Grading the Detroit Lions 2018 draft class way too soon

Tyrell Crosby A

When it comes to the fifth-round of the draft or later, any player selected has only a 25% chance of seeing his fourth year with the team that drafted him. Tyrell Crosby is not like most fifth-round picks. Prior to the draft, most analysts had Crosby as one of the top five offensive tackles in the draft. He was the fourteenth tackle to find a home in the draft.

Crosby earned top-five rankings from Mike Mayock, Lance Zuerlein, Chris Trapasso, Daniel Jeremiah, and Matt Miller. All of them had Crosby as a second or third round pick. To be entirely up front, I had not watched much of Crosby’s tape prior to the draft because I assumed he would come off the board long before the Lions would consider drafting a tackle.

I can not find in the tape a good reason for Crosby’s slide. I would stop short of calling him a plug and play right tackle at the NFL level, but not by much, at least in the passing game. He was voted by the defensive linemen of the PAC-12 as the best blocker in the conference.  That conference contained first-round Oakland Raiders draft pick, Kolton Miller.

He needs to refine pretty much everything about his run blocking. He is an aggressive and willing run blocker, but not a technically proficient one. Crosby needs work, and the Lions new offensive line coach, Jeff Davidson has turned much lesser talents into functional starting linemen. The Lions may have found the steal of the draft in round five.