Re-grading the Detroit Lions 2023 draft one year later

Campbell played every game for the Lions as a rookie last year, regular season and playoffs. He finished second on the team in tackles during the regular season (95), with the 20th-best run defense grade among qualified linebackers from Pro Football Focus (75.8). In an effort to get him on the field more some times, he saw 161 snaps as an edge rusher (according to PFF), tallying two sacks and seven hurries.

Campbell, as expected, has some work to do in coverage (35.3 grade from PFF, 124.0 passer rating allowed). But otherwise there's very little complaint about his work as a rookie, and he looks like he'll be a foundational piece of the Detroit defense moving forward.

The Lions were going to come out of the 2023 draft with a tight end, and truly the earlier it was after the first round probably the better. As part of the deal that yielded Gibbs, Detroit got the 34th overall pick. With the general consensus No. 1 tight end in the draft class (Michael Mayer) still on the board, they took LaPorta.

As mentioned, all LaPorta did was set the new league record for catches by a rookie tight end (86), with 889 yards and 10 touchdowns as he set every single-season record for a tight end in Lions' franchise history.

LaPorta became the best tight end on the roster the second he was drafted. He went on to exceed even the most optimistic of early expectations. Some will say his production can only go down after his rookie season, but he's still an A+ pick.