Nowadays, Detroit Lions legend—and current special assistant—Chris Spielman usually works in the background. If you ask him, that’s how he likes it. He had his day in the spotlight; now it’s time to support those still playing in the league. But when Spielman does take a break, he’s always worth listening to since he’s essentially a life-lesson machine. This was the case this week, when Chris Spielman joined his brother Rick and analyst Ryan Wilson for an episode of the First Pick Podcast. The entire thing is well worth your time, but I wanted to focus on one particular item he said about the halfway point of the presentation. The discussion was identifying strong draft picks, which led to Spielman discussing
Branch dropped to the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, despite many believed he was a first-round talent. The Lions didn’t care if it was due to a relatively “slow” 4.58 40-yard dash or for any other reason. They went up to get him, and Spielman explained why.
With Brian, alls you had to do was watch the film,” Spielman said. “The dude was maybe one of the best tacklers that I’ve seen. As far as if a guy did catch the ball, he’d eliminate yards after the catch. His coverage, his movement skills, his instincts were off the charts. He’s just a great football player. Nobody cared what he ran. We just knew what we saw against the best competition that was out there in the SEC, playing against some of those receivers.”
And this is where Spielman made a bold prediction about Branch.
“I really think that that may go down—now, I could be wrong—but that might go down as one of Brad’s (Holmes) best draft picks, if you start evaluating… obviously he had some good ones.”
There are about 50 other stories we could write on this interview, but for now, just watch the entire hour-long show here:
