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Speaker 5: Hey, everyone. Jeff Risen here with your Daily DLP. It is Tuesday, April 14, 04/14 day. Shout out to my friends in Milwaukee, which is about 90 miles as the crows fly straight that way. As I look out my west window here in West Michigan, Rainy day. It's a fun day, though. So I published this year's edition of the Detroit Lions dream draft. If you've followed my content for a long time, going back to my days running the old Detroit Lions draft site, which was in existence from approximately 2010 to approximately 2014. Don't know the exact dates, and and, sadly, it's not available on the archive. But I did one of these every year, and it wound up being one of the most read things that I've that I do every year. And I have continued that for most of the time, and I did one at Lions Wire last year. And in that one, I successfully manifested my dreams into the lions selecting both Tylek Williams and Isaac Tousslaw. Now the lions took each of those guys earlier than I dreamed, but I'm I'm I'm obviously happy with both of them. I like the long term prognosis for both of them. I think I think fans are gonna be excited for what they get in Ty Lake Williams in year two now that he knows, what it's like to be in the NFL. I really do. So this year's edition, and I have fun with this. This is my chance to do a little creative writing. I would strongly encourage you to read the written version of this, which is available at the Detroit Lions podcast. If you look at the picture that's superimposed behind me, I will try not to move so much so it'll look crazy in front of it, but it's there. It's up on all of our socials as well. You can find me at, Jeff Rizdon, Jeff Riz on, on Blue Sky or Jeff Rizdon, Lions NFL on Facebook. You do not have to be my friend to see that. You can check that out. It's fun. Good stuff. But I want to break down why I made the decisions that I did, at least at the top in my dream draft. And this is the players that I would be like, this is my preferred target at each of the picks, and I did not trade up. I actually got a good question about this before we even get into it. On social media today about the idea of trading up or trading back, I'm much more likely to trade up this year. I don't actually want the lions to trade back, and here's why. Because I've got three to four picks that I'm gonna be making in this draft where I don't actually expect the guys to make the active 53 man roster. There isn't room. If there is room for them, it's because they pushed off somebody who's already there and established, which which is fine. That that's a good thing. But we are be we are far beyond the lions eras, plural, unfortunately, where you drafted Devin Taylor and he had to start right away, where you're demanding that Zach follow the pain train, becomes your inside starting backer, like, immediately as a sixth round pick out of Cal. Amari Spivey doesn't have to get thrown to the wolves on this team. Look at look at the the picks that we've made in the last couple years. You know, Dominic Lovett's a great example. He's a seventh round pick a year ago. Didn't really play on offense at all. Barely made a dent on special teams. Dan Jackson, seventh round pick. He'll be back this year. He'll be healthy. Last year, he might not have played a lot as a rookie just because they they had other guys that were ahead of him. You know, the the the mid level depth for the guys who are gonna be drafted, especially after the fourth round in this team, they don't need to make

Speaker 2: the team. They can sit on a

Speaker 5: practice squad. So I'm not going to be looking to get more of those picks. And I like having in a weaker draft, I like having higher picks. So I'm much more inclined to trade up. That's just me. That's my it's hey. It's my dream. You don't like it, dream another dream. That's okay. Dream a little dream. Very weird movie from the Corries in the eighties. Fun one, though. Might have been under the influence, of that that, that buzz for, for some of this. But, look, again, I I strongly heard you read the written product. Read the one that I wrote last year at Lions Winger as well. It's up on the socials. It it's good. It's fun. For you dream theater fanatics, it's got a picture of James and John on the front, but you're g, not me young. Love those guys. Yeah. My first round pick in my dream draft was Caleb Lomu, offensive tackle, Utah Utes. Left tackle. This is part of my dream. Again, it's my dream. I don't expect all of you to see things the way that I do. I just wanna explain where my head is at and why I made the decisions that I did. In my dream world, Pena Sewell stays at right tackle because he's the best in the world there. We've look. We've talked about this a lot on this show. I don't have an issue at all with moving Pena to the left side. I think he'll be great there. But I know he's the best in the world at the right tackle, and I don't really wanna fool with that. So if I can get a guy who can play left tackle and leave Pena alone and leave Tate Ratlidge next to him and have Cade Mays as a like, the rights the the propensity with which the lions run to the right, I want that. I love Lomu having said all that. Staying at left tackle, love his athleticism. I love his upside, his length. He's smart. He's crafty.

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Speaker 5: So good. And still a lot of developmental upside. He's not the best run blocker. We totally get that. There are others that are better. Is Spencer Fano is better. They think, Francis Maui Noa is better. And, by the way, if I were trading up from 17, I I should've I should've actually written this in the thing, but it it came to me later. I would trade up for Mauna Loa. I would trade up for Sonny Styles. Absolutely. This is he is, my number two overall player. He's fantastic talent. You can play him with Jack Campbell. You can play him again, he he was a safety and still moves like a safety even though he is bigger than Arvell Reese, who is gonna be drafted as an edge. I had thoughts on that too. Check out real football real g m. I wrote about Arvell Reese and why I'm not someone who is coronating him without seeing it. I've I've questions. I don't have doubts. I have questions. But check that out. And I would also, ponder trading up for Caleb Downs. Maybe. I don't know. But here, I still look. I held firm, and I took Lomu. Why Lomu over the other tackles? Again, I think his developmental upside and I and I wrote this. I don't think he's the best tackle in 2026. But by the end of the 2027 season, I actually will be surprised if he's not the best tackle from this class. And that includes Maui Noa. That includes any, you know, any of the other guys that you want. By the way, I don't expect the lions to take him at 17. I don't expect them to take him really at all. I don't think that they're looking that hard at Lomu. Been led to believe that they are looking if they're going tackle in a in a different direction, and then look, I'm good with that. I like Blake Miller. I do. I wouldn't take him at 17, but I don't have a problem if the Lions do. So that's the first round. Second round pick, this one was hard. This was really hard. And I had a lot of different directions I wanted to go and could have gone. I could have gone defensive tackle. Kristen Miller from, from Georgia certainly fits the bill. He's a very appealing player. By the way, I think he probably needs to get more talk about, from from Lions faithful as a potential target, aside from the fact that he's a pretty darn good immovable object on the inside. He also has a pretty meaty injury history, which is gonna drop him in value. And we know that that's cue the the Brad celebrating me. Yeah. I like him. I was looking at wrote the names down here. Ponds. Get my plucky, undersized, incredible fight to size of dog ratio slot corner, which look. I love those guys. Those are my dudes, but he's really small. And I also I I love him, though. That he was tough to bypass. So looking at Malachi Lawrence, I don't think he's gonna realistically be there, though. And look look. I know it's my dream. Even in my dreams, I don't do fantasy well. Just not like, I've never been a science fiction guy. I've never been, like, the the, you know, fantasy, like, whatever you want. Like, I have to have some basis. Like, when I read, I read nonfiction. Like, that's just who I am. I cannot, like, completely break all the chains and constraints. Just not even in my trades. So I don't think he's gonna be there at 50. I do think that Gabe Yakis is gonna be there at 50 from Illinois, and he wound up being my pick. I want my my dream vision here was to come out with the first two picks being a long term solution for the position opposite Aidan Hutchinson and a long term starting tackle on offense. Now I could have been persuaded to take a better player if there was a corner that I liked more, if there was a safety that I liked more, if there was there aren't any tight ends that I like more than any of these guys. So, yeah, I'm I'm I'm pretty good with Kabyakas. I really enjoy watching him win to the inside, win to the outside. I think he's got growth potential. I I I said it the other day when I when I talked about him as as as a prospect of the day. When I first flipped on Illinois, their first game that I watched this year, like, why is that defensive tackle playing outside? Outside? Because he is built like a defensive tackle, but he moves so smooth. Finisher, pressure generator. I don't need another Aidan Hutchinson. I need a guy that knows how to play opposite him. He is the guy that the lions wanted Josh Paschal to be, that they wanted Charles Harris to be. I'm good with that. I like him. And his run defense, he got better. The effort is there. The process is getting better. Illinois didn't yank him anymore for it. And if you watch some of the later games just don't watch the Ohio State one. His run defense was passable from an NFL standpoint. Not gonna say that it was great. Not gonna say that it's gonna be a thing for him, but coming in as Brad talked about in his press conference.

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Speaker 5: Hey.

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Speaker 5: DJ Wonnum can play play the run very well. You can platoon Jakes with him, or Jakes can come in and, god forbid, get Aidan Hutchinson a break so he's not playing over 90% of the snaps again. I dream about that a lot. I really do. Hopeful for that. I have weird dreams. I did not trade up with the fourth round picks, and I wanted to combine them and move up. And I certainly would have targets for that. And there's a lost dog running around us on my window here. Hi, puppy. I should flip. Sorry. I do things in one take. I hate I hate editing film, so we just we just let those roll. It's fun. Frequent viewers, frequent readers, you know where I went with the next pick. Wasn't a difficult choice. That's Bud Clark. And as I laid out in the, in the written version of this, I've actually copied his scouting report from Bleacher Report, that Daniel Harms did. Daniel by the way, follow the Bleacher Report gets kind of a I don't know. And and I don't think that their scouting department gets nearly as respected as it should. I like a lot of those guys. I think they do very good work. I think Brandon Thorne does a fantastic job there. I think Sobo does great. Well, like, they're they're a good team. They really are. I don't say that just because I worked there once upon a time. The 2014 through 16 seasons were fun there. I enjoyed my time there. But he wrote it, and the way I framed it, and it's absolutely true, if you read that scouting report about Bud Clark and took his name out of it and put Kirby Joseph coming out of Illinois in that, it's a dead freaking ringer. They have the same scouting report. Like, even the things that they're not good at, like, it's the same. You're gonna tell me that I can get another Kirby Joseph to play with the current one or, god forbid, have to replace him from an inch yes. Yes. Get out of my dreams. Get into my car, baby. Let's go. Drive that one straight up to the podium. So, yeah, I like that one a lot. And that again, it's predictable. It's okay. I'm fine with that. The other fourth rounder is another person that, we've talked about very recently. In fact, I had Nick Bongartner from the athletic on, over the weekend. And he did a feature on this guy, and that's Charles Demings. Cornerback, Steven f Austin, Like Chuck d, promise as an outside corner. Needs development. Guess what? This is where the lion's depth comes in nicely. I can take Charles Demings in the fourth round here, and he doesn't have to play. Doesn't have to play, but he can earn his way to play. And with the injury situation such as it's been over the last couple of seasons with the lions and the secondary, You know? I don't I don't wanna do the legion of whom again. It was fun. And, honestly, like, I think they did better than expected. And I do think that Nick Whiteside is a keeper. But Charles would come in as the number four or number five outside cornerback with Terry on, with DJ Reed, with, depending on how you feel about and or Christian Isian and or Avante Maddox. Like, all of those guys can sort of play outside if you need them to. Demos can find his way. I like that. I I I think his potential is sky high. He does have work to do, though. And, check out the episode that I did with Nick. I believe that aired on Saturday. But that there's a good conversation in there about Demings. So that's that's where I went with the first four. I pondered some defensive tackle help. That wound up coming with the next pick that was, Caleb Proctor, a Southeast Louisiana lion. He is your Levi Anzuriki, eventual replacement slash cohort. He is at six foot two two ninety. Two ninety he played at two ninety two. He's undersized, but he attacks in the backfield. Southland Conference player of the year lived in the opposing backfield. Nobody could block him when he did it at the Senior Bowl too. He can't play the run. You can platoon him. You can do your this is part of my dream. I wanna see more five man fronts like I saw from the Lions last summer, specifically in joint practices against the the Dolphins and the Texans, and they worked well. And we didn't do that in the regular season, and that bugs me. I wanna see that instead of going with the third linebacker, whether it's Rodrigo or Nowaski or a draft pick.

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Speaker 5: You know, Damon Clark, maybe?

Speaker 2: He's he's on the team now. I think he's

Speaker 5: there for special teams, but we'll see. He's got a shot. I would rather have two edges and three down linemen that can move in and out. You can move Ollie McNeal all over the place. You can move Tylek for the most part, at least out to the four I, maybe five. You can do that with Procter. I like that vision. Heck, you can play one of them as one of them and put Yakuza's like there are so many things so many good potential ideas that I love if they were to do more of that. Or, alternatively, go four two five more. Get guys on the field. Either way, I'm one of my dreams is that they run less four three base. I think that's a dream that most of you will share with me even if you don't like my picks, which is fine. You know, that's again, I don't expect anybody else to have my dreams. I, if you have your own dreams, write them out. Lay them out. Leave them leave them in the comments. It's fun. Nobody's gonna judge you. That's

Speaker 3: that's

Speaker 5: what your opinions are. We'll see what happens with it. Do I think that the lines are gonna make these dreams come true as they did last year with two of the picks? Maybe. I don't think they're taking Lomu. I don't actually think that they would have that sort of interest in Caleb Procter either. Again, Caleb Proctor, not Kay Kaiden. I'm I'm not interested in drafting Kaiden. Certainly not as a tackle. He was not in consideration at 17 for me. He might not be in consideration at 50 for me. It's just again, not where I'm at with him. I'm just not there. Sorry. Oh, man. I thought about, you know, guys guys like Derek Moore. I thought about Ephesians, Jaelon Kilgore, who I think is somebody that the lions will have some interest in. But are they gonna take Jocas? Maybe. I don't know. His run defense, it might be a tough sell. And that's where my dream vision of the lions probably differs a little bit from what the lions see in their own future, and that's okay. They're a very good football team. They've drafted well by and large. One thing I didn't wanna do, and I am dreaming that the lions also do this, is to stop being hyperaggressive for an individual project player. I didn't do that in this one. I have a couple of projects. Demings is certainly a project coming from the FCS level coming up. He's a fourth rounder, but he is taken with the pick that they acquired in the David Montgomery trade, along with Juice Scruggs, who weirdly never gets mentioned as a potential, like, guy making the team. Team does not need offensive interior offensive line depth. They've got a lot of it. Having said that, I did still, with one of my six round picks, take take but my sixth round was devoted to my shrine bowl guys. Jagger Burton, Jaden Duggar, line coverage linebacker project, former Georgetown safety at six foot four and two hundred and forty pounds. Those are guys who might not make the team as rookies. You stash them on the practice squad, and they become inexpensive depth for you in 2027 and beyond for the next couple of years. And that if they can make it in, that's even better, but they don't have to make it. Then my last pick, I had fun with oh, you know what? I skipped him over. I did take Adam Randall running back from Clemson, because I do want at least competition slash insurance for Isaiah Pacheco. I love Pacheco. I think he's a fantastic signing, But he's got some injury history, and I never presume that guys with his style are gonna stay healthy because he is much like how I worry very much about Jordan Tyson at the top of the draft at wide receivers, not that the lines are gonna have interest in that, but, like, not just the fact that he's injured a lot, but the fact that he plays, like, freaking balls out every play and doesn't protect himself or know how to protect himself. And Pascheko is the same way as a running back. So I would much rather have a guy that I like in Adam Randall, who used to be a wide receiver at Clemson before he converted a couple seasons ago. He was a now he's a two hundred and thirty eight pound, swing pass catching back who can run actual routes and also return kicks. Like that option. Like that. Like Adam Randall a lot. That's my dream. My dream is not gonna come true. It's okay. I don't expect it to. But I had fun with it. I hope you can have fun with it. Not everything has to be super serious all the time. It's okay to smile a little, laugh a little. If you don't get the musical references in it, that's fine. Good with that. Tried to get away from just being all metal in this one. It's a child of the seventies and eighties. I do have a fairly good breadth of knowledge of music from that era, and we tried to tap into that with some dream puns and lyrics and all that. And, I hope you enjoy it. Again, check it out. The Detroit Lions Dream Draft for 2026. It's at the Detroit Lions Podcast. I am Jeff Riesdon. I am gonna sign out. We are going live Wednesday night, so there will not be a daily tomorrow. If you do see a daily, it means that Chris, and I could not coordinate on time. But we are planning on doing a live show. Tune in for that. It won't be before 06:30, just because I won't be home. So, with that, Jeff Risen signing out. Please be good to

Speaker 6: one another.