Dueling Detroit Lions 7-round mock drafts: To trade down or to stay put

The Detroit Lions could face a very difficult decision on draft day this year. Holding the third overall pick means holding a lot of value. It also means holding a lot of potential value depending on the teams around them.

Detroit could simply stay put and take either the first or second-best defensive player in the entire NFL Draft. No one would fault them for making a move like that after such an unsuccessful season on defense last year.

But general manager Bob Quinn has to know that there’s a chance he can have his cake and eat it, too. There’s a very real chance that a player they could have at three—like Ohio State cornerback Jeff Okudah—would be available at five or six. It’s Quinn’s job to get the absolute most out of this third overall pick, and adding a couple of high draft picks to go along with one of the top players on their board would be an absolute score. However, trading down and missing out on a top-tier player is a considerable risk and could backfire spectacularly.

So this week on First Byte, myself, Ryan Mathews and John Whiticar go through both scenarios, using The Draft Network’s Mock Draft machine. First, we stay put and try to draft the best players with Detroit’s current picks. Then we get risky and trade down with the Los Angeles Chargers to see what could happen.

Afterwards, we discuss the risk/reward of each scenario and what we’d like the Lions to do in the upcoming draft.

Take a listen: