Should the Detroit Lions go Offense Or Defense In The First Round Mock Draft?

Pick At 2 Or Trade Out Of It? Here’s The Best First Round Mocks From A.j. And Paul Of Beyond The Box.

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Paul Rochon: in the mock draft, if we’re going to pick in the first draw, multiple picks in the first round, and we need to not mess this up, whether Aidan Hutchinson’s there or not. I talked about this at length, I do believe that a trade is out there for Taylor Ducker.

At number two, I am taking Evan Neal. I’m doing it. I’m taking Evan Neal who I think is the best player available. Now, if you want to go with the guy whose name, I shall not pronounce from NC State, he’s also a very good tackle, maybe even a guard at the next level. That’s your prerogative.

I love the size in the two way player Evan Neal, is it number two? The fact that I think he is a punishing run blocker and that’s something that Taylor Decker specifically, that I’ve always knocked him on. Even at his best when he wasn’t committing penalties and he was doing a good job protecting the passer, he was not a great two way player.

He did not give us any consistent push in the run game. And that’s something that I think is so important for offensive linemen, to be two way players so that you can truly have a functional offense. I’ve got to go Evan Neal at two, 

A.J Reilly: So you’ve made the trade? 

Paul Rochon: Yes. 

A.J Reilly: Did you gain another first round pick from that then?

Paul Rochon: We did. We gained a mid-first round pick and honest to God, I just had it on my screen and I don’t remember where it was. There’s a lot of tackle needy teams in the NFL. It wasn’t the banquets. It was someone else. I forget who it was. It was in the early twenties.

A.J Reilly: That’s okay. While you’re looking for that, I’ll tell you what I did because, per your request, and when I ran my mock draft, Aiden Hutchinson was not available. So I looked for a trade and the Saints actually offered me a deal for number two.

A.J.’s Mock Draft

And so I took that deal. And what I got from them was their 16th and the 19th picking the first round. So I gained us an extra first round pick, and I also got a second round pick in a future draft for the number two pick, which PFF graded as a B plus transaction. I’m okay with that, because we’ve always said that if we don’t even get the absolute trade chart value for number two, getting something and gaining more capital is good.

So we moved out in my mock, out of the number two pick, to the 16th pick, the 19th pick, and then ended up with the 32nd pick as well. So we had three picks towards the mid to late first round in my mock, which I think is wonderful because here’s what we ended up getting. We ended up getting at 16, Nicolby Dean at 19, I ended up getting safety from Georgia Lewis Cine. Then at 32, I addressed the third level of the defense and got our edge rusher, Arnold Ebiketie, if that’s how you say it, if I mispronounce it, I apologize, but it’s Ebiketie, right? The edge rusher from Penn State. I addressed all three levels of the defense in the first round on day one.

And honestly, I couldn’t be happier about that.

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