Offensive Line, Defensive Tackle, Running Back Among Needs Lions Could Address In Draft
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - The Detroit Lions currently hold the 23rd overall pick in the NFL draft, and general manager Martin Mayhew has said the Lions will stick to their usual strategy of taking the best available player as determined by their draft board.
As one would expect, however, the team's needs will figure into the equation in some manner. The Lions could use an offensive lineman, having moved on from at least one veteran (center Dominic Raiola) and possibly another (guard Rob Sims) with another coming back from an ACL injury (tackle LaAdrian Waddle).
Detroit could also look to add a defensive tackle since the team lost four - Ndamukong Suh, Nick Fairley, C.J. Mosley and Andre Fluellen - in free agency. A cornerback would also make sense, given starter Rashean Mathis is 34 years old and might not be around much longer, and so would a running back since the team released Reggie Bush.
For all those needs, the draft has a number of potential solutions.
"It certainly is a strong draft in some of the areas that we might be looking in," Mayhew acknowledged Friday at his pre-draft press conference, "but you never know how it's going to fall. You never know how the board's going to go. There could be a lot of guys that go early that we'd like to have. So every draft is different.
"One thing that I've learned about this process is it's very unpredictable. You don't know what's going to happen, so you've got to prepare for everything. We'll be ready for every alternative."
The general manager would not reveal how many players the Lions have graded as first-round talents but spoke highly of the draft's overall quality.
"I won't go into specific numbers, but I think it's a deep draft," Mayhew added. "There are a lot of quality players. I think there are some positions that are pretty thin, obviously the quarterback position. There aren't a whole lot of quarterbacks, not a whole lot of tight ends. That's probably a good thing for us. So I think it's a pretty strong draft across the board."
The Lions currently hold the following picks: 23rd (first round), 54th (second round), 88th (third round), 200th (sixth round), 231st and 240th (seventh round). All that could change, however.
"We'll see what happens in terms of acquiring more picks," Mayhew said Friday. "I think I made the point at the league meeting that we've never started a draft and finished a draft with the same picks, so I think we'll have a different number of picks at the end of this draft. Right now it is what it is, so we'll take what we have. I feel good about where we are in the rounds, and I feel good about what's going to be there, especially in the first two rounds. We'll see what happens."
Predictions on which player the Lions will take are all over the board. Peter King of Sports Illustrated has Detroit taking center Cameron Erving. ESPN's Mel Kiper had the Lions taking tackle La'El Collins. Four NFL.com analysts had four different guesses: tackle D.J. Humphries, defensive tackle Eddie Goldman, nose tackle Jordan Phillips, and defensive tackle Malcolm Brown. NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock has the Lions selecting tackle Andrus Peat.
Since the Lions have a variety of needs but also have said they will take whoever ranks as best on their draft board, perhaps the only safe prediction for this draft will be that the team will not take Collins.
ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Tuesday afternoon that Collins, while not currently considered a suspect, was wanted for questioning by police after the shooting death of his pregnant ex-girlfriend.
The draft begins at 8 p.m. Thursday.
