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Final Projections Pointing to Detroit Lions Selecting a Lineman in First Round

By Max DeMara

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The 2015 NFL Draft is now just a handful of hours away from beginning, and considering their position, there’s few certain ideas about what the Detroit Lions will choose to do.

When a team is picking in the 20s, anything can happen, from a player slipping who some would deem to be a value to a modest trade up or trade down based on how the board is falling. Thanks to this dynamic, it’s often impossible to accurately project or understand what will happen.

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That hasn’t stopped folks from trying. At this point, a cross section of most of the educated guesses have the Lions selecting a lineman for either the offensive or defensive lines with pick 23 Thursday night.

A piece rounding up the final mock drafts by MLive.com’s Justin Rogers revealed that most of the projections focus on the Lions selecting a lineman. Of the 19 players listed, 12 mocked to Detroit were linemen, with the mocks split right down the middle between offense and defense. Six represented the offensive side of the ball and six represented the defensive side.

Of the 19 players listed, 12 mocked to Detroit were linemen, with the mocks split right down the middle between offense and defense.

The most common player mocked to the Lions was Malcom Brown, a defensive tackle from the University of Texas who was sent to Detroit by 27 writers. Coming in second were a pair of offensive linemen, Florida’s D.J. Humphries and Florida State’s Cam Erving, both with five. Also getting a substantial amount of mock love were offensive tackle Ereck Flowers from Miami (4), defensive tackle Eddie Goldman from Florida State (4) and offensive tackle Andrus Peat from Stanford (4).

Skill-position wise, nobody saw more love than Wisconsin running back Melvin Gordon, who had five mocks sending him to Detroit. Only one sent Georgia runner Todd Gurley to the Lions, and none had the team taking a wide receiver in the first round.

While the names may be varied and mocks are often deceptive, the common thread is that Detroit will have plenty of options to upgrade both their offensive and defensive line, and might be expected to do that above everything else. Most experts agree, the 2015 NFL Draft is one of the deepest along the offensive and defensive lines, which should give Detroit an excellent chance to confidently fill those needs.

Nobody, of course, can say with certainty that they know what Martin Mayhew and the Lions will do, considering they’ve pulled stunners in the past. But in the hours before the draft, the odds certainly make it look like the team will try to bolster the lines.

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