As the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft wrapped up, many Detroit Lions fans (and fans of other teams) were excited because there were a few top prospects that somehow fell to the second round.
One of those players was Notre Dame LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, who most believed would be selected in the top 20 picks in the first round. But what we did not know is that JOK was sliding because of previous health issues.
The Lions had the ninth pick in the second round so chances are that JOK would be off the board but when the pick rolled around, he was still available. But the Lions passed because GM Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell had another player in mind.
That player was DT Levi Onwuzurike out of Washington.
During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Holmes and Campbell talked about how they agreed that Onwuzurike was their guy after a “comical” moment prior to the start of Round 2.
From Sports Illustrated:
After a long first day of the draft, and with Sewell in the fold, Holmes and Campbell went home with Washington DT Levi Onwuzurike still there as a prime target.
But as the two met privately to start Day 2, on that Friday morning, there was another player they never expected to fall out of the first round who was still on the board, and one more they regarded highly, right there with Onwuzurike, also available. So they went through the three and tried to rank them, and asked of the other two, “Should we really go with this player over Levi?” Ultimately, they figured they probably should.
Then, maybe two hours later, they reconvened with some staff in the draft room, and started the same exercise, before Holmes looked over at Campbell and pointed at Onwuzurike’s name on the board. Campbell just started laughing.
“It was so cool how both of us kind of changed course and both of us thought about it after we left my office and kind of got back to the same guy without us even talking about it,” Holmes said. “And us being on the same page, like all those kinds of things, just go back to how the relationship’s built even stronger.”
“He’s actually right,” Campbell added. “I mean, it was comical. In a good way. Because literally, I knew, right when he started pointing, I had already been thinking about it. So he was already kind of changing his mind, I’m thinking, ‘I’m already there, brother. I see it.’ It was good. It was great. That’s kind of how it’s been.”
Holmes and Campbell are certainly seeing eye-to-eye on things so far. Let’s just hope they are making the right moves!
