Pro Football Focus names early and late fits for Detroit Lions top draft need

Pro Football Focus has offered early and late draft fits for each NFL team’s top need, with a couple intriguing fits for the Detroit Lions.

Heading into the offseason, among many needs, wide receiver might be the No. 1 need for the Detroit Lions. Via free agency and then the draft, there will be opportunities to add significant pieces to that depth chart.

Michael Renner of Pro Football Focus has made a list of early and late draft fits for all 32 NFL teams at their biggest position of need. For the Lions that biggest need is tabbed to be wide receiver, and the fits look interesting.

"Detroit Lions: Wide ReceiverEarly Fit: GEORGE PICKENS, GEORGIALate Fit: DAVID BELL, PURDUEThe Lions are not going wide receiver at No. 2 overall. That being said, the top of the second round has been a hotbed for receiver talent in recent years, with the likes of Deebo Samuel, Tee Higgins and Michael Pittman Jr. being found there in recent years.George Pickens could very well be that guy in 2022. If he was fully healthy with a better quarterback situation, Pickens could very well have been in the WR1 conversation for this class. He has the kind of high-end ability you rarely see outside the first round."

Could the Lions draft both George Pickens and David Bell?

If not for an torn ACL that cost him a big chunk of the 2021 season, Pickens may well be among the first wide receivers off the board in April. He did play in four games last season, so that’s a good sign and he has some chance to be a first-round pick anyway. More likely, he’ll be taken in the second round.

Bell had a big final season at Purdue (93 receptions for 1,286 yards in 11 games), and he topped 1,000 yards in each of his two non-shortened season as a Boilermaker. He’s widely being mocked as a late first-round pick, but I have seen scenarios where he falls.

Renner stretches the definition of early and late fits here. Pickens and Bell could both be late first/early second-round picks, and they both seem sure to be gone by the end of the second. That invites a unlikely notion where the Lions could take both, with picks No. 32 and No. 34. But if they end up with one of the two, that wouldn’t be too bad.