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Detroit Lions: All signs point to this first-round selection

By Payne Schanski

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - APRIL 25: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks at the podium on day 1 of the 2019 NFL Draft on April 25, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - APRIL 25: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks at the podium on day 1 of the 2019 NFL Draft on April 25, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images) /
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Jeff Okudah, NFL Combine
Jeff Okudah. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

As this year’s unique NFL Draft proceedings get nearer, it’s looking more and more like this prospect will become the Detroit Lions top pick.

In what will feel like the most hotly-anticipated Zoom conference call to date, the Detroit Lions will join the party quickly on Thursday night as the NFL Draft goes virtual for the first time. It’s not a certainty that the Lions will be turning to the defensive side for their first pick, but it’s close to it.

Out of all the players who have been linked to the Lions through all of the preamble. And the dozens of mock drafts out there, nearly all of them have the team taking a defensive player.

Whether they hold on to that number three pick or trade a few spots down, that remains the same. To narrow things down even more, the buzz from the most recent mock drafts being released is centered pretty squarely on one particular player for the Lions: Jeffrey Okudah, the much heralded cornerback out of Ohio State.

The Latest Mock Drafts:

This is by no means a definitive list, but out of the handful mocks that I took a look at most recently, all eight of them are saying the same thing.

  • Mel Kiper, ESPN: Jeff Okudah, sticking with the #3 pick.
  • Dave Birkett, Detroit Free Press: Also Okudah, also staying at #3.
  • CBS Sports: Analysts Ryan Wilson, Pete Prisco, and Chris Trapasso are also sending Okudah to the Lions, though Trapasso predicts trading down to No. 5 with Miami along the way.
  • Peter King, NBC Sports: Again, Okudah comes to Detroit, also with the No. 5 pick via a Miami trade.
  • Kellen Voss, SideLion Report: Jeffrey Okudah. While specifying that this was a ‘no trades’ mock, Kellen stuck with the conventional wisdom for his projection at this site as well.
  • WalterFootball.com: I have no idea who this mysterious Walter Football is, but there’s a lot of good analysis from him/them. Okudah goes to the Lions, surprisingly with the No. 6 pick, in this one.

I’m not quite ready to say we should start pre-ordering our ‘Okudah, 1’ color rush replicas just yet, but if I had to put a percentage to it, I’ll say it’s 75 percent or more likely that he’s a Lion by the end of Thursday night.

For the record, all of the mock drafts that I mentioned also have Joe Burrow at number one and Chase Young at number two (with the exception of Kellen, who was doing Lions only), so the pipe dream of landing Young in Honolulu Blue appears to be just that.

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