As Jeff Okudah pushes firmly into bust territory, here are five players the Detroit Lions should have taken instead of him in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
With the third overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Detroit Lions took Ohio State cornerback Jeff Okudah. From a historical perspective, though two went in the top-five in 2022, it’s rare for a cornerback to go top-five in a draft. But the mock draft buzz had the Lions taking Okudah at No. 3, and it happened.
Okudah’s rookie year has hampered by injuries, and he ultimately missed the end of the season with a core muscle injury that required surgery. Then a Week 1 Achilles’ tear cost him almost all of his second season.
For more than half of his third season though, Okudah played pretty well. But the tipping point was a Week 11 concussion that cost him the Thanksgiving Day game on a short week, and his play dropped off from there as he dealt with an illness for a time. Then he missed Week 18 with an injury that coincidentally came up on the injury report late in the week.
The combination of the Lions free agent additions and an $11.5 million fifth-year option for 2024 has Okudah’s future in Detroit on a slippery slope. It will be more surprising if they picked up that option between now and May 1 than if they did not.
A year ago at this time, it was unfair to call Okudah a bust based on things beyond his control that happened in his first two seasons. Lions general manager Brad Holmes and defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn have both pointed to his lack of playing experience as a reason to be hopeful, and give him some leeway. And that’s fair to remember.
But actions speak loud, and the Lions seem to be planning to not have Okudah around long-term.
In hindsight the first round of the 2020 draft doesn’t look very good 1-32. But here are five players the Lions, albeit the previous regime, should have drafted instead of Okudah.
5 players the Detroit Lions should have drafted instead of Jeff Okudah
5. LB Patrick Queen
The Lions got a late-round steal in Malcolm Rodriguez in last year’s draft, but the starting linebacker spot next to him is a long-term question. Queen went 28th in the 2020 draft to the Baltimore Ravens, so maybe he’d have been someone to take after a a trade down from No. 3.
But there’s no doubt Queen has been the kind of playmaking linebacker the Lions have lacked and still need, making dents in the stat sheet as a run defender, in pass coverage and as a pass rusher (five sacks and 24 pressures in 2022).
4. QB Justin Herbert
Jared Goff should not be the long-term answer under center for the Lions, and before he was actually traded in 2021 trade rumors had occassionally previously popped up around Matthew Stafford. There should have been some eye on the future under center in the 2020 draft, but Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia were trying to save their jobs and win (and that clearly went well). Drafting a quarterback in the top-five when Stafford was in place as the starter was just not on the radar.
Herbert stepped in immediately for the Chargers, well actually Week 2 of his rookie season after an odd mistake by the medical staff with Tyrod Taylor. All he’s done is throw for the most yards through the first three seasons of a career (14,089) in NFL history, with a touchdown-to-interception rate nearing 3:1 (94 touchdowns, 35 interceptions) and raw physical tools that few quarterbacks in the league can match.
Herbert is lined up for a big contract now, so there is that in the big picture. But imagine him in a Lions’ uniform….there would be no conversation about who is the quarterback of the future in Detroit.
3. CB A.J. Terrell
Terrell went 16th overall to the Atlanta Falcons in the 2020 draft, and he has vastly outperformed the two cornerbacks taken before him (Okudah and C.J. Henderson–ninth overall).
His performance dropped off in 2022, but in 2021 Terrell had Pro Football Focus’ second-best coverage grade for a cornerback (85.6).
The Lions may have still made some of the signings they did this offseason to bolster their secondary if they had taken Terrell instead of Okudah back in 2020. But there would be no question about Terrell’s future in Detroit, and cornerback would not be as much of a future need beyond 2023.
2. DT Derrick Brown
Brown was not awful over his first two seasons with the Carolina Panthers, he just didn’t stand out like a top-10 pick (seventh overall) would be expected to. Last season was a breakout though, as he had 67 total tackles and was one of six interior defensive lineman to post Pro Football Focus grades of 75.0 or better as a run defender and a pass rusher. PFF credited him with 10 tackles for loss, and he also batted down seven passes.
Defensive tackle is now the Lions’ No. 1 need as the 2023 draft approaches. Taking Brown at No. 3, or taking an opportunity to move down a little and get him if there was one on the table, wouldn’t have looked great for a couple years. But it would look pretty good now, with Brown and Aidan Hutchinson as centerpieces of the defensive line.
1. WR Justin Jefferson
Obvious, and true. Jefferson has set the league on fire over three seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, giving the Lions an up-close look at what they could’ve had twice a season. The Lions are obviously not the only team who regrets passing on him now. There’s documentation from the remote settings of the 2020 draft how thrilled the Vikings were that he was still there for them at No. 22 overall.
Imagine Jefferson paired with Amon-Ra St. Brown the last couple seasons. Would the Lions have traded up to take Jameson Williams in the 2022 draft if they already had Jefferson? Maybe, and as Williams moves toward being fully healthy in his second season the Lions would have a wide receiver trio that’d be hard to match in the league.
Drafting Okudah third overall has now officially become another tally on the long list of mistakes and miscalculations the “Quinntricia” regime made in Detroit. Any of these five guys would have been better, some markedly so with the benefit of hindsight. But urgent need at cornerback, after trading Darius Slay to the Eagles, drove the choice of Okudah and closed off an already blind general manager and head coach to the idea of taking anyone else.