Detroit Lions draft: Three Day 3 Holmes-qualified wide receivers

Brad Holmes: Outside Receivers

The rumors surrounding what Motown’s Brad Holmes might do with every pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, being held in Cleveland, Ohio, are all over the place. He’s going to select a quarterback, a wide receiver, a linebacker, an offensive lineman, and a defensive back- and that’s just the Detroit Lions No. 7 overall!

In all seriousness, it is likely that Holmes takes a wide receiver early, possibly as soon as their first pick, selecting a player like LSU’s Ja’Marr Chase, former Alabama standout and Heisman Trophy winner, DeVonta Smith, or his speedster teammate, Jaylen Waddle. If he waits for Round 2, it could be someone like Terrance Marshall from LSU or Florida’s Kadarius Toney.

However, with the roster depth (or lack thereof) it is also likely that Holmes could select more than one wideout and one could very well end up being a later pick. As of right now, the Detroit Lions own the 7th, 41st, 72nd, 102nd, 113th, and 154th picks in this year’s draft according to the Tankathon website; the last two picks will be used on Day 3 of the draft, Saturday, May 1st, when all NFL teams will make all of their 4th through 7th-round picks.

We would expect a Robert Woods-type player to be selected, if possible, although we do know that Woods was a 2nd-round pick. Woods has many of the hallmarks of an HQP in that he doesn’t possess blazing speed but is agile in smaller spaces.

He ran a 4.51-second sprint according to the Draftscout website (which has largely switched to a paysite), with a 1.62-second split time, and if we weren’t comparing him to some of the greatest athletes in the world (NFL receivers), we would never say that he is “more quick than fast.”  However, we are comparing him to all of his peers and while 4.51 is above average, it doesn’t touch some of the fastest wide receivers to play in the NFL, who top out near 4.26-second times over 40 yards.

Woods’ 20-yard shuttle time, sometimes called the short shuttle (SS), (4.36 seconds) is just a bit higher than what it appears Holmes prefers, as twelve of the seventeen players drafted by the Rams recorded a time of 4.26 or less, and many were near the 4.10-seconds times.

The other qualifications (think minimums here) are being above 6-feet-tall, close to 200-pounds, having a sub- 4.55-second sprint time, a 33.0-inch vertical jump, a 9-foot-7-inch broad jump, and a 6.75-to-7.1-second 3-cone drill.