Dan Skipper just announced his retirement from the NFL, walking from the Detroit Lions to a cool coaching venture coming up prior to this year's NFL Draft: coaching the East-West Shrine Bowl, and assisting the East with their offensive line.
Outside of the East-West Shrine Bowl, though, there's another game that Lions fans might want to tune into, this time to get a peek at some potential Lions picks coming up in April: the Senior Bowl.
As Lions team reporter Tim Twentyman points out in his latest piece on top players to watch for the Lions in that game, the top prospect for fans to keep an eye on is EDGE rusher David Bailey out of Texas Tech.
Twentyman writes: "After spending his first three seasons at Stanford where he recorded 14.5 sacks total, Bailey (6-3, 250) transferred to Texas Tech and had a monster senior season with 14.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss leading the Big 12 in both categories."
Lions fans have a must-watch player in Senior Bowl
We've projected Bailey to the Lions previously, as he'd be a great fit alongside Aidan Hutchinson despite his smaller stature and some work to be done as a run defender. Assuming Detroit goes for a defender at 17th overall, Bailey would be a pretty great target if he's still there.
But, there are a few other teams ahead of Detroit - the Cincinnati Bengals and the Kansas City Chiefs, namely - that might be swinging for someone like Bailey assuming Reuben Bain is off the board before them.
READ MORE: 3-round Lions mock draft has team answering two biggest roster questions
Detroit really has two options in the first round: either take the best available pass rusher, or the best available offensive lineman. Guard might not be their biggest need on paper, but there are a lot of valuable guards worth snagging in this year's draft.
A swing tackle and a center are the other two huge holes to plug, but it feels safe to assume the Lions might be looking at free agency or the trade market to plug whatever holes they couldn't there through the first or second round of the draft.
Bailey will be a very fun watch during the Senior Bowl for those Lions fans that are hoping the team goes for a pass rusher, not an offensive lineman, with their 17th pick. Bailey's stock may very well rise as a result of this game depending on how well he does, which might just take that decision out of Brad Holmes' hands.