If I Had To Pick One Detroit Athlete To Start A Franchise, I'd Pick…
By: Jamie Samuelsen
It's nice, every now and then, to stop and take stock of what you have. This may not be the golden era of Detroit sports. But as we sit here at the beginning of summer, there are two pro teams who have legitimate title aspirations (the Tigers and the Lions). There's a third that has title hopes pretty much every single year that they lace 'em up (Red Wings). And there are two major college football teams and college basketball teams who have very high hopes and very good recruiting classes heading into the fall. This may lead us directly into a championship era like we've never seen before. Or it may leave us the most frustrated band of malcontents that this city has ever seen.
But it is wise to stop and realize just how good we have it – at least in terms of individual star power.
Let's just say we held this little draft exercise in 2002 instead of 2012. Who would be some of the candidates for the throne back then? The Lions were fresh off their inaugural Marty Mornhinweg season and were heading down to Ford Field. They had just drafted Joey Harrington and featured James Stewart in the backfield. Neither will likely make the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Tigers were still meandering about in their decade-plus of despair. Their lineup in 2002 featured Chris Truby, Shane Halter and Wendell Magee. Only Jeff Weaver provided any hope for the future and we all know how that turned out. The Pistons were fresh off their first playoff series win in ten years. But Joe Dumars off-season restructuring hadn't started yet and the roster still was headlined by Ben Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse and Cliff Robinson. Fine players all. None though were cornerstones you would necessarily build around. Only the Red Wings featured great players at the time and great players for the future. Nicklas Lidstrom was in his prime, coming off another Norris Trophy season and his first and only Conn Smythe. They featured an intriguing young forward named Pavel Datsyuk who had some big moments in the postseason. And they were very high on a Swedish forward named Henrik Zetterberg who was expected to join the team in the fall.
So if you held this draft a decade ago, there would only be about three or four candidates – and they all wore skates.
Not so in 2012.
Granted, this still boils down to four or five names. But I think if you asked a hundred people to pick their player, you'd get a pretty good range of answers.
Let's clear a few things up before we count down the top five. The best athlete in Detroit is Calvin Johnson. There just aren't too many people who combine every aspect of athleticism into one human body the way he does. Justin Verlander is the most dominant athlete right now. Every time he takes the mound, he has the chance to make history. And when he doesn't, it's mildly disappointing. You can take other athletes out of their game or you can negate their performance. You can't do that with Verlander. Miguel Cabrera is the most consistent. All you have to do is look at Cabrera's year so far in 2012. By some accounts, he's having a 'down' season which is the most ridiculous understatement in baseball history. The only possible explanation for that belief is the fact that the Tigers have struggled and he hasn't single-handedly brought them back from the abyss. He's tried. They are starting to respond. And he's the number one offensive reason why.
So with that preamble out of the way, let's get to the draft. As always – in reverse order for suspense.
5) Ndamukong Suh – Call me an optimist, but I'm inclined to believe that the Suh we saw in 2010 is more of the real player than the one we saw in 2011. I don't know if he was doubled more or if he was distracted more, but he suffered a clear drop-off from his rookie season to his sophomore season. The excuses are done. The greatest defensive players in football history were doubled, tripled, chipped, chopped, slugged and slapped. They overcame it. Suh needs to do the same. He's on this list based on his strength and skill and based upon the fact that he'd probably be the best defensive player on every single team in the NFL if he somehow left Detroit.
4) Calvin Johnson – Wait…what? Didn't I just write that he's the best athlete in Detroit? Yes. I did say that. But we also must acknowledge that he plays wide receiver, which is the single most dependent "superstar" position in all of sports. Johnson was widely regarded as one of the best receivers in the game prior to 2011 when he morphed into a supreme talent/Madden coverboy. That just happened to coincide with Matthew Stafford's first full, healthy season as the Lions quarterback. You can debate the 'chicken and the egg' issue between Stafford and Johnson for days (more on that in a second) – but the quarterback always has more to do with the success of an offense. Always.
3) Justin Verlander – Many baseball people don't believe that a pitcher should ever win the MVP award. It tells you just how good Verlander was in 2011 that he won over even the crustiest, craggiest writers in press boxes across America. He was the single biggest reason that the Tigers won the Central going away last year. And I still contend (am I the only one?) that if Mother Nature hadn't wreaked so much havoc on his routine last October, the Tigers might be defending World Champions. (He made ONE start in what could even closely be described as normal circumstances.) Despite saying all that, he is a pitcher. And he affects one out of every five games directly. I just can't draft him one spot ahead of…
2) Miguel Cabrera – Cabrera has some baggage. And he's all of a sudden in his tenth year in the majors, which means he's in his prime, but his prime might not last for another decade. If you're drafting one player around whom to build your franchise, you want to make sure that he's here for the long haul. Cabrera keeps himself in decent shape and is clearly an amazing athlete. If he could agree to be a DH at some point soon (it may not be his choice), he could be a force for a long, long time.
1) Matthew Stafford. Of the five guys on this list, he has the smallest sample size of healthy production at his sport. But given the fact that he threw for 5000 yards last season with little in the way of a running game and an average offensive line, he seems destined for bigger and better things. Perhaps the emergence and health of Mikel Leshoure and Jahvid Best will shrink Stafford's numbers. That's fine. With Johnson, the running backs and all the other weapons (and the mind of offensive coordinator Scott Linehan), Stafford has a chance to be a top five quarterback in the NFL very soon. He might get there as soon as this season. And when you can draft a potential top-five NFL quarterback, you take him over anybody else – even if it's a Cy Young Award/MVP winner for the Tigers.
Many of you will disagree with this list, and that speaks to two things. 1) I'm wrong a heck of a lot more than I'm right. 2) Detroit is so rich with individual talent right now that there are at least four guys who are easily considered 'franchise' players. The Red Wings have Datsyuk and Zetterberg, but you can't put them ahead of these five at this point in their careers. (Maybe we can reassess this list once NHL free agency begins, eh Mr. Parise?)
So what do you think? If you could start a team with one Detroit athlete…who would it be?
