Final 2020 NFL mock draft tracker: Analyzing Detroit Lions’ trends

The final mock draft is always the one writers take the most seriously. In an effort to be the most “right,” analysts try their best to use the past 4+ months of information to project what will happen on Thursday night.

Of course, none of that means they’re going to be particularly accurate. Media is notoriously gullible when it comes to rumors thrown out by teams—especially late in draft season—and it’s very, very rare that the analyst consensus lines up at all with those of NFL scouts and general managers.

Still, it’s fun to see what the media comes up with and how it changes throughout the first few months of the year. So for our final Mock Draft Tracker, we will not only just look at the trends for the Detroit Lions in the past week, but look at how things have changed from back in January to present day.

Previously:

• Mock Draft Tracker 6.0
• Mock Draft Tracker 5.0
• Mock Draft Tracker 4.0
• Mock Draft Tracker 3.0
• Mock Draft Tracker 2.0
• Mock Draft Tracker 1.0

4/15/20 - NFL.com (Peter Schrager) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/17/20 - NFL.com (Chad Reuter) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/17/20 - LA Times (Various beat writers) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/18/20 - Detroit Free Press (Dave Birkett) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/19/20 - The Athletic (Chris Burke, Nick Baumgardner) - **trade down** Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah (5th)
4/20/20 - Bleacher Report (Mike Tanier) - **trade down** Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah (5th)
4/20/20 - PFF (Steve Palazzolo) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/20/20 - NBC Sports (Peter King) - **trade down** Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah (5th)
4/20/20 - CBS Sports (Dan Schneier) - **trade down** Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah (5th)
4/20/20 - NFL.com (Rhett Lewis) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/20/20 - Establish the Run (Evan Silva) - Auburn DT Derrick Brown
4/20/20 - SB Nation (Dan Kadar) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - Houston Chronicle (John McClain, Aaron Wilson) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - PFF (Entire staff) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - Draft Wire (Luke Easterling) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - CBS Sports (Will Brinson) - Clemson LB Isaiah Simmons
4/21/20 - Sports Illustrated (Albert Breer) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - Bleacher Report (Kristopher Knox) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - CBS Sports (Ryan Wilson) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - Sporting News (Vinnie Iyer) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - NFL.com (Charles Davis) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - Pewter Report (Jon Ledyard) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - MLive (Kyle Meinke) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/21/20 - The Draft Network (Benjamin Solak) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah
4/22/20 - USA Today (Nate Davis) - Ohio State CB Jeff Okudah

Results

Jeff Okudah - 23 of 25 - 92% (up 20%)
Derrick Brown - 1 of 25 - 4% (down 8%)
Isaiah Simmons - 1 of 25 - 4% (no change)
Chase Young - 0 of 25 - 0% (down 12%)
Tua Tagovailoa - 0 of 25 - 0% (no change)

No more messing around. Just about everyone has converged on Jeff Okudah at this point. The last mock draft always tends to be the most serious, as writers attempt to make the “most accurate” lists by the end of the draft. That means two things: First, these writers are much less likely to go out on a limb on their final drafts. Second, they aren’t going to mess around and write something just to grab a headline.

Does that mean these are more accurate projections? Not necessarily. But it’s very, very clear what is expected of Detroit at this point. Jeff. Okudah.

Trades!

4 of 25 - 16% (down 20%)

• 4 of 4 trades with Dolphins

Draft writers got a little boring with the first-round trades in their mocks, but there’s also reason to believe the Lions may find it harder to trade down than originally thought. The Miami Dolphins now seemed to have suddenly fallen out of love with Tua Tagovailoa and may not even be considering a quarterback at all with the fifth overall pick.

The wild card remains the Los Angeles Chargers, but, oddly, no one has the Lions trading down with them, despite the fact they were the just as popular of a trade down partner last week.

Local results (Lions beat writers only)

Writers included: Dave Birkett, Kyle Meinke, Chris Burke/Nick Baumgardner, Michael Rothstein

Jeff Okudah: 4 of 4 - 100%
Chase Young: 0 of 3 - 0%

Though it appears some of the Lions’ beat is waiting until the last moment to release their final mocks, there is finally a full consensus from local writers. The last domino to fall was Kyle Meinke, who had been mocking Chase Young to Detroit for most of the offseason (as well as Lions Wire’s Jeff Risdon, who also switched over to Okudah in his latest mock*.)

The big change for Meinke was the draft stock of Tua Tagovailoa, whose health has become an even bigger question mark lately and some have suggested he slips out of the top 10 entirely. That prevents, in his mind, a trade up to two and Chase Young sliding to Detroit.

*This is his “what I would do” mock, not a predictive one, so it wasn’t included