Detroit Lions 7-Round 2022 NFL Mock Draft: Week 18 edition
Second Round
player. 50. Scouting Report. WR. USC. Drake London. 34. Pick Analysis
If not for a season-ending leg injury on the day before Halloween, London might have run away with the Biletnikoff Award, given each year to the country’s top wide receiver. As it was, in just eight games, he had 88 catches for 1,084 yards and seven touchdowns.
As of the end of the regular season, pending the Army-Navy game and conference title games which wouldn’t have changed it, London led the country in contested catches (as judged by Pro Football Focus).
https://twitter.com/PFF_College/status/1466935283795046408?s=20
Having to make a bunch of contested catches can look like a product of not being able to separate from defensive backs, and we’ve seen in the past that doesn’t translate well to the NFL as productive college receivers take the next step and struggle. But London is not only big (6-foot-5), he seems to have plenty of athleticism and fairly effortless speed to get downfield.
Lions’ wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown has seemed to call for the team to reunite him with his college teammate. But London is a potential first-round pick who may fall because of his injury, and the Lions grab him here without batting an eye.