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"What a dope I was": Millen reflects on ill-fated time as Lions GM

"What a dope I was": Millen reflects on ill-fated time as Lions GM
Posted at 5:48 PM, May 14, 2018
and last updated 2018-05-15 08:55:20-04

(WXYZ) -- Matt Millen opened up about his time as Lions general manager in an interview with Sports Illustrated's Peter King.

Millen, who revealed in April that he had been diagnosed with amyloidosis, was especially candid about his much-maligned draft selections.

“The one that killed me was Mike Williams,” Millen said. “That was just so stupid...it’s like my brain fell off my head. Why would I do that? I listened to the group. They thought if they got Mike Williams and paired him with Roy Williams, that in the red zone we could do all these things. And I was like, okay. Do you realize at that time, when we were just about ready to pick, I had DeMarcus Ware on the phone? And I said, ‘All right, take Mike Williams.’ My son was in the draft room with us, and that’s when my son punched me. What a dope I was.”

Millen also explained why he opted to selected Charles Rogers in the 2003 draft.

"I worked him out. I met with Charles. Charles wasn’t a strong person. I knew that. I miscalculated all the people that would latch onto him, especially being so close to his hometown; he was from Saginaw. And that was a real problem. My choice then was to take him or the kid from Miami, Andre Johnson. The only reason that I didn’t take Andre Johnson was I thought this would be good for the franchise—a hometown kid, and he had better speed, but Andre was a physical guy.”

Read the full interview here.