NFL Draft: Should the Detroit Lions trade out of the No. 6 pick—and can they?

Late last week, our own Ryan Mathews penned an interesting article on whether the Detroit Lions should trade up from their pick sixth pick in the 2023 NFL Draft and what it would ultimately cost them. It would be a bold move for the Lions, but one could make the argument that Detroit has afforded themselves this opportunity by stock-piling draft picks, solid drafting, and efficient use of cap space in free agency.

On this week’s PODcast, we open the discussion to the rest of the crew about the Lions trading up. For example, while I believe the history of general manager Brad Holmes suggests that if he has resolve on a player, trading up is certainly not out of the question, Detroit’s current team position may, instead, incentivize them to just wait for the draft to fall to them.

“The fact that the Lions are in such a good position overall with their roster—because they’re in such a good position with the draft picks that they have—I feel like you can use that for either argument,” I said on this week’s podcast. “You could say, ‘Wow, they’re in a really good spot that they don’t need an immediate contributor right now. They can take a risk like (trading up). They’re in a position to take a luxury pick,’ as a lot of people like to put it.

“But on the same task, they are in such a good position right now that they shouldn’t. They don’t have to force anything. They’re in such a comfortable position where they can just let the draft come to them and take whoever they want and whatever position they want.”

Then there is the the option of trading down from six. It’s always a good strategy to accumulate as many picks as possible to load up on young, cheap players and maximize the potential of hitting on your picks.

But will the Lions have a dancing partner at six? There’s an argument to be made that right around the sixth overall pick, the player talent drops to a second tier, which could challenge Detroit’s ability to move down.

That is our big-time discussion on this week’s PODcast and kicks off our second segment. Here’s a breakdown of topics and timestamps on this week’s show:

• Marvin Jones Jr. is back! What will his role be? (5:00)
• Lions continue to invest in the team with another addition to the training staff (12:10)
• Lions team facility on the move? (13:45)
• What are the Lions going to do at backup quarterback? (20:10)
• The downsides of trading back in this year’s draft (29:30)
• Will someone fall in love with Will Levis? (32:10)
• How feasible—and likely—is trading up to 3 for a QB (37:00)
• Why just about every position is on the board at 6 (46:50)

Check out the full episode below:

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