Ranking Detroit Lions biggest draft gems of the last decade
The roots of the Detroit Lions' emergence from the ashes of a dismal history, and the relative low point of the Matt Patricia era, to make the NFC Championship Game last season are in one place.
The three drafts of general manager Brad Holmes (to this point, of course) have yielded many of the core pieces of the team, now and looking forward. This year's draft should yield more of the same, under a general "best player available" philosophy. That philosophy has served the Lions well, and applies to this year's draft more than any other thus far in the Holmes/Dan Campbell regime.
Not that long ago, a list of Lions' draft gems from the last decade would not have been been long. The work Holmes has done in those recent drafts has widened those possibilities greatly, but a bit of the work former general manager Bob Quinn did should not be discounted.
The last player who was left from Quinn's final draft before departing in free agency this year (Jonah Jackson), became a reliable starter, earned one Pro Bowl nod and got a big contract from the Rams. As much attention as Holmes gets for going against the grain of perceived positional value, Quinn did it with some of his first-round picks too.
With the criteria defined as the last 10 drafts (2014-2023), here are the best Lions' draft gems over the last decade.