With the NFL down to their final two teams, fans in nearly every city in the league are beginning to ponder what's next during the offseason. Detroit Lions fans have already been there for the better part of two weeks.
Mock draft season is beginning to heat up, and in the next few weeks, the pre-draft workout period will officially begin. Soon, that means teams will begin to leave some bread crumbs as it relates to their future plans at restocking their roster.
Already, there's been a few hints on what the Lions plan to do from several in the industry, and the latest look came from NFL.com insider Daniel Jeremiah. In his first mock draft, Jeremiah had the Lions selecting Miami pass rusher Akheem Mesidor, who he believes would be an excellent running mate for Aidan Hutchinson.
"Mesidor would thrive opposite Aidan Hutchinson, going from one dynamic pass-rush duo (with Bain at Miami) to another."
That selection would represent more than a reach for the Lions, because Detroit needs a bigger upgrade than Mesidor at defensive end in order to succeed in 2026. A veteran free agent like Trey Hendrickson would make more sense for where the Lions are in their timeline.
The selection also ignores the fact that the Lions could need defensive backs given their injury problems at safety, and are likely to need offensive linemen to build up a group that struggled last season and remains in transition. With all this in mind, Jeremiah's mock is one of the more disastrous for the Lions thus far this offseason.
Brad Holmes knows he cannot ignore the offensive line this year
Perhaps the biggest frustration about Jeremiah's mock is that it ignores the biggest need the Lions are likely to have going into the 2026 season, which is the offensive line. The Lions have already lost Dan Skipper to retirement, and could lose Taylor Decker soon. They also need a legitimate center.
Reaching for a pass rusher in the first-round would be bad news for the health of the Lions' roster, especially considering the importance of the offensive front to what Detroit wants to do. Fortunately, Holmes seems to understand that dynamic based on what he said earlier this month regarding his work in the past up front.
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"You'd be surprised the moves we tried that we could not get done that involved offensive linemen, whether that be (in the) draft or free agency. It hasn't been ignored. We tried to do the best we can. I was excited about the youth injection we did go with. I think it was necessary. I mentioned after we acquired those players there's going to have to be some patience. I do think those young players will get better. But the offensive line as a whole, whether it's the interiors or the tackle, that's something we're going to have to be urgent in terms of adding."
Urgency means looking at a tackle early in the draft, likely in the first-round. It means finding a way to get the type of moves done that he has failed to in the past, and perhaps even means trading up for a player they like at the position. It also means looking elsewhere for a bigger-named defensive end rather than what Jeremiah is predicting.