Lions host Donovan Smith for pre-draft visit

Things have been extremely quiet on the free-agent front for the Detroit Lions. Despite there being a flurry of activity in other NFL cities, there's barely been a peep out of Allen Park during the free agency negotiating period. There's been no news of deals being in place with the Lions, and even news of interest in certain players has been tough to come by.

I'm sure this lack of news will change once free agency officially opens at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday. In the meantime, there is some different kind of news involving the Lions to report: They hosted Penn State offensive tackle Donovan Smith for a pre-draft visit on Tuesday.

Smith was Penn State's starting left tackle for 33 games from 2012-14. Despite this, it appears that Smith may be a candidate to switch to offensive guard in the NFL. Here's what he told the Lions' official site about the possibility of moving inside at the professional level:

"In my head I’m an offensive tackle," Smith told detroitlions.com Tuesday on a pre-draft visit. "But I understand that in the NFL you have to be as moveable as possible and fit into different positions and play as many positions as possible to help the team out.

"I’m an offensive tackle in my mind, and that’s what I am, but I’m not opposed to playing guard if that’s what’s best for the team to win."

CBS Sports projects Smith to be a third- or fourth-round pick in this year's draft.