–The draft experts are all over the board, thus far, with whom the Lions will take with the 13th pick. ESPN’s Todd McShay has them taking Colorado OT Nate Solder. Mel Kiper, Jr. has Colorado CB Jimmy Smith going to the Lions at 13. UCLA LB Akeem Ayers has shown up on several other mock drafts.

–Why would the Lions take an offensive lineman when they will be returning their offensive line intact for the third straight season in 2011? One, because Solder grades out extremely high and LT Jeff Backus is 33 and entering the final year of his contract. “They have, in the next couple of years, some issues that they have to deal with,” McShay said. “I think the depth at left tackle, planning for the future, and, in the meantime, offensive guard is a need, too. I went with Solder there.”

–Smith is intriguing, mostly because he fills one of the team’s big needs (cornerback). “Smith is a late riser, a good player on a bad team and a guy who got less attention partly because quarterbacks wouldn’t put a ball near him this past season,” Kiper wrote. “But the film is stacking up now, and it proves why NFL personnel are really high on him. The final test for Smith will be whether he grades out well in Indianapolis. Based on what I know, he will, and he offers the Lions the cornerback help they need without having to sacrifice on value at this stage in the draft.” On the downside, McShay said there were some off-the-field concerns about Smith, though he wouldn’t specify what they were.

–CB Eric King has been released.

–OT Trevor Canfield has been released.

QUOTE TO NOTE

“I’m heavily against it. You see the IR numbers this year were off the charts. It might have been a record year for number of players on injured reserve. At a certain point it kind of starts hurting the level of play. It hurts career longevity, all those things. They always want to talk about player safety but then again they want to put 18 games in the regular season, and that’s not really taking players’ safety into consideration at all. If they say play 18, I’ll certainly play 18, though. We’re hoping it doesn’t come to that.” — QB Shaun Hill voting no on an 18-game schedule.

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