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2010 NFL Draft: Lions Trade Up to 30th Pick, Select Cal's Jahvid Best

Just as I speculated, the Lions were not done for the night after picking Ndamukong Suh.  After waiting around for almost all of the rest of the first round, the Lions made a move to trade up for Cal running back Jahvid Best.  Interestingly, the Lions traded with the Vikings to move up for Best.  Here are the details of the trade:

Lions receive:

30th overall pick and select Jahvid Best
128th overall pick (Minnesota's fourth-rounder)

Vikings receive:

34th overall pick (Detroit's second-rounder)
100th overall pick (Detroit's fourth-rounder)
214th overall pick (Originally Cleveland's seventh-rounder)

My initial reaction to this move is that I'm a little surprised the Lions decided to trade up (with Minnesota, no less).  Then again, it's obvious who the best player available was on the Lions' draft board.  They obviously wanted to make sure they got Jahvid Best, and basically they gave up a seventh-round pick and 28 spots in the fourth-round for him.  None of the teams in front of Detroit were a threat to take a running back (Minnesota has Adrian Peterson, Indianapolis has Joseph Addai and Donald Brown, New Orleans has Pierre Thomas and Reggie Bush, and St. Louis has Steven Jackson), but the Lions must have felt that another team was going to trade up and take him.

Heading into tomorrow, this means that the Lions' only pick as of right now is the 66th overall.  After that they won't pick again until the 128th pick (on Saturday) and then have to wait until the seventh round to go back on the clock.  Of course, just as I said in my write-up on the Suh pick, expect the unexpected and anything can happen, so of course another trade wouldn't surprise me one bit.  As it stands right now, though, the Lions have added two new players to the team after day one of the draft.

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