The Detroit Lions overhauled their secondary in free agency, and they appear to be making plans to address the rest of their defense in this month’s NFL draft.
The Lions already have pre-draft visits scheduled or completed with top defensive line prospects Jalen Carter and Will Anderson Jr., and one of the draft’s best linebacker prospects, Arkansas’ Drew Sanders, told the Free Press on Thursday he has a top-30 visit scheduled with the Lions next week.
“I’ve met with them at the combine and I have my 30 visit with them coming up (next Thursday), so I’m pretty excited for that,” Sanders said. “But love the coaches there so far and I’m excited to get to know them a little bit more.”
Sanders is considered a top-50 NFL draft prospects and potential first-round pick.
He spent two seasons as a backup at Alabama before transferring to Arkansas last fall, where he led the Razorbacks with 103 tackles, finished second in the SEC with 9.5 sacks and earned first-team All-American honors.
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An outside linebacker at Alabama, Sanders moved to inside linebacker at Arkansas but still had a big presence as a pass rusher.
The Lions added three new starting defensive backs in free agency, Cam Sutton, Emmanuel Moseley and C.J. Gardner-Johnson, but return their entire front seven from a defense that allowed the most yards in the NFL last season.
Middle linebacker Alex Anzalone signed a three-year deal to stay in Detroit after a career-high 125-tackle season, and young linebackers Malcolm Rodriguez and Derrick Barnes are entering their second and third NFL seasons, respectively.
Sanders, who is vying with Clemson’s Trenton Simpson and Iowa’s Jack Campbell to be the first off-ball linebacker drafted, said he got the sense Lions coach Dan Campbell is “a coach that you’d be able to run through a wall for” during his formal combine interview with the Lions, though that meeting focused exclusively on football.
“Honestly, right when I went into the room it was straight Xs and Os,” he said. “We didn’t get too much time to talk about (personal) stuff, but I imagine this week it’ll be a little bit more of that.”
Sanders said he doesn’t know much about how the Lions would use him on defense yet.
“But I feel like I’d fit in well in any place,” he said. “I’d be excited to go play for a coach like you’ve got there and get after it.”
Pre-draft visit tracker (confirmed or reported):
QB Adrian Martinez, Kansas State; OG Chandler Zavala, NC State; OG Antonio Mafi, UCLA; OG O’Cyrus Torrence, Florida; OG Steve Avila, TCU; DT Jalen Carter, Georgia; Edge Will Anderson, Alabama; DL Karl Brooks, Bowling Green; LB Drew Sanders, Arkansas; DB Brian Branch, Alabama.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.