Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
The Lions traded back twice from No. 55 overall
For a precious few minutes, the Detroit Lions held the No. 63 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft. It didn’t last long.
Acquired in a previous trade with the Chiefs for the No. 55 overall pick, the Lions quickly flipped the 63rd pick to the Denver Broncos. Lions GM Brad Holmes sent No. 63 and No. 183–another pick acquired via trade during the draft–to Denver for No. 68 overall and No. 139.
With the 63rd pick, the Broncos selected Oklahoma wide receiver Marvin Mims.
The Lions picked up 3 additional picks from the Chiefs for No. 55 overall
No, this is not a duplicate. The Detroit Lions have indeed made another trade in the 2023 NFL draft.
In the middle of the second round, the Lions executed a deal with the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs traded up to No. 55 overall, sending the Lions three picks.
Detroit picked up No. 63 overall in the second round, plus No. 122 overall (4th round) and No. 249 (7th round) on Day 3. Detroit also sent back No. 194 overall (6th round) to the Chiefs.
Kansas City moved up to select SMU wide receiver Rashee Rice.
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The Lions traded up with the Packers, who then traded out of the pick they got from Detroit
The Detroit Lions made a draft-night trade on Friday night. Detroit agreed to a deal with the division rival Green Bay Packers to move up from No. 48 to No. 45 overall.
The Lions packaged No. 48 and No. 159 overall and sent those picks to Green Bay for the No. 45 overall pick. Detroit took Alabama defensive back Brian Branch with the acquired pick.
Green Bay quickly flipped the 48th pick to Tampa Bay in another trade. The Buccaneers traded No. 50 and No. 179 overall to Green Bay to move up and select North Dakota State OL Cody Mauch. The Packers took Michigan State WR Jayden Reed at 50.
The Lions are not shy about making trades within the NFC North. Last season, Lions GM Brad Holmes made two separate deals with the Minnesota Vikings, including a draft-day trade in 2022.
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Branch slid unexpectedly in the draft and the Lions pounced at No. 45
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The Detroit Lions made another trade in the 2023 NFL draft. After moving down in the first round, Lions GM Brad Holmes moved up in the second round to acquire the No. 45 overall pick.
With that pick, the Lions selected Alabama defensive back Brian Branch. He is nominally a safety but has experience playing all over the Crimson Tide secondary.
The 45th pick was traded to Detroit by the division rival Green Bay Packers
It’s quite the paper trail from Deshaun Watson to Jahmyr Gibbs, but that’s how the Lions wound up with the Alabama running back.
With the No. 12 overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft, the Detroit Lions selected Alabama RB Jahmyr Gibbs. It was an unexpected move and a final endpoint for one of the most traded draft picks of all time.
The Lions wound up with the No. 12 pick in a trade Thursday night. Lions GM Brad Holmes engineered a move back to No. 12 in a trade with the Arizona Cardinals and their rookie GM, Monti Ossenfort.
Detroit dealt No. 6 and No. 81 (3rd round) to Arizona for No. 12, No. 34 (2nd round) and No. 168 (5th round)
The pick had only belonged to the Cardinals for about an hour. Ossenfort had just acquired the No. 12 pick in a trade back from No. 3 overall with the Houston Texans. Houston moved up from the 12th pick to select Alabama EDGE Will Anderson.
The Texans traded No. 12, No. 33 (2nd round), a first-round pick in 2024 and also a third-rounder in ’24. Arizona sent back No. 3 overall and a fourth-rounder this year, No. 105 overall.
But the No. 12 pick wasn’t originally Houston’s, either. The Texans acquired the pick from the Cleveland Browns in the 2022 trade between the two teams. You might know that better as the Deshaun Watson trade.
Back in March of 2022, the Texans traded disgraced QB Deshaun Watson to the Browns for a massive haul of picks that includes the No. 12 spot.
Houston traded Watson and a 2024 sixth-round pick to Cleveland for three first-round picks (2022, 2023, 2024), a 2022 fourth-round pick, a 2023 third-round pick and a 2024 fourth-rounder. The Texans used the fourth-rounder last year on RB Dameon Pierce, who played well in Houston as a rookie.
It’s quite the paper trail from Deshaun Watson to Jahmyr Gibbs, but that’s how the Lions wound up with the Alabama running back.
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The draft trade value chart is useful in trying to figure out trade compensation
How do NFL teams figure out the value in draft trades? They use charts that list the value of each pick and work the deal from there.
For the Detroit Lions, they have a lot of draft capital in 2023 with two first-round picks and two more in the second round. It gives Detroit GM Brad Holmes an abundance of flexibility to move around if he so chooses.
The trade value figures are not firm guidelines. Instead, they are baseline negotiating points to work with in computing a trade. The values here are from the Rich Hill trade chart, which incorporates historical values based on past trades.
Remember, it’s a suggested retail price, not the final bill…
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Holmes revealed the draft-day trade with the Vikings was agreed upon well before Thursday night
When the Detroit Lions bundled three draft picks in a trade package and sent them to the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday night, it wasn’t some spontaneous action. Lions GM Brad Holmes and his Minnesota counterpart, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, had agreed to the basic framework of the trade well before the first round of the 2022 NFL draft.
In a great interview with Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Holmes explained that the Lions chose to be aggressive there to land one of the top receivers two weeks before the draft. Everyone in Allen Park — notably head coach Dan Campbell and owner Shiela Ford Hamp — agreed this was the proper course of action, so Holmes got busy on the phones.
Holmes called four teams around No. 12, both before and after the Vikings pick, and all four said they were interested in moving down, with everyone realizing contingencies were attached.
A few days later, Holmes followed up with Adofo-Mensah to finalize the parameters of the deal, and after working the phones the morning of the draft, he called the Vikings’ first-year GM around 3 or 4 p.m. Thursday from the Lions’ Allen Park practice facility.
We learned a few things here…
First, the Lions really wanted to upgrade the wide receiving group and had no qualms about parting with picks 32 and 34 to make that happen. That indicates they valued Williams significantly higher than any wideout (Christian Watson, Jahan Dotson, Wan’Dale Robinson, John Metchie) generally projected in that range of the draft.
Second, they valued Williams enough to send those picks to a division rival. While the taboo of intradivisional trading is somewhat overblown, it’s still a different beast than making this sort of trade with the Texans in the AFC South at No. 13, as an example. Facing the other side of the trade coin twice a year is a lot different than playing it once every four seasons. Holmes and the Lions believed it was that important to get Williams.
Also, it reinforces what Holmes stated several times this offseason: they were actively looking to move around in the draft. While we didn’t know exactly how that would play out, Holmes wasn’t just feeding us a line.
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Breaking down what happened with all the picks involved in the Lions-Vikings draft trade
After the Detroit Lions selected homegrown product Aidan Hutchinson, at the 2nd overall pick, most believed they could relax and enjoy the rest of the draft until the Lions made their selection with the last pick in the first round.
General Manager Brad Holmes had other ideas in mind.
In a stunning move, Holmes orchestrated a trade with division rival, the Minnesota Vikings, in some, might call highway robbery. To move up 20 spots, the Lions gave up picks 32, 34, and 66 while receiving pick 46 back in return. But, from all intents and purposes, the Lions came away with the better end of the deal.
Now trading picks is only the first part of the equation. It is what the teams do with those picks that determine if this trade is a winner or a bust.
Below is the aftermath of the Lions-Vikings draft-day trade and the subsequent trades made with the selections.
Lions:
Pick 12 – Jameson Williams, WR, Alabama
Pick 46 – Josh Paschal, EDGE, Kentucky
Vikings:
Pick 32 – Lewis Cine, S, Georgia
Pick 34 – Traded to Green Bay Packers
Pick 42 – Andrew Booth Jr, CB, Clemson
Pick 66 – Brian Asamoah, LB, Oklahoma
Packers:
Pick 34 – Christian Watson, WR, NDSU
Colts:
Pick 53 – Alec Pierce, WR, Cincinnati
At the end of the day, it’ll be premature to determine a winner from the trade. However, considering what the Lions were able to get and the terms of the trade, it is not hard not to admire the chess game Brad Holmes is doing in getting the players he wants.
Instant analysis for the Lions trading up and selecting Alabama WR Jameson Williams
There were a multitude of scenarios that could have played out for the Detroit Lions in the first round of the 2022 NFL draft. Hundreds of possible outcomes that someone hinted at might happen. Not one of them featured packaging three picks together to move up 20 spots and select a wide receiver.
But that’s what the Lions did. Detroit dealt No. 32 overall, plus 34 and 66 on Friday night’s Day 2, to the Minnesota Vikings for the No. 12 pick and No. 46 on Friday. The aggressive move landed the Lions a dynamic wideout, Alabama’s Jameson Williams.
It’s a bold stroke engineered by GM Brad Holmes to seize the opportunity to land Williams. After Drake London, Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave came off the board in a span of four picks between 8-11, Williams was alone on the top tier of wideouts still on the board.
Williams offers an insane amount of speed on the outside. He didn’t run during the draft season after suffering a torn ACL in January, but the Alabama program clocked him using GPS technology at over 23 MPH last season. He consistently ran away from defenders both on vertical routes and with the ball in his hands after the catch on a short pass. He is the home run hitter offensive coordinator Ben Johnson longed for at the NFL scouting combine.
The ACL injury curbs the instant enthusiasm a little. Williams almost certainly won’t be ready for Week 1, though updates on his recovery place him back on the field potentially by October. The Lions would be smart to not rush him back, but it’s a very exciting addition to the offense.
One of the goals for the Lions in 2022 is to determine if Jared Goff is the long-term quarterback or not. Adding Williams to a mix that already features Amon-Ra St. Brown, T.J. Hockenson, Josh Reynolds, a very good offensive line and a strong run game. If Goff can’t thrive with that, he’s not the answer.
That is one reason to really love the move from a Detroit standpoint–it allows the Lions to truly know what they’ve got in Goff. And if he’s not the answer, the team is loaded and ready for his successor.
The price for moving up is a huge win. It’s a big net win on the trade value chart, but moreover, it’s a premium talent that wasn’t going to be available at 32. And it removes a premium asset from a division rival. Keeping both first-rounders next year is a major boon for Detroit.
It’s a very exciting time for the Lions.
Trades involving the No. 2 overall pick dating back over the last 25 years and how it turned out for both teams involved.
One of the options for the Detroit Lions with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 NFL draft is to trade back. It’s not something that happens often, and it’s almost always a move made for a team coming up to get a quarterback
What could the Lions expect to get in return for the pick in a trade? There are a few recent deals that highlight both the draft capital Detroit could get in return as well as how the teams who traded back have fared in using those returns.
Here is the history of trades involving the No. 2 overall pick dating back over the last 25 years and how it turned out for both teams involved.
