A collaborative effort between members of Lions Wire and the Detroit Lions Podcast on Wednesday night made for a fun and intriguing look at how the first 35 picks of the 2020 NFL Draft might play out.
From Lions Wire, Erik Schlitt, Scott Bischoff (also from WJR’s Lions coverage) and myself joined Chris and Case from DLP on a live, pick-by-pick stroll through the first round and the first three picks of the second round. The point of the exercise was to foster discussion about the picks and make it as realistic to what the NFL teams might do as possible.
After Joe Burrow went No. 1 overall to Cincinnati with no debate, the No. 2 pick produces quite a bit of consternation. After several scenarios were related, we wound up with the new regime in Washington opting to collect several more picks and trade back with the Chargers.
The Chargers tab Tua Tagovaiola, which means the Lions are staring both Chase Young and Jeff Okudah in the face. And a whole lot of serious, animated discussion which led to something unexpected.
We have a trade. The Lions accepted almost the exact same package the Colts did in 2018 from the Jets when New York moved up to snag Sam Darnold. Miami gives the Lions No. 5 overall, two second-round picks this year and a second-round pick next year. The Jets sent No. 6 and the later second-round pick was three spots higher than the ones the Lions get here.
[lawrence-related id=36771]
Miami moved up to land Oregon QB Justin Herbert. That left Chase Young at No. 4 for the Giants and that required zero discussion. Which brings us to No. 5.
The quick consensus pick was Jeff Okudah to Detroit. That was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out the next few picks.
We didn’t engineer any other trades, though Arizona at No. 8 moving up to try and snag Okudah or moving back to get where the next tier of CBs is prudent certainly made a lot of sense to everyone.
At No. 35, we wrapped it up with a fairly easy consensus pick: Wisconsin LB/EDGE Zack Baun. He can play the JACK role vacated by Devon Kennard, he can play the off-ball OLB role currently occupied by Christian Jones and Jarrad Davis, and he can even grow into moving into the role one of his Wisconsin predecessors, Joe Schobert, did as a cover backer in 2-LB sets.
Some other random notes:
- Jerry Jeudy was the first WR, at No. 11
- Isaiah Simmons fell to No. 12, over vociferous objection from Case
- No running backs were selected in the first 35 picks
You can watch the whole proceeding here on YouTube: