There had been questions about the conditions allowing them to keep the pick, and now the Detroit Lions will indeed lose a seventh-round pick in this year’s draft.
Late last offseason, the Detroit Lions acquired wide receiver Trinity Benson and a 2023 sixth-round pick from the Denver Broncos for initially reported fifth and seventh-round picks in 2022. Yet, the Lions were in line to keep that seventh-rounder based on pick order conditions that weren’t met.
So the Lions have been slated to have nine picks in the draft later this month, and the league officially listed it that way earlier this week. As Lee Corso says, not so fast.
Also have confirmed this. The full draft order the league posted this week had the Lions with pick 234, but it belongs to Denver. So, Detroit has eight overall picks and no seventh rounder. https://t.co/Ryhos5YKT5
— Chris Burke (@ChrisBurkeNFL) April 14, 2022
Pick No. 234 is not that consequential, as it will yield a player who is no better than a coin-flip to make the 53-man roster right away. But it could bring someone who can be developed into a contributor. It’s not ideal for the Lions to lose any opportunities to add talent. They could have drafted someone in the seventh round they might otherwise have to compete over if they ended up an undrafted free agent.
Detroit Lions will now have eight picks in the 2022 NFL Draft
After losing that seventh-rounder, Here’s an updated list of the Lions’ picks in the 2022 NFL Draft.
No. 2 overall (First Round)
No. 32 overall (First Round)
No. 34 overall (Second Round)
No. 66 overall (Third Round)
No. 97 overall (Third Round-compensatory pick)
No. 177 overall (Fifth Round-compensatory pick)
No. 181 overall (Sixth Round)
No. 217 overall (Sixth Round-compensatory pick)
Those five picks within the top-100 selections will still yield the players most likely to make an immediate impact for the Lions, even with last year’s fourth round find Amon-Ra St. Brown in mind.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes could, obviously, make deals to add picks to the list of selections later this month. But it’s such a Lions’ thing to have the league list them with possession of a draft pick for weeks, then take it away two weeks before the draft starts.