ALLEN PARK, Mich. — One round after leaving their fans shaking their heads by drafting rehabbing receiver Ryan Broyles, the Detroit Lions selected a much-needed cornerback, Louisiana-Lafayette's Dwight "Bill" Bentley, in the third round Friday night.
"Well, we drafted a corner," Lions general manager Martin Mayhew, well aware of the public reaction, said with a smile. "Seems like everybody's a little happier now."
Bentley, the 85th pick overall, proved he could handle the big time when he made two interceptions last season against Oklahoma State's duo of quarterback Brandon Weedon and receiver Justin Blackmon, both first-round picks.
One question about Bentley is his size. He's 5-foot-10 and 182 pounds, not ideal for a cornerback in a league in which big and strong receivers are dominating more and more.
"It's not about size," Bentley said. "It's about what you have inside you."
Mayhew said: "He will throw his body around. All 182 pounds of it, he throws it around. He plays big. He makes big plays."
Coach Jim Schwartz added that Bentley, who stood out at the Senior Bowl, was "always able to rise to the level of competition."
The Lions need to improve their secondary, which got torched late in the season and then lost starting cornerback Eric Wright in free agency to Tampa Bay. Drafting Bentley was at least a start.
Broyles, meanwhile, is coming off surgery Nov. 21 to repair a torn cruciate ligament in his left knee. The former Oklahoma star was projected as a possible fourth-round pick by some draft analysts because of the injury.
However, Mayhew decided to add depth at receiver to go with Calvin Johnson, Nate Burleson and Titus Young.
"Best player on our board," Mayhew explained between the second and third rounds. "We have the luxury of being able to rehab this guy very thoroughly, very carefully and just allow him to get healthy.
"If the guy were healthy now, he would have been gone way before our pick. He's a great talent. We just listen to our board. We just follow our board. Our board tells us who the best players are. This guy was the guy to take for us."
Schwartz added, "We felt strongly about this player. There was no other player that tempted us."
Like Mayhew, Schwartz chuckled over the public outcry to add a cornerback and improve the secondary. They understand the passion of the fans, but neither is going to back down from their draft philosophy of taking the best player available regardless of need.
"We're not going to conduct any polls," Schwartz said. "We feel very strongly in our opinion, things we spend an awful long time looking at."
No one is questioning that Broyles was a standout college player, both as a receiver and return specialist. He's the NCAA's leader in career receptions with 349, and he's second in receiving yards with 4,586. He scored 48 touchdowns in four seasons.
He also was considered one of the draft's wild cards because of the uncertainty over the injury. What's more, the Lions bypassed not only cornerbacks at the time with the 54th pick overall, but also running backs, another area that they seemingly need to address.
Broyles, who is 5-foot-10 and 190 pounds, said he believes he's on pace to be available for training camp beginning in July but wouldn't commit to a definite timetable.
"I'm hitting the therapy as hard as I can," he said. "I'm doing all the weight-room stuff, the running stuff, getting my flexibility back as well."
Broyles said he's "pretty much self-motivated," although he did receive an e-mail from New England receiver Wes Welker that helped inspire him in his comeback bid.
"(Welker) said he's been through the same thing, 'just buckle down and you'll get back,'" Broyles said. "Obviously, we've seen how he's played over the last years. That was definitely encouraging."
Still, many are wondering how a hobbled No. 4 receiver could be a better option at that point than a player who could compete for more playing time and help rebuild the defense.
"You don't solve needs by drafting poor players," Schwartz said. "We'll keep on saying it. There's a discipline that goes into it.
"If you start thinking about need during the draft, you start thinking about the wrong things. Talent rules this board. It's the name of this game."
The Lions have four picks remaining on Saturday on the third and final day of the draft. One is in the fourth round (No. 117 overall), one in the fifth round (No. 158) and two in the seventh round (No. 219 and No. 230).
Don't even try to guess the position.
