If the Detroit Lions want to land the best receiver in the draft, Clemson's Sammy Watkins, they'll have to trade up to get him.
And the growing sense in league circles is that's the all-in sort of move the Lions, a team desperate to reverse its downtrodden luck, could be willing to make.
Watkins is the best pass catcher to come out of college in the last few years, a game-changer who unlike most rookies should have an immediate and long-standing impact.
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He's explosive, has reliable hands, can play anywhere on the field and most importantly is the type of talent who fits both the Lions' current window of opportunity and could help bridge the gap from Calvin Johnson to the future.
The Lions
have done a ton of homework on Watkins already.
General manager Martin Mayhew and coach Jim Caldwell had dinner with him the night before his pro day last month, and both men stuck around to watch Watkins put on a show on the field.
Last week, the Lions, still wary of diva receivers from their Titus Young fiasco, hosted Watkins' college teammate, Martavis Bryant, on a pre-draft visit, and Bryant told the Free Press the topic of Watkins came up.
“They just asked about how we got along and stuff like that,” Bryant said.
On Tuesday, the Lions snuck Watkins in for a pre-draft visit, where he met with Johnson, Golden Tate, offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and others. Vice chairman Bill Ford Jr. was in the building during Watkins' visit, and according to NFL Network, Watkins met with him, too.
At the owners meetings last month, both Mayhew and Caldwell spoke glowingly of Watkins, who for all his talent - he's roundly considered one of the five best prospects in the draft - still has had to explain a 2012 arrest that got him suspended for the first two games of that season.
Caldwell called Watkins “a quality person” and said “there's not much to dislike about this young man.”
“We had an opportunity to visit with his mother and father, so I think you get a pretty good feel,” Caldwell said. “And one of the things I've always learned from my days back in college is I've always loved to watch the interaction between the individual and his parents. You know that old scripture in the Bible, honor thy mother and father. Well, typically you can tell what kind of man it is … when you watch the people that they are closest to and hold dearest to their heart and how they treat them.”
Mayhew has never been averse to making big moves in the draft, though he's not known as someone who will do so at any cost.
In 2010, Mayhew gave up minimal compensation - second- and seventh-round picks plus a swap of fourth-rounders - to move up four spots and draft playmaking running back Jahvid Best in an effort to add a new dimension to the offense. The move worked - until Best's career ended a year later with concussions.
In 2011, Mayhew tried to trade up from 13 to 5 to land Patrick Peterson, offering his first-, second- and fourth-round choices. Ultimately, the Arizona Cardinals wanted to stay put so they could take a player that's now one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL.
Last year, the Lions kicked around the idea of moving up two spots for tackle Lane Johnson, but ultimately stood pat and ended up with a good, young defensive end in Ziggy Ansah.
No one knows what it'll take to get Watkins this year, though a top-four pick (ahead of the Oakland Raiders at 5) is a safe assumption.
According to the draft value chart, to move from 10 to four, the Lions would have to offer a similar package to what they dangled in front of Arizona in 2011: first-, second- and fourth-round choices, with maybe a late-rounder coming back. (The Lions don't have a fifth-round pick this year, that was lost in the Mike Thomas trade, but they do have two extra fourth-rounders that can't be traded because they're compensatory picks.)
And for a team that's already talked privately about the Super Bowl being its goal, dealing a package of picks might make more sense than, say, saving one of those picks and parting instead with a player like Nick Fairley, the defensive tackle they ended up with after missing on Peterson and someone whose long-term future with the Lions is in doubt.
(The Lions have given no indication they're willing to trade Fairley, and picking up his fifth-year option - which Mayhew said he doesn't plan to do - would surely make him more attractive to potential trade partners.)
Watkins said all the right things after his visit. He said he had a “great meeting” with Caldwell and Mayhew before his pro day and said he's not looking to be a “Superman wide receiver” for whatever team drafts him but just wants to “go in there and make plays and help my team out.”
The Lions, despite signing Tate to a five-year free-agent deal last month, still need help at the receiver position that lacks punch beyond its top two pass catchers.
Watkins would step into the rotation immediately, and, assuming he lives up to his massive potential, would take over for Johnson as the Lions' go-to receiver a couple years down the road.
Mayhew has said finding an heir apparent for Johnson, who turns 29 in September and has played through knee injuries the last two years, hasn't entered into the Lions' thinking. But considering the history of big receivers falling off in their 30s, it should.
There's no debating the Lions have more needs to fill than receiver, and taking a high-upside but lesser player at 10 and filling the roster with other solid draft picks would help in that regard. Caldwell even hinted the best way to support a still developing quarterback like Matthew Stafford is by surrounding him with a solid defense.
“Through my experience, in years four, five and six is when you really start to see a climb at (the quarterback) position,” Caldwell said at the owners meetings. “It takes a while to get it done. For a guy to come into this league and perform at the all-pro level right at the onset in professional football is rare. And usually when it does happen it's with a guy who's coupled with a team that has a great defense and can run the ball. They don't put it all on his shoulders.”
But in the NFL, superstar players (Peyton Manning) and elite units (the Seahawks' defense) are the surest path to success, and Mayhew said last month he'd like to add some to his team.
“Sometimes the guys are elite players who are difference makers,” Mayhew said. “If you're picking 10 and there's five elite players and you can get one of those guys we think there's value in (doing that).”
Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.
No expectations of that on my part tho lol
. Fairley showed up, They should house him at teh training facility until the season begins 
