PALM BEACH, Fla. — The NFL draft is a little more than four weeks away, but the Detroit Lions have already “had dialogue” about trading the No. 2 pick.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes acknowledged Tuesday he was open to dealing the pick, though he said talks so far have been minimal and in line with what he experienced with the No. 7 pick last spring.
“I would say right now it’s still relatively early for those discussions, but I would expect for it to heat up, especially with the pick that we have this year,” Holmes said. “Because it definitely heated up, even with us at seven last year. So I expect to have more dialogue.”
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The Lions hold three of the first 34 picks in April’s draft and could be looking to move down to accumulate more draft capital in future seasons.
The rub: There has to be a team willing to move up, and that could be hard to find with no consensus top prospect teams are fawning over.
Liberty’s Malik Willis and Pitt’s Kenny Pickett are this year’s top quarterback prospects, but neither is considered the caliber of recent top picks Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow.
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A more likely trade-up candidate could be one of the draft’s top two offensive linemen, Alabama’s Evan Neal or North Carolina State’s Ikem Ekwonu, if the Jacksonville Jaguars take the other tackle with the No. 1 overall pick.
Holmes said he would be willing to make a deal now, far in advance of the draft, similar to what the Miami Dolphins and Tennessee Titans did last year and in 2016, respectively.
The Dolphins traded the No. 3 pick in last year’s draft to the San Francisco 49ers in late March, while the Titans traded the No. 1 pick in 2016 to the then-St. Louis Rams in early April. Both the 49ers and Rams moved up to take quarterbacks.
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Holmes was the Rams’ director of college scouting at the time of their 2016 trade, and the Rams ended up selecting Jared Goff at No. 1.
“I think definitely we could pull that trade off, if the other team is willing, before the draft,” Holmes said. “I think this time last year, it was about a couple of teams, in terms of dialogue that we had with teams. But it does increase as time goes.”
Option trading
Holmes said the Lions will execute the fifth-year option on T.J. Hockenson’s rookie contract if they are unable to strike a long-term deal with the tight end in the coming weeks.
The No. 8 pick of the 2019 draft, Hockenson has been an important part of the Lions’ offense the past three seasons. Last year, he had 61 catches for 583 yards and four touchdowns, but missed the final five games of the season with an elbow injury.
“He’s a big part of what we did last year,” Holmes said. “It was unfortunate when he became unavailable for us. He’s another one that we’ll be continuing to lean on this year.”
Along with Hockenson, Holmes said the Lions have had internal discussions about signing cornerback Amani Oruwariye to a contract extension.
A fifth-round pick in 2019, Oruwariye led the Lions with a career-high six interceptions last season.
Holmes declined to say how far along contract discussions are with both players currently.
“Obviously, with Amani, with the ball production that he had, and just being a good teammate — he’s really developed as a leader — he’s going to be another one,” Holmes said. “He’s still a young guy, as often said sometimes, still has meat left on the bone. There’s still upside in him. Yeah, those guys will be important discussions that we’ll have to have for the future. But those guys are productive players for us and I’m excited about them this year.”
Briefly
Holmes said the door remains open for the Lions to sign pass rusher Arden Key, who took a free agent visit to the Lions last week.
“We’ll just see where it goes,” Holmes said. “We haven’t totally closed the door on that. I’ll say, just with free agency in general, we’re not done. You always want to get it all done that first week, the big headlines, but there’s still some guys out there that we can add still that can help our football team.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.