Detroit Lions Dueling Mock Drafts 3.0: How many needs can be filled in one draft?

On Thursday night, we pitted Team Pride of Detroit against our own listeners and viewers. Over on our Twitch and YouTube pages, Erik Schlitt, Ryan Mathews, and I fired up The Draft Network’s Mock Draft Machine and tried to compile our best possible mock draft for the Detroit Lions, while attempting to stay in the realm of realism.

Then, after we did our worst, we handed the reigns to our live audience. Through polls and chats, we allowed the viewers to make their own picks and their own trade propositions. The only rule: You get one trade for the entire draft.

The results were quite interesting. The main takeaway I got from the endeavor is that the Lions will have to make some concessions when it comes to addressing needs. Even though both we and chat picked up extra draft picks via a trade down in the first round, both drafts weren’t able to adequately address all of Detroit’s needs. Our draft did a good job addressing the offensive line and wide receiver position but left the linebacker position woefully thin. Chat’s mock tackled the linebacker and secondary positions nicely, but the offensive and defensive lines were addressed far too late.

Here’s a look at how it played out:

If you don’t want to sit through the entire video, we break down what we like and don’t like from each mock draft around the 1:29:00 mark. If you’d rather just see the picks, here they are:

Team POD:

Pick 8 - WR Ja’Marr Chase* - LSU
Pick 41 - S Jamar Johnson - Indiana
Pick 72 - DT Milton Williams - Louisiana Tech
Pick 73 - OT Spencer Brown - Northern Iowan
Pick 101 - G/C Quinn Meinerz - Wisconsin
Pick 112 - CB Shaun Wade - Ohio State
Pick 151 - WR Anthony Schwartz - Auburn
Pick 153 - LB Buddy Johnson - Texas A&M

*Trade down netted an extra third, fifth, and 2022 fifth

Chat:

Pick 15 - WR Jaylen Waddle* - Alabama
Pick 41 - LB Nick Bolton - Missouri
Pick 46 - S Richie Grant - UCF
Pick 72 - CB Elijah Molden - Washington
Pick 101 - DT Jay Tufele - USC
Pick 112 - OT Walker Little - Stanford
Pick 163 - WR Anthony Schwartz - Auburn
Pick 177 - WR Racey McMath - LSU

*Trade down netted an extra second, fifth, and 2022 fifth

Which draft do you like more?