't a reach at all. In fact, Branden Alberts was only projected to play tackle, but he's a better guard. He'd be great for the Lions as a left guard, but the Lions won't do as much pulling and trapping, so having top guards isn't necessary. This is one of the many good reasons to run a zone blocking scheme.