When was the last time the Detroit Lions had the No. 6 overall pick?

The Detroit Lions actually haven’t had the sixth overall pick all that often in their history, but when was the last time they did and who did they select?

Looking back over the Detroit Lions draft history, you obviously see a lot of top-10 overall picks. But over all that time, a rough count says they’ve had the No. 6 overall pick six times going back to the 1930s and five of them were before 1960.

Of course the Lions have the sixth overall pick this year, thanks to the Matthew Stafford trade and the epic Super Bowl hangover the Los Angeles Rams had last season. So it’s nice for the Lions to not have a top-10 pick based on their own ineptitude for once.

The Lions will hopefully find a long-term stalwart and foundational player with the sixth overall pick later this month. Based on what general manager Brad Holmes has done in his two drafts up to this point, and with his pair of top-10 overall picks (Penei Sewell, Aidan Hutchinson) the odds of going 3-for-3 in that respect feel pretty good.

When was the last the time the Detroit Lions had the No. 6 overall pick? And who did they take?

The last time the Detroit Lions had the sixth overall pick in the NFL draft was 1985. That may signal to many fans who it was they took immediately, but they selected an offensive tackle out of the University of Florida named Lomas Brown.

Safe to say that pick worked out. Though in a sign of a far different time for high draft picks, the current Lions’ radio analyst has an epic draft story he told to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.

"So, we walk to the parking lot, and in the parking lot, he came to pick me up in his car. And, it was a straight hooptie. It was rusted out at the bottom. I forgot what make and model it was, but it was a hooptie,” Brown told Birkett.I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ I’m saying to myself, ‘Man, I’m the sixth pick in the draft, and they send a one-armed equipment guy to come pick me up in this hooptie, man.’ And, I’m telling you, I froze from that. Cause again, it was rusted out at the bottom. I froze from the airport all the way out to the Pontiac Silverdome, and that was my first experience with the Lions.”"

Brown went on to play 11 seasons for the Lions, with six straight Pro Bowl selections (1990-1995) and three All-Pro team selections (First Team once) as he was one of the best left tackles in the league over that stretch.