Lions notes: Detroit not looking at cornerback in the 1st round?

Lions Wire’s Jeff Risdon spent the last couple weeks at practices for the Shrine Game and Senior Bowl, keeping a close eye on the prospects and what the Detroit Lions were keying in on. On Friday morning, Risdon shared a couple of observations that Lions fans should keep in mind come April’s draft.

First, and perhaps most noteworthy, Risdon believes the Lions didn’t show a ton of interest in the top cornerbacks and thinks they won’t be looking in that direction with their first round pick:

That’s a pretty surprising hypothesis considering Detroit pursued some of the top cornerback free agents last year, and there are some top prospects—like LSU’s Greedy Williams and Washington’s Byron Murphy—that may be worthy of a top-10 pick.

And Risdon isn’t the only one who feels this way after spending the week around the Lions. Chris Burke of The Athletic “seconded” Risdon’s claims, emphasizing that the Lions could go offense with their first-round pick.

Here’s a look at the other two takeaways from Risdon:

Obviously, we’re extremely far from the draft, and, as we saw from their coaching search, the Lions like to keep things close to the vest. So I would take this observations with a grain of salt. Still, keep this in mind for the upcoming months.

• It’s January and the Chicago Bears are already looking for a new kicker, and let’s all hope they settle on this one:

• One of the top edge talents in this draft—Boston College’s Zach Allen—credits current Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni with much of his development. “He was probably the biggest influence on my football career and he also taught me a lot of lessons outside of football,” Allen told the Detroit Free Press this week at the Senior Bowl. Pasqualoni was BC’s defensive line coach from 2016-17.

• Lions general manager Bob Quinn called this “a great class” for tight end prospects in the draft. Justin Rogers of the Detroit News highlighted some of the better talent at this week’s Senior Bowl.

• More Darius Slay mic’d up at the Pro Bowl? Yes please. (see Part 1 here)

• DetroitLions.com’s Tim Twentyman has 10 players who impressed at Senior Bowl practices this week.

• Something light for the weekend. Here are bunch of Cowboys fans at the Pro Bowl pretending they know things about NFL players that aren’t real: