Senior Bowl practices are over and everyone is heading home from Alabama now. We’ve all seen enough and it’s time to get to the mock drafts. For the Detroit Lions, this was a good week for the board to fall in their favor.
Obviously, there’s a lot left to do in the process, but here’s what things look like for Detroit right now:
28th pick: Mike Green, Edge, Marshall
This is the guy right here. His bend is crazy, he can get so low to the ground as he’s getting around tackles. Green is a lot like James Houston, but with plenty of other moves. A lot of speed and athleticism. It’s why he had 17 sacks for Marshall this season. The Lions would strike gold if they can get him at 28, but there’s a chance he could keep climbing the board.
60th pick: Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama
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Milroe did not have a good week and he’s fallen out of the first round. That is going to help the Lions because this draft is not going to be about starters so much as it’s all about the future now. That’s what happens when you’re a really good team. You need to have sustained success and that means planning for the future.
Milroe would be the future and he would give the Lions a significant amount of time to develop him into a starting-caliber quarterback. The potential and athleticism is there. It just needs to be guided.
102nd pick: Pat Bryant, WR, Illinois
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*We’re projecting that the Lions will have the 102nd pick in the third round based on projected compensatory picks. This pick number could change.
Everything about this guy says Dan Campbell guy. It also says Mike Payton guy too. There’s no doubt I like a tall receiver that can make contested catches. The Lions need that. Tim Patrick is great, but this is for the long haul here.
On the Campbell side of things, this is a team captain who was one of the best blocking receivers in college football. Could you ask for anything more?
131st pick: Miles Frazier, IOL, LSU
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You’re likely to see me mock this guy to the Lions a lot, that’s because he is everything this team needs when it comes to offensive line depth. He has positional versatility for starters. He’s played both left and right tackles and both left and right guards.
In the past two seasons combined, he’s allowed 19 pressures and just one sack. Plus he had a killer week in Alabama. That moves him up the board to early day three.
195th pick: Carson Vinson, OT, Alabama A&M
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This guy is very intriguing to me and just about everyone at the Senior Bowl. He was the lone HBCU player in Alabama this week and he did not look out of place at all. He played like a guy who’s spent the last few years playing against the top teams in the country.
The Lions have Giovanni Manu already and he’s been showing a lot of improvement as the year has gone on, but here’s a guy that potentially jumps him or at worst, be a great swing tackle. something that isn’t super easy to find these days.
230th pick: Jabbar Muhammad, CB, Oregon
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Muhammad is undersized and that’s why he’s done here. He’s 185 pounds and 5’10”. If he wasn’t undersized, I think he’d go a lot higher. The guy is a scrappy corner that doesn’t allow a lot to get by him. He’d have trouble with the bigger receivers like Mike Evans for example, but he can hang in the nickel spot and be sticky.
246th pick: Soane Toia, DT, San Jose State
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The Lions have actually already met and talked with Toia during the draft process. He was the MVP of the Tropical Bowl and met with Detroit there.
Toia is a bit undersized in the arm department, but as we know because Brad Holmes told us, the Lions don’t care about arm length as long as they feel a player can contribute. Toia can do that. He’s a solid run-stopper with some pass-rush juice.
