Lions Day 2 mock draft: Time to build the defense

Lions Day 2 mock draft: Time to build the defense with an updated mock draft from Max Gerber

After finding playmakers for both sides of the ball on the first night of the draft, the Detroit Lions head into the second day with two more draft picks and plenty of high-level options still on the board.

The Lions currently have one pick in each of the two rounds for Day 2 of the draft. General manager Brad Holmes traded away their original second and third-round selections to move up and acquire Jameson Williams in the first round, but received back the 46th overall pick. The Lions will also draft at pick 97 in the third round.

Now that they have made their aggressive moves in the first round, it’s time for them to stay put with the draft capital they have and start patching up the remaining holes in the roster.

Here’s how their next two picks should play out:

Round 2, pick 46: LB Chad Muma, Wyoming

The Detroit Lions have not invested heavily in off-ball linebackers in recent years, and have struck out on the few early picks they’ve had at that position such as Jahlani Tavai and Jarrad Davis.

If Muma were to join the Lions, he could carve out a role nicely as he’d be not only the fasted inside linebacker rostered, but quite possibly their best in coverage as well. Detroit did draft Derrick Barnes last year and recently re-signed veterans Alex Anzalone and Shaun Dion Hamilton, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement at the inside linebacker position.

Muma would likely be used as a reserve for the first few games while he adjusts to the pro level of play, but he could easily find himself as a full-time starter by his second season.

Round 3, pick 97: S Kerby Joseph, Illinois

With yet another defensive pick, it shouldn’t be surpassing that the Lions would opt for some extra help at safety.

Detroit recently extended free safety Tracy Walker and inked one of this offseason’s top free agents in DeShon Elliott, but there’s still more of a need at the position than many might think.

Aaron Glenn’s defense utilizes many three-safety looks as well as some nickel and dime subpackages, meaning Detroit needs to make sure they have at least one more capable safety on the roster other than Walker and Elliott.

The Lions front office has already shown some interest in Joseph as well, seeing that they brought him in for a top-30 visit not too long before the draft.

Joseph could easily play that extra safety role for Detroit while waiting in the wings for when Elliott’s one-year deal expires to take over the starting gig.

Day 2 NFL mock draft roundup: Eagles land more defensive personnel

Day 2 NFL mock draft roundup: Philadelphia Eagles land more defensive personnel in rounds 2 and 3

Night one of the 2022 NFL draft is in the books and Philadelphia came out a winner, after Howie Roseman landed, Jordan Davis at No. 13 overall and then swung a trade with the Titans for wide receiver A.J. Brown for pick No. 18.

Philadelphia now has four picks remaining over the next two days and the Eagles could look to swap picks for more capital in rounds four and five.

With rounds two and three just hours away, here’s a mock draft roundup for day two.

One linebacker for the Eagles in every round of the 2022 NFL Draft

Looking at One linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles in every round of the 2022 NFL Draft

As Philadelphia gets set for a whirlwind 2022 NFL draft night, fans can only hope that GM Howie Roseman has his eyes on a hybrid linebacker.

The Eagles haven’t drafted a linebacker in the first round since the late 70s, but 2022 could provide the ultimate opportunity for Howie Roseman to finally land a game-changer in the first or second round.

Regardless of what round Philadelphia strikes, there will be plenty of big-time linebackers on the board for the Eagles to target.

5 linebackers Broncos should target in 2022 NFL draft

The Broncos could land a quality LB on Day 2 of the NFL draft, if that’s their target.

The Denver Broncos appear poised to select a linebacker in the NFL draft this year, but Georgia’s Nakobe Dean and Utah’s Devin Lloyd (and even Dean’s teammate, Quay Walker) seem poised to go off the board well before the Broncos make their first pick at the bottom of the second round.

Despite those top three linebackers likely being unavailable, Denver should be able to add a quality LB on Day 2 of the draft — if they choose to. Here’s a quick look at five names to know as the draft approaches.

2022 NFL Draft Profile: Wyoming LB Chad Muma

The Cowboys linebacker made replacing a NFL talent look easy. Now he takes aim at the pro ranks himself.

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2022 NFL Draft Profile: Wyoming LB Chad Muma

The Cowboys linebacker made replacing a NFL talent look easy. Now he takes aim at the pro ranks himself.

Contact/Follow @MattK_FS & @MWCwire

A rising star who could anchor a defense.

Sometimes, college football programs develop a knack for sending certain kinds of players to the National Football League. At Wyoming, the name of the game has been defense: Marcus Epps, Andrew Wingard, Logan Wilson, and now Chad Muma.

A native of Lone Tree, Colorado, was actually very close to accepting a scholarship offer at Colorado State before heading north to Laramie, where his father also played in the early 1990s. After cutting his teeth on special teams in 2018, he stepped into a part-time role the following year and made two starts before inheriting a bigger role at linebacker from Wilson and breaking out in 2020, leading Wyoming with 71 tackles and eight tackles for loss.

That would be a taste of things to come. In 2021, Muma finished second among all FBS defenders with 142 total tackles while collecting another eight tackles for loss and three interceptions (including two pick-sixes). That put him in the position where he is now as potentially the first player from the Mountain West to be selected in this year’s NFL Draft.

Measurables (taken from Mockdraftable)

Highlights

Strengths

In a recent conversation on The Athletic Football Show podcast, Robert Mays and Diante Lee discussed how the role of a linebacker has changed in the modern NFL to involve more responsibilities in coverage, which demands more length and athleticism in the middle of the field than ever before. As a prospect, Muma checks many of the boxes that defensive coaches surely have in mind.

To start, he knows how to put himself and his teammates in a position to succeed before the ball is snapped, earning high marks from analysts for his football intelligence and instincts. As Natalie Miller of Draft Wire noted, Muma was responsible for handling the play call on the field in his two years as a starter.

Once the play is live, Muma also has the speed to get himself where he needs to be from sideline to sideline. This is especially true if he gets to play downhill and defend the run or attack quarterbacks: The Athletic’s Dane Brugler calls it “[mashing] the accelerator” while Oliver Hodgkinson of Pro Football Network likens Muma to “[firing] out of a cannon” in pass rushing situations.

It comes as no surprise, then, that he finished 2021 with the second-most run stops in the country (50), according to Draft Wire’s Mark Schofield, and only Wisconsin’s Leo Chenal earned a higher run defense grade among FBS linebackers in 2021 (91.1). Once he closes, Muma does so quickly and with force.

Add to that his experience as a team captain and a special teams contributor, and NFL teams probably won’t want to wait too long to put him on their roster.

Weaknesses

Playing in Wyoming’s 4-2-5 defense makes for a question of whether Muma is more likely to play as an inside or outside linebacker at the pro level. There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on what that answer will be, either: The Draft Network’s Drae Harris believes Muma will be better served playing at the edges of a front seven, while Hodgkinson and NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein see him as a better fit inside.

Whatever role he takes on, two big things that he’ll need to polish are refining his instincts to avoid being fooled by misdirection and play action and reaction time in turning to coverage. One particular wrinkle that could come down to is something which Miller, Tony Pauline and Bleacher Report all point out: Improvement in flipping his hips to more cleanly stay with tight ends and running backs down the field. That will help make up for what is probably below-average length for the linebacker position these days.

NFL Comparison

Bobby Wagner

Draft Prediction

Linebacker doesn’t have the same kind of depth in this year’s class as other positions, so while it’s likely teams will dip into those wells first to satisfy other priorities, expect that he’ll be selected in the middle of the second round.

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The most underrated prospects in the 2022 NFL draft class

Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar reveals his most underrated prospects in the 2022 NFL draft class.

When we media yahoos talk about “sleepers” in any draft class, it’s true what NFL teams will tell you — it’s generally a case of the media simply catching up to what those teams have known about those prospects for months. Perception versus reality means that what we’re really talking about are prospects we’re just getting around to after the top-tier players at every position.

So, maybe it’s better to say for the purposes of this exercise that the prospects you see here are the ones whose tape stands out beyond the recognition they’ve gotten. With days to hours left until the 2022 draft, these players are the ones you may not have heard of, or have experienced in passing but haven’t watched, or have watched and wondered where they might be drafted.

Any of these guys going in the first round would be a longshot, but they each have remarkable attributes that show their professional potential, and could seal their NFL futures.

Wyoming LB Chad Muma offers intriguing fit with Cowboys current group

In need of linebacker help, the Cowboys could look to the exciting athlete out of the Mountain West for help. Tyler Browning (@DiabeticTyler) looks into the film of the rising star.

The Mountain West may not be a Power 5 conference, but it is one that the Dallas Cowboys’ brass is familiar with. It’s just that normally the only landing spot on the destination calendar is Boise State. Wyoming linebacker Chad Muma might not have the name recognition of a Nakobe Dean or a Devin Lloyd but he should be on every draftniks radar. He isn’t the most highly decorated, although he did compete for the conference lead in a couple of categories; but that shouldn’t scare Cowboys fans.

Muma is a fantastic prospect who at the worst can be a third-down coverage player out the gate, but he brings more than that. He is still relatively new to the linebacker position, as he switched to it his senior year in high school; so his ceiling will be very enticing for NFL teams. So what does his film say? Does he fit with the Cowboys? Let’s take a look.

Jaguars hosted Wyoming LB Chad Muma on a pre-draft visit

Wyoming Cowboys LB Chad Muma completed a visit recently with the Jacksonville Jaguars ahead of next week’s NFL draft.

The Jacksonville Jaguars need to take a linebacker to pair with new free agent Foyesade Oluokun after they released Myles Jack earlier this offseason. One option the Jaguars are exploring as a replacement is Wyoming Cowboys linebacker, Chad Muma.

Kyle Newman of the Denver Post reported that he visited the Jacksonville Jaguars recently along with the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers. Muma has also completed private workouts with the Buffalo Bills and New Orleans Saints.

Muma tallied 142 tackles, including 85 that were solo, to go with three interceptions, 1.5 sacks, and one forced fumble during his junior season in 2021. Overall, he played in 33 games for the Cowboys and garnered 266 total tackles (19 of which were for loss).

As the tackles for loss indicate, Muma was a strong defender against the run last season and registered a Pro Football Focus run defense grade of 91.1. He also was solid in coverage with a 77.7 grade in that category.

Muma is projected to go anywhere between the second or third round in next week’s 2022 NFL draft. He would be an excellent addition to go with Oluokun because of his pass coverage abilities.

Dream selections for NFL teams with no 1st-round pick

Here are the dream selections for every NFL team without a first-round pick.

As NFL team-building philosophies evolve, the importance of first-round picks has diminished for some teams. There are eight clubs in this year’s draft that don’t hold first-round selections going into Day 1.

Clubs without first-round picks tend to get left out of mock drafts like the latest one the NFL Wire network put together. Instead of requiring a two-or-three-round mock to include all the teams, the sites for the Bears, Colts, Browns, 49ers, Broncos, Raiders, Dolphins and Rams all got together and threw their own kind of mock draft party.

While it’s nigh impossible to put together a fully-accurate one-round mock, deciphering which players will fall to certain spots on Day 2 is even harder. Our group of editors that weren’t included in the one-round mock took a look at some of the prospects that could fall into Rounds 2 and 3 and identified the dream scenario and pick for their teams.

2022 NFL draft: Chad Muma scouting report

Everything NFL draft fans need to know about Wyoming linebacker Chad Muma

The leading tackler in all of college football last year, Wyoming’s Chad Muma enters the 2022 NFL draft as one of this year’s most productive linebacker prospects.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Cowboys’ defensive leader: