Detroit Lions: A Pro Football Focus perfect 2021 mock draft 1.0
By Bob Heyrman
As the offseason is well underway for the Detroit Lions, we will start our 2021 mock draft series.
The organization recently hired Brad Holmes to succeed Bob Quinn as the teams’ general manager (GM) and Dan Campbell replaces Matt Patricia as the next head coach of the Detroit Lions.
That was the beginning of Detroit’s offseason since they’ve hired a host of new faces throughout the organization headlined by Aaron Glenn to run the defense and Anthony Lynn to be the Lions’ offensive coordinator.
Just when you thought things would start to settle down, they did not. The Detroit Lions traded their franchise quarterback Matthew Stafford to the L.A. Rams for Jared Goff, a pair of future first-round picks and a third-round pick in the upcoming 2021 NFL Draft.
It’s already been the most exciting offseason in the Lions’ history, and the Super Bowl has yet to be played. Things will quiet down some now, so let’s turn up the temperature and get into things.
It may be a bit early to start these Detroit Lions mock drafts, but there are exciting to read, and to put it bluntly, what else do we have to look forward to?
In this series, I will use Pro Football Focus’ (PFF) draft simulator to conduct my first Detroit Lions ‘perfect’ draft of 2021. Once you open the draft simulator, you have a couple of options to choose from before you start drafting.
Your overall grade will depend on ‘draft for positional need’ and ‘care for positional value’ if you so choose. I’ve decided to leave these around 50% for this exercise. I do believe positional need and value should play a role in any draft.
In this version, I am making a straight draft, no trades. PFF has Detroit’s top two needs being a linebacker and edge rusher.
Here we go, enjoy.