Post-Combine: Why the Detroit Lions should pass on Jeffrey Okudah

The Detroit Lions have a lot of needs, today we’ll look at the results of the scouting combine and discuss the team’s situation for Round One of the draft.

Detroit Lions fans, if you didn’t watch the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine, held annually in Indianapolis, Indiana, fear not. Kick In the Crotch Weekly has you covered.

After the dust has settled on the week that was, several prospects separated themselves from others, one such candidate was Jeffrey Okudah, the talented cornerback prospect from Ohio State University. Despite his very good performance, today, we’ll discuss the Lions first pick prospects and whether or not selecting a cornerback is the best move for the Lions.

The NFL Draft is less than 50 days away and many fans and pundits have made up their minds about what the Detroit Lions should do when they get on the clock shortly after the draft starts at 8 p.m., April 23rd, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The biggest needs come on the defensive side of the ball, due to the Lions 31st-ranked defense according to the NFL website.

The prevailing wisdom is that the first pick should be on a defensive player. Having the third pick is problematic due to the shape of this draft class, though. There is some consensus that the best player regardless of position is Chase Young, an edge rusher from the same school as Okudah.

Joe Burrow, the quarterback from LSU, is probably going to leap-frog him due to the passing-game emphasis of the NFL. He looks to be a guy that no one would pass up if they were the Cincinnati Bengals sitting there with their first pick. The Athens, Ohio, native grew up a mere two and a half-hour car ride from Bengals Stadium, after all.

That leaves the Detroit Lions to select the next best player after the Washington Redskins get a shot at drafting Young at the second pick. While there are several players in that next group of available talent, namely linebacker-safety Isaiah Simmons, Okudah, and defensive tackle Derrick Brown, have been the trio most often associated with the Detroit Lions.

Young did not do any athletic testing during the combine. However, all of the other major candidates did, along with many others who were perhaps not in that initial conversation associated with the Lions. That has left the team in a difficult situation.