The Detroit Lions will be on the clock in just over a month. Their draft plans are not well known after a free agency that has left their options wide open.
The Detroit Lions were very active during the opening days of free agency, signing impact players such as defensive end Trey Flowers, tight end Jesse James, cornerback Justin Coleman, and wide receiver Danny Amendola.
General manager Bob Quinn also made a few other depth signings since then, such as re-signing running back Zach Zenner and cornerback Marcus Cooper, and bringing in safety Andrew Adams, offensive guard Oday Aboushi, tight end Logan Thomas, and wide receiver/return specialist Tommylee Lewis.
Now that 99% of all impact signings have been made, any free agents from here on out that the Lions decide to bring on will most likely be camp bodies or end of the roster types who won’t have much to do come game-day. The Lions’ staff will be turning most of their attention to the 2019 NFL Draft and how they can improve the team the most through that.
After free agency, the Lions truly have the freedom to draft BPA (best player available) should they so choose, instead of strictly picking based on team needs. The Lions often say they draft based on a mixture of these two strategies, and don’t expect to see it change this year. The Lions have a chance to come out of the draft with a team that can compete for an NFC North title and playoff spot in their second year under head coach Matt Patricia.
The Lions get to pick inside the top ten this year, with the eighth overall pick. In total, they currently have nine picks in the draft (one each round, plus one extra in the sixth and seventh rounds). As the board seems to be falling now, I would like to see the Lions try to trade back around five spots in the draft, as they should still be able to get one of their top targets (unless a stud like defensive lineman Quinnen Williams or edge rusher Josh Allen slips to number eight).
The application used for this mock draft was The Draft Network‘s (TDN) Mock Draft Simulator. The big board used was TDN’s Predictive Board which runs off of an algorithm that tries to simulate how the draft might actually go. Like the actual draft, anything could happen, and you can come up with very different drafts each time you do a mock.
I’ve found that their mock draft simulator is the most realistic one that I’ve seen so far. As always, not every simulator is going to be perfect, so if you feel that a selection is not realistic, know that I took the player that I thought would be the biggest help for the team, even if it seems that the probability of that player being available at that point is low. With that said, here is my latest mock draft!