It's way too early to pan Pettigrew pick
Can we please just hold off on calling Brandon Pettigrew a bust or a bad move with the 20th overall pick? He's a rookie tight end being asked to do everything after missing too much time in training camp. And while his draft status and contract certainly open him up to quick criticism, I do think people are going laugh at some of the early angst about Pettigrew's selection in a couple years.
Yes, he had a shaky game Sunday. And yes, that came on the heels of his offensive coordinator, Scott Linehan, telling me last week that he thought they need to scale back some of their demands on Pettigrew -- he'd played upwards of 60 snaps the week before against Pittsburgh.
But to those who say they should've drafted Michael Oher, keep in mind he's not a left tackle. He's a right tackle. And the Lions already have one of those in last year's first-rounder Gosder Cherilus. You think they should've drafted a defensive lineman instead? Well, neither Peria Jerry or Ziggy Hood fit what this team wants out of its DTs. "What we'd like to evolve to," Gunther Cunningham explained last week, "is to have two giant defensive tackles and two real fast defensive ends -- then you can do anything you want."
And one belated note about Pettigrew's game Sunday. He didn't want to talk in the locker room afterward, and he knew he didn't play well at all. But upon further review, that first-down sack he gave up to Clay Matthews on the Lions' second drive really wasn't as bad as it looked. He tripped over Jeff Backus as he came off the line to block, and that's how he ended up on the ground as Matthews went right through him. A minor point, maybe, but I hadn't seen it live and wrote that he'd simply been bowled over by Matthews on the play Sunday.
Is there room for improvement? Yes, plenty. And I think that's probably my point here.
"Yeah, I don't think yesterday was his best game of the year," coach Jim Schwartz said. "You'd like to see a player every week (have) a little better performance than he (had) the week before -- and he was doing that. I think the fact that we look at a game like that for him and we're disappointed says how happy we were earlier in the season. I don't think there's any disappointment with him as a player. I think he's a good, young player, he didn't have his best game against Green Bay, but we need him to bounce back for us. He's a guy that can make plays in the passing game, he's a good run blocker. He's been inconsistent like a lot of rookies, but he's got six games under his belt. That rookie excuse is getting ready to go out the window pretty quickly."
