As the Los Angeles Rams experience a serious Super Bowl hangover, the Detroit Lions other first-round pick climbed again after Week 12’s results.
When Los Angeles Rams’ wide receiver Cooper Kupp was going to miss multiple weeks with an ankle injury, the 2023 first-round pick the Detroit Lions got from them in the Matthew Stafford trade was looking to be pretty good.
More recently, Stafford landed in concussion protocol and he’s added a neck issue to the mix as he has missed two of the last three games. Before Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, with No. 3 quarterback Bryce Perkins starting under center, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Stafford’s status for the rest of the season was uncertain.
After the game, Rams head coach Sean McVay told reporters wide receiver Allen Robinson needs foot surgery and will miss the rest of the season. A litany of injuries to the offensive line is also worth a mention.
Rams’ HC Sean McVay told reporters that WR Allen Robinson needs foot surgery and will miss the rest of the season.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 28, 2022
The Rams’ “f-them picks” team-building strategy has blown up in their faces this year. Injuries to multiple key players is hard for any team to withstand. But the Rams uniquely embraced that risk, with a top-heavy roster, for the reward of last year’s Super Bowl ring.
Detroit Lions’ other 2023 first-round pick climbs again
The Rams have lost five straight games to drop to 3-8. Football Outsiders has their playoff odds, through Week 12 without Monday Night Football, at 0.7 percent. Winning out from here would surely impact those odds with each mark in the win column, but how likely is that to happen? So it’s better to shut key players down. Talk of doing so with Stafford is easily paired with doing it with Kupp, as he can theoretically come off IR after missing as little as two more games.
With Week 12 nearly complete, and the 3-7 Pittsburgh Steelers having a chance to fall to 3-8 themselves with a loss, the pick the Lions are getting from the Rams currently sits at No. 3 overall.
Without a deeper dive into the implications of a Steelers loss (schedule strength, common opponents with the Rams, etc.) at least until it happens or not, it’s safe to say the Lions will enter December with a top-five overall pick if the next draft was happening after Week 12 (which of course it isn’t).
Still, it seems unlikely the pick from the Rams will fall out of the top-10 right now, and if it did it won’t be far outside. The Lions’ own first-round pick is currently No. 13 overall, pending Monday night’s result.
No matter what happens from here, the Lions will be as well-positioned as any team in the first round of next April’s draft. But they could easily have a top-10 pick that won’t come because of their own ineptitude.