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Speaker 1: Hey, everyone. Jeff Risen here with your daily DLP. It is Monday, May 4. May 4 be with you. Gotta throw that on. Sorry. Star Wars kids. It happens. Seriously, though, enjoy it. It's a beautiful day here in West Michigan. It's a beautiful day to talk about the NFL draft grades. Haven't really done this episode yet. Wanted to let them breathe a little bit to see if anybody wanted to alter their grades on the Lions or other NFL teams too. I talked about it right after the draft, and also doing the live show with Chris. I don't do draft grades. Now you will get a draft grade episode from me soon, grading the 2022 draft and the 2023 draft. I like to wait until those first contracts are over before I grade a draft instead of in the immediacy. So you saw that, you know, for Real GM, they have always let me write my favorite pick for each team, and I did that again this year. Always enjoyed doing that one. By the way, my my favorite pick for the lions this year, one of the old Blake Miller, but I wanna keep that me. And, based on the grades that are out there for the the lions in this year's draft class, Feels like most people are pretty happy overall. Little nitpicky with the first couple of picks, but I love them. Look. My take without without grading it. First round, you got a very high floor ready to play NFL starting right tackle in Blake Miller. He's seasoned in a pro style offense. I don't think that gets brought up enough in all the analysis that's out there, you know, from national and also from Lions folks. Clemson runs a pro style offense. Their quarterback, Kade Klubnick, wasn't his biggest fan, but he had his assets. He's played with a tight end lined up right next to him before. That doesn't happen all the time. Using traditional tight ends in an NFL style doesn't happen. Pocket passer. Now Clubbitt could move around some. Most everybody can move around more than Jared Goff. That's probably Goff's base limitation. But you mitigate that limitation by having very good offensive line in front of him, and the Lions, up until last season, have had that. Think they're getting back to it. I think Blake Miller's a big part of that. So I'm I'm excited for Blake Miller. I think he's going to be of excellent, like, spot on replacement for Taylor Decker even though he plays on the other side. Much like Decker, high floor. Now there's gonna be a couple of plays every game where you're like, damn, man. I wish he was better than that. That's that's the difference between picking seventeenth where they got Miller. You know, you go back in time, Deckard was the number 16 pick. Not top 10 guys. Although, couple players that were taken ahead of them were doesn't matter. I like that one. Derek Moore, another high floor player. It felt like they didn't reach on the earlier picks this year nearly as much as they have in the past. I like Derek Moore. I've seen Derek Moore play in person several times. Smart football player. Wasn't particularly well coached in his last season at Michigan or well utilized. And that's another thing where I think, you know, in being around and watching them a lot and knowing the Michigan program, it felt like he'd have a spectacular play, and then he'd sit for the next series and a half. It it it was just weird usage. Wasn't wasn't a huge fan of of how Michigan used him. He's a little bit smaller than what they're used to there, but that that's fine. I think he's going to alternate in with DJ Wonnum, who is a power based not necessarily a huge pass rush threat. I think more is more of I said that right. More is more of a pass rush threat. Still gonna be looking for more juice on the there's always gonna be fans and media, and I'm I'm not immune to that either, who want a little bit more sizzle than what Derek Moore offers. But I will encourage folks to watch what he did to Markel Bell, who's a third round pick at the Senior Bowl. Shock and freaking awesome, dude. Instant pressure. That is something that Derek Moore does do well. He wins quickly. He can win off that first move and get pressure right away. It doesn't mean he's gonna always do it, but he has that capability. And I think that's something that we, as Lions fans, have coveted for this defense for some time. Aidan Hutchinson, very, very good at getting pressures and sacks and everything. He doesn't always get them, like, as as rapidly as some of the, you know, incredible top end pass rushers of who of his peerage. You know, he he's gonna take a little bit more time to maybe work around the block or something. Just even a even a quarter of a second. You know, there's a difference between, you know, two point two and two point four. There really is. I mean, Moore can get those two point twos. 2.4 to 2.6, that that that sort of thing. I like that one. And that seems to be a prevailing theme I'm gonna bring up.

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Speaker 1: Rene Buebner does this every year. God bless him. Thank you, Rene. He puts us on Twitter slash x, and he, scans a lot of the top, grades that are out there from a bunch of different sources across the the football blogosphere, Internet sphere. Major players, lesser players that some of you might not have heard of, which is fine. Doesn't mean they're wrong. Doesn't doesn't invalidate them. And he creates a cumulative GPA just like you had in high school, and the lions did fairly well. I gotta blow this up so I can see it. Why is it right there at number 16? Sixteenth overall. 2.89. It's a solid b plus average. So keeps you eligible to play in college, which is which is good. Couple of a's. There's two a minuses, one from Chad Reuter and one from Vinnie Iyer. I know both of those guys. Good people. Known Chad a long time. In fact, I'm gonna I'm gonna read Chad's assessment here in a minute. But, you go across them, lot of b's, a lot of b's, b pluses. You had a couple here. There's c pluses. Yeah. Get those c pluses for the win. Ryan McCrystal from, Sharp Sports. Ryan Dunleavy, who's a Bills guy, primarily. He's north, Northern New York, Upstate New York. Nobody ever calls it Northern New York, strangely. You know, Rob Rang gave gave a decent grade b plus. Let's look at, the 2.89 here. I wanna bring up comments from the highs and the lows. This one, I think, is the low. This is Pete Prisco from CBS. Pete is a Jacksonville based guy, but he's been a national columnist for a long time. And I will read this for those of you who are listening to the audio only. C. This was the lowest grade the Lions got in in Booger's tracking. I'm sure there's other ones out there, but this is this is who he picks. It's a fairly, representative sampling across the the the world. Best pick. Fifth rounder Keith Abney the second is a tough physical corner who should push for for time in the corner mix as a second year player. Probably need it to be edited. Oh, well. Worst pick. I didn't love the pick of Blake Miller in the first round. He wasn't a player I rated as highly as others. They did need a tackle, so I get the selection. So this is basically Frisco was down, not necessarily on their heavy tackle, but taking Blake Miller instead of and he didn't name them, but just some of the guys that went after them. Monroe Freeling, Caleb Lomu, Max Heenacker. And though that's look. There were a lot of people, not just Pete. There were a lot of people that had all of those guys rated higher than Miller. That that's a fair assessment for a grade, whether you agree with the assessment or not. Like, at least that's based in some reality. I had one more higher. Not gonna lie. I don't think he was a fit for the lions, though. And I talked about that a little bit, during the the the draft and and pre draft stuff. Lohmi was more of a finesse guy and more of a movement based guy. I don't wanna call him a pest protection specialist, but because that's not fair. But he's much more of that where I think Miller is more well rounded. And also, he plays right tackle, and they very clearly wanted to move Penay to the left side, which we've talked about that so much. It's gonna be gonna be good. Yeah. Blake Miller is gonna be a fun replacement over there. The skinny from Pete Briscoe. They badly needed Miller and second round edge Derrick Moore to both be they badly need Miller and second round edge Derrick Moore to both be impact players as rookies. I agree with that. They have issues at both spots. Yes. Keep an eye on sixth round defensive tackle Skyler Gil Howard. He has some pop. I will just tell you, I am reviewing, and I have been watching some Skyler Gil Howard over the last, thirty six or so hours. I will have some written content on him with clips in it, hopefully, Tuesday morning. We'll see. My timeline's a little crazy today, but I get the excitement for there. I also get why he's a six round pick, and, that's gonna come out later. But, I I appreciate Pete. Like, at least look. He's down on the class, but but at least his picks and his rationale for it are based in reality. It's not hating on it. So now I'm gonna go to the top one. This is Chad Reuter from nfl.com. Chad's worked in a lot of places. He basically writes the if you read the nfl.com scouting reports, like, from the combine and everything, Chad is the guy who writes the part at the top, and then, like, Lance Zierlein writes the scouting report part at the bottom. But Chad certainly knows what his scouting is. And he gave them a a b plus I'm sorry, an a minus.

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Speaker 1: Analysis. Miller came out of Clemson as a solid experienced tackle that showed above average athleticism at the NFL scouting combine likely clinching his status as a top 25 pick. He meets Detroit's need for a tackle after Taylor Dexter's Taylor Decker's exit. The Lions sent a fourth round pick to the Jets so they could pair bullish pass rusher more with fellow Wolverine Aidan Hutchinson. Yeah. Also included in the Lions' draft grades is the trade of two third round picks this year to select wide receiver Isaac Tyslaw, in last year's third round. I like that Chad did this. That's a smart way to look at it. Because if you consider Tyslaw as part of the 2026 draft class, which you should, he was used on 2026 draft picks, primarily. He got bonus time last year. Felt that way about when they moved up and they traded the third round pick in 2025 to select Giovanni Manu in 2024. I don't really consider Manu part of the '24 draft class. He's a 20. He still needs to show some stuff, but, like, that's if that helps you ease the burden of Giovanni Manu looking not so promising so far, Try it. Just try it. See if you can. Reuters continues. Detroit needed a linebacker and Roeder's aggressive style will endear him to lions fans. That's Jimmy Riddle with a fourth round pick. The lions traded Damon Montgomery to the Texans for o line Juice Scruggs, a fourth round pick this year and a twenty twenty seven six rounder. They used the fourth to move up for more and replace Montgomery with Isaiah Pacheco in free agency. He's talking about Kendrick Law here. Law is a receiver in a running back's body and should get a look as a returner during training camp. That very much meshes with my assessment that I did in the daily, late last week. I don't really see him playing a lot of receiver anytime soon, but if he can be on special teams, he's he's Dave Phipps' toy this year, basically. Gil Hower is undersized, but stood out on Texas Tech star set of defense before an ankle injury ended this season. He speaks the truth there. I think it's I think those honestly are pretty good assessments of the Lions draft class. You know, you get your high end and your low end. Gets you gets you a a a b plus average, which is, again, b b plus. I think that's where I think most Lions fans have resided based on my interactions with folks over the past week, week and a half. You believe the draft was a week and a half ago? Wow. Anyhow, let's look at the rest of the NFC North. This might brighten your Monday a little bit. The Lions had the best cumulative GPA of any of the NFC North teams, probably deserving too. I say that with as little bias as I can personally. The Bears are next. They are number 20 in the rankings at 2.82. Right behind them, the Green Bay Packers, twenty first at 2.81. Bears got very and and it's interesting when you look at the the the Boomer chart. There are the higher graders, and they tend to be conglomerated to the left. And and they're by the way, they are sorted in the chart based on, the cumulative GPA for all the teams that they give out. Like, Royer gave out a 3.38 3.39 overall. He's the highest grader. You got here to, markets from from sport d e. 2.43. It's almost a full grade letter lower. I don't see any f's on the chart. Green Bay, again, their lowest one was a C minus. Bunch of Bs, a few more Cs than what the Lions got. Green Bay, smattering of A minuses, but, again, a lot of C pluses, B minuses in in the Packer column. And then there's the Vikings. They got one a. Dan Wilkins from the score. I don't know Dan. They got a 2.32. They were twenty ninth. Only the forty niners, Rams, and Jaguars were worse. I'll be straight up. The bottom three, like, if I had to grade, would be my bottom three. Like, no question about it. I I don't get at all what Jacksonville or San Francisco did. I actually like the Rams draft outside of their first one. Taking Ty Simpson in the first round just makes zero sense to me, but time will tell on that. Again, can't say that it's not gonna work just because it hasn't yet, but I didn't like that pick at all. By the way, that pick, them taking Ty Simpson at 13, heed the Lions being able to not have to trade up to get their guy, because they knew that the teams between thirteen and seventeen weren't going to be taking their guy, Blake Miller, which made a lot of sense. So thank you, Les Snead, for doing that. And it's interesting because, you know, Brad Holmes is a disciple of Les Snead. He came up with the Rams organization, cut his scouting teeth there, learned

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Speaker 1: The way to evaluate players for a team in the Rams' eyes. And the Rams have typically issued you know, they are the progenitors of the f them picks strategy. They didn't have a first round pick. After Jared Goff for almost a decade, the next one they took was Jared Vers. Like like, it took a long time. And it helps helps explain a little bit Brad's draft strategy. They they cycled that back this year. Now in the spirit of Isaac Tyslaw being part of that class, let's look at what Isaac Tyslaw was traded for. I have this. Where is it at? Now this is gonna be very difficult for you to read even on the the video portion, if you're watching on YouTube. By the way, thank you for liking and subscribing. 04/25/2025, that was day two last year of the draft. He was the pit the trade wound up giving Andres Boriagres, traded. Alright. In the end, the lions wound up with Isaac Tislaw. Where's it at here? I lost what I'm reading. Okay. Okay. Isaac to slaw. The picks that the lions traded away became Ty Felton, wide receiver for the Vikings who had three catches last year. Might be their return man going forward. I like Ty Felton. Gotta hope. There's promise there. Even though they're still looking at other wide receivers to ostensibly replace him, like, Ty Feldman would have been fine for the Lions. Like, I I'm not gonna dog that now. Albert Regis, who is a nose tackle from Texas a and m, he was the number 81 pick this year. And the other third round pick from the training became Jalen Husky, who is a safety who was probably the best pick the Jaguars made. And that's not saying a lot because he went probably 50 to 100 spots higher than most people projected. I would take Isaac Tyslaw over that combination. And I do say that liking Ty Feldman too. Like, I that that was bullish on him. I wouldn't have minded him in Detroit at all. I think where Tyslaw is at as a very productive red zone target, wide receiver three, blocking wide receiver. I think I'm pretty good with that, honestly. So picks you trade it all the time. That's why it's tough to follow all those trade tentacles. That's fun. I love doing that. I I have, in fact, the one of the most read things I've ever written was I traced down every pick from the Trey Lance trade back in the day of the draft. And, it wound up, turning into there there are there were 27 NFL players involved in that, one in one form or another of the pick being traded and traded and traded. By the way, this year, the most traded pick was traded six times, and the Lions had it for the third to the fourth time. There was once a pick that was traded seven times, and eight times. And the Lions were not involved in either of those, but, one of them was in the Trail Ends deal. So overall, that's where we're at with the grades. Again, I am efforting to get guests from the other NFC North teams on to go over their draft picks and also their impressions of Detroit's draft. Because I do think that's important that you, you know, begin to look outside, enjoy the fresh air. It's a beautiful day here in West Michigan. I'll be at Tulip Time, getting my fat ball for lunch, walking home to earn the fat ball. Yeah. With that, we're gonna call it a show. Jeff Risen, thank you so much for joining us. I'm signing out. Be good to one another, everybody, and may the fourth be with you.