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Speaker 3: Hey, everyone. Jeff Risen here with your daily DLP. It is Monday, March 30. We got a mock draft. Published the mock draft earlier today on Monday. This is mock draft three point o. And as it says, let's make some deals. I got a little crazy, and decided to incorporate some trades into this one. I don't typically like to project trades in mock drafts, but you can't keep beat beating the same dead horse all the time. So I thought I'd, mix it up a little bit and try to create some plausible I won't necessarily call them, like, realistic, but plausible trade scenarios for the lions in this draft, both up and down. Used a couple of different simulators to, get the player availability. I did not use the trade function on those simulators, both the PFSN and I thank them for their services. They both have their pluses and minuses. But let's get into it. And so, like, you can read this. Obviously, go to the Detroit Lions podcast, the the actual website, and check it out. You can also find it on all my socials, including Jeffries and Lions slash NFL at Facebook. That's probably the best place to leave comments too. I do tend to be, somewhat active on there, and I get alerts for that. For whatever reason, I don't get alerts for Twitter or blue or x or Blue Sky, on my phone. I don't know why. That's probably a phone issue or a technology issue, but, the Facebook page is probably the best way to go. I I know it's Facebook. I get that, but there's, we're trying to make that a better place, one day at a time. So the first pick I will go through this. I won't read it to you. But, basically, I had a trade come up. I'm at 17, and the Houston Texans called, hypothetically. We'd like to talk to Nick Casaria. I like Nick. Know him a very, very little. As in, I've shaken his hand and, introduced myself twice. That's the big side of the relationship there. But I think he's doing a pretty good job with the Texans, and he's getting aggressive in filling one of their biggest needs, which happens to be defensive line, not offensive line. They do need one more offensive lineman, but they have quietly signed or upgraded three starting positions on their offensive line this off season. This is Levian Avionte Ursree from last year's draft who seems like a hit. Good player. Wish the lines would've liked him a little bit more, but not gonna complain about what we got in last year's draft either. So the Texans offer number 28 and number 69 and a twenty twenty seven sixth round pick, and the lions send back seventeen one fifty seven, which is a fifth round pick, and a twenty twenty seven seventh round pick. Now on the trade, projection chart, and I use the the, Spiegel Fitzgerald Spiegelburger chart, which you can find it over the cap. The the the values almost never equal out. Generally speaking, the aggressive team, the team looking to trade up, pays about a 10% tax to do so. So the the points work out where this deal favors the lions, but most deals where the team coming up, they do tend to sacrifice a little bit just because they're going to get the guy that they really want, and that that makes them necessarily pay a little bit more for it. Supply, demand, market economics at its finest. So at twenty eight, the lion's steak, TJ Parker, Edge, Clemson. I'm not gonna go over everything about TJ Parker because we've talked about him before. I like him. I like him a lot more at 28 than 17. I like every player more at 28 than I like him at 17. That's a fairly generic statement. Let me go over some of the other guys who were there at this point. Oh, by the way, the Texans moved up, to take Peter Woods, the defensive tackle from Clemson. There's a lot of Clemson in this episode. If you were triggered by that, whether you're a South Carolina fan, or a I don't know who else is. I know from when I lived in Virginia, Virginia Tech and Clemson don't exactly get along, which is fun because, my my brother is a Georgia Tech post grad, and his wife is a Virginia Tech grad. But they live right by Clemson, and they both hate Clemson, first whatever. Anyways, I digress. The players that were available there at the time, Keller Falk was gone. He went twenty first to the Steelers. Akeem Mesador was there, Max Ahaihneker was there, and Blake Miller was there, among others. But those would be the three that would would primarily be considered by the Lions, at least what I think the Lions would do. And this is a draft. Again, the projections, unless I tell you specifically that it is a what I would do mock draft, I am trying to forecast what I think the lions might do in the given situation. That's every mock draft, other than one, which is the what I would do mock draft, which will come out. I usually put that one out the Sunday before the draft or Saturday before the draft. So I have have the draft floating around in my head, but, I haven't written it down yet. Things change too.

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Speaker 3: I like the idea of TJ Parker there. As we've talked about before, talked about his player profile, he is very much what the lions want opposite Aiden Hutchins. He's a little bit smaller than than what they want, but he plays power to speed very well. He can go speed to power. Had a bit of a down year in 2025, but going into 2025, go back and look at the mock drafts from last August and early September, and he was almost universally the first defensive player to come off the board. And as I've mentioned before, I think he did a fantastic job at the combine, both in team interviews and in in public media interviews of explaining why his production waned and not throwing Clemson's coaching under the bus while still kinda doing it. He did it very diplomatically, and I like that. Shows that he's got a a smart, mature head on his shoulders. But, boy, he is he's gonna be fun in Detroit if he gets there. I by the way, I do believe that they would strongly consider him at 17 without a trade. I don't know that he would be their first choice there, but, he he's certainly somebody that he definitely fits the the profile of what the lions like. Again, just a little bit smaller than ideal, but but we like that. So in the second round, got crazy with the cheese whiz here, kids. I made another trade. This time, I traded up. First time I traded back, second time I traded up. Because at the end of the first day, Blake Miller is still there. Emmanuel McNeil Warren is still there. Akeem Mesador is still there. So I got aggressive, and I traded with the cardinals at number 34. And I sent them number 50, the lion's second round pick. Number two twenty two, which is one of our seventh rounders, I believe that one came from the jaguars, and a twenty twenty seven fourth round pick to the cardinals. And I got back 34 and a twenty twenty seven fifth round pick. And I'm moving up to take Blake Miller there. And this was not a hard one at all. The biggest question that I had was, is it plausible that Blake Miller would still be there at 34? So I referenced a couple different, resources. I used the the DLP, consensus mock board chart. I also used mock draftable, NFL mock drafts. Their consensus big board. And in both of those, Blake Miller is listed at number 28. So I think 17 is probably lofty for him, but, again, I don't think I think the Lions would strongly consider him at 17 as well, but I think he is much more likely to fall into this range, the 22 to 35 range. Some of it is the fact that he can only play right tackle. Some of it is the fact that he really didn't have a first round caliber year until his last year. And even then, there were still a couple of games where you're like, I don't know, man. Like, I think I'd like it better in the second round. Well, hey. We got him in the second round, and I'm happy with that. So now he does facilitate or necessitate the move of Pune Sewell to the left side. And as I wrote in the piece, Blake Miller would compete right away with Larry Borom to be the starting right tackle, and the other one would be the swing reserve. I don't think just from what I've watched in from Miller, I don't think he can play guard. He's he's too upright. You don't want that much height being that tall inside. It's a problem. We've we've seen that before in Detroit. It's one of the reasons why Colby Sorsdell has struggled because he plays very erect. You might know the gutter. He plays very erect, up upright and kinda stiff. That gets in the way of throwing lanes. That would happen with Miller as well in the inside, I believe. Was another example of that. Boram has played inside before. Excuse me. I don't necessarily wanna see him in there again, but he's at least a wash with Coyote Aushika who's, no longer with us. So I'm good there. I I I like this one. This is much more in the range where I would like to see the lions take Miller. And so now you've got your first your biggest two needs addressed. You have moved around the the the dance floor a little bit, and we added a third round pick. So the third round pick, I had a lot of options here. A lot of options in the third round. There were some safeties that I liked, Bud Clark. Again, this is, this is number 69 overall. So that's probably early for him. It was, early for AJ Halsey, in my opinion, and I don't again, I don't think that the lions are gonna be super enamored with him. Maybe they will be. I don't know. But I I think his lack of speed, is very real, and I do think that that's something that the Lions will look at. But he he's certainly he's certainly smart enough and crafty enough to make it work. There were wide receivers galore in this range. There were a couple of tight ends. I don't really think that the Lions are in the market for a tight end this early. Even after signing, you know, they do have Brock Wright and Tyler Conklin both playing on expiring contracts. And I guess, technically, Sala Porta could be too. But that that's a position where you can get you can extend one of those guys fairly, be it, you know, if if Conklin works out or if if you wanna keep right longer. That's an inexpensive extension if you wanna do it, or you can serve the the mid level free agent market again next year, or you can draft a guy later. So I went with Big Citrus. Dominique Orange, nose tackle, Iowa State.

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Speaker 3: This is your DJ reader replacement, and it's getting it gets a lot of attention, and is growing in attention that the Lions have not replaced DJ Reidder and all of his snaps in the in defensive interior. You got Tylek Williams and Aliyah McNeil, as your starters. That that's a good combo. I like I like the Alim coming back a year after the injury now. That thing is gonna be much better. And from what I've heard already this off season, Tylee Williams is on the Alim McNeil track of morphing his body from being a college player to being a professional athlete. And I think that's gonna help him, get better at the pass rush. And and by the way, he did play pretty well at the end of last season. Once he got the rookie jitters, and, you know, sort of the to learn the offensive lines a little better. But you need that immovable object in the middle of the line, and that is big citrus. Dominique Orange does not move backwards, period. Six two three twenty two fires off the snap violent hands, powerful hands. He offers almost nothing as a pass rusher. Believe he had 2.5 sacks in college, and one of those was when the quarterback ran smack into him. Like it was like I don't think it was an intentional one, but he's very he is he's gonna fill that reader role of keeping Jack Campbell, Derek Barnes, linebacker three, whether it's Rodrigo or somebody that we get to a little bit here. Keep them clean. Allow them to attack gaps in the run game. Create blitzing lanes for your second and third level defenders to go get the quarterback. He's really good at that. So this is this is a little bit early for Dominique Orange. He is generally, just in the the consensus thing. He's number 79. He's at 69 here. This was not egregious, but I'm happy to take him here and not worry about my defensive line for three more years. I like that. You got your top three interior defensive lineman through the 2029 season with this, or 2028 season. Give me that. Give me that, please. Fourth round. K. There's been some movement here. This one is at number one eighteen. I took Chuck d, Charles Demings, cornerback, Stephen f Austin, the lumberjacks, FCS standout, has some things to clean up, but, boy, he has length, he has speed, ball skills, you know, six one one ninety three, He's played a lot of press, has played, where he has to attack the run. Now he is, and I and I wrote this in the piece. His run support is more willing than effective at this point, and his tackling is going to bother some of you. It might bother me. He misses. And it's not even like missed tackles. It's like missed tackle opportunities, whether he just doesn't get off the block or, like, he's, you know, he he's just a step slow in in reading the run, but that that can be coached, that can be developed. And I will bring up one, Terryon Arnold, as a good example of that. A lot of lions fans are very anti Terryon. Go back and watch him at Alabama and watch his run defense now and how much it's improved. And I think you can do that with Chuck Demings, who can be your understudy for a year because he plays kind of a similar style. He's a little bit smaller. But, you know, with Rock playing on a one year contract, this is your number four slash number five outside corner as a rookie. He if he can handle more, by all means, give it to him. He can only play outside, though. So that that is a bit of a limiting factor. And I this was this was one where I rushed to the podium, and this is a lot earlier than and I rushed to the podium because I think that this is again, this is the range where Brad Holmes and this regime like to get aggressive and identify their guy, whether it's Roderick Martin, Giovanni Manus, Sione Baki, Isaac Toussla. Like, this is that range, and I can see them absolutely loving Demings. I can deaf can definitely see that. Yeah. So we move on. And the lions had another pick in the fourth round that they got for the Texans, I think. Gotta go back up to that trade. No. I did not. They traded oh, yes. From the David Montgomery trade. They have a full extra fourth round pick, and they traded it. They trade one twenty eight and two thirteen. Two thirteen is the last pick of the sixth round for one forty one, two zero six, and a twenty twenty seven six rounder. So this is a trade with the Cleveland Browns. The Browns move up, as I noted here, they have three of the first nine picks in the fifth round. They don't have, believe it or not, as decrepit as they are, they don't have that many roster spots. Like, they've got a crap ton of picks. They need to consolidate. Otherwise, they there there's no point in taking some of these guys because there there's no chance they can make the team. So they bundle, and they target Matt Gulben, center from Michigan State who is getting a lot more draft love, especially since his pro day, where I think he also, did a very good job of explaining, the tumult that has taken place at Michigan State and how it might have impacted him and the team around him, even though he wasn't there the full time. But, I've gotten that from a couple different people. The goal is a rising star, so he winds up being taken here. So lions fall back 13 spots, and they, they pick up BJ Payne, safety Kansas State. This is an area I was hoping I was really hoping that Bud Clark would still be there. I was hoping that Genesis Smith would be there. They were gone. So I took a guy in BJ Payne who is a coverage oriented safety. He was a prospect of the week last week. There's the, safety for every round piece you can read about him, but I I like this one. Good player. The fifth round pick at one eighty five, Maxwell Whillen, edge out of Iowa. Talked about him a little bit before. He was the fifth round pick in the an edge for every round piece. Pure pass rush specialist. He's tall, six foot six, master the spin move. He almost does it too much, and there were a couple of times where, like, you know, he he does the spin, and the guy was just waiting for him and shoves him to the ground. That's one of the reasons why he's in the fifth round. You gotta you gotta take what you can get here. But this would be a guy to come in and spell Aidan Hutchinson from playing 90% plus of the reps again. Can get in with DJ Wonnum, with DJ Parker. Now you've bolstered where you've got the and I'll go back to when they had James Houston and the eight games where he was healthy and inspired to play football. What a glorious time that was. Fleeting but glorious. He can fill that role as a designated pass rusher who can come in and bring you some juice around the edge and inside the edge. So I like that one. The earlier trade, one of the earlier trade, brought in pick two zero five, and the lines already had two zero six one way or the other. They have two back to back picks, near the middle of the sixth round. And these are the last two picks because the Lions have traded away their seventh rounders, mercifully. Mercifully. Brad Holmes did that, a couple years ago, by the way. That was Steph's nice. We were we were all very happy in the media room there. But I took two picks here, Went back to Clemson for running back Adam Randall, who I love in this range. And I was I might have manipulated the field a little bit to get him to be available here. But that's why when it's it's a projection and I say that it's what I think that the lions would do, you're invariably gonna put your thumb on the scale a little bit, and I did that here with with Randall. So I'll I'll at least acknowledge it. A lot of folks won't do that when they they do these things. I like Randall's style. He is a converted wide receiver, but don't think that he's small. He's two hundred and thirty two pounds. He still runs routes like he's a receiver. He has the hands of a receiver, but he also is a better runner between the tackles already with vision and balance than Sione Vakhi is. And this is a push to for the number three running back spot, given Isaiah Pacheco's, bulky health history, he could be number two by midseason or get number two reps at some point. And, also, I don't mind having competition for Vaki in here to push him and and see what he can do and how he responds, or if, and there's one way that they can learn whether he's a legit guy to be RB three or if he's only ever gonna be a special two's player. He's still very good at that, so I I wouldn't think that his roster spots are parallel, but that that that's discussion for the summer after the draft. The other one, and this is one where I take my thumb completely off the scale because this is a guy that I I I'm not a fan, honestly. I don't think he's draftable, but he's an Alabama linebacker who can cover. That's Justin Jefferson, not not not the Vikings wide receiver. It's not a misprint. Couple of people came at me like, Justin Jefferson, the cup he plays with the Vikings. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's his it's his guy's name. He is a safety sized coverage nickel linebacker. He does have some ability to blitz, which I do like, And I do think that the lions are gonna have interest in a guy like that. For those of you who like Kyle Lewis from Pittsburgh in the middle rounds, Jefferson is a poor man's version of that, poorer man's version of that. There's a few guys like that. My guy Jackson from Miami is like that. Jefferson's probably a little bit better than him, in terms of coverage skills, man skills, being able to run with the tight end or or, you know, let's say, carry it running back out of the backfield. So that's where we went with the picks. We'll bring this up as the final what it came on down as. I had fun with it. I don't think this is gonna happen. I think some of the things could happen. I I did, again, try to zero in on players that I think that the lines are gonna have a lot of interest in. And that's just from years of experience and, having brief conversations here and there, with people who, whether it's lion scouts, lion staffers, at all. They have a pretty good idea of what they're looking for in certain positions, but, you know, which emphasis they put in the positions. I don't know. I'm not in the room. I haven't I haven't taken a picture of the board. I haven't, you know, been seated on a plane where the director of collegiate scouting leaves a laptop open with a spreadsheet showing their big board on it, which happened to Chris a couple years ago, and it wasn't the lions, but that was fun. That hasn't happened to me yet. I am off to, go meet with somebody, off the Pro Day Circuit to hopefully get more information about the Lions' potential interest in some of these guys. So with that, Jeff Risen signing out. Enjoy your Monday. Be good to one another.