If you’ve been reading along with our coverage of the Detroit Lions through the draft process, you know there’s been a lot of talk about the possibility of the Lions trading down in the 2024 NFL draft. Lions GM Brad Holmes has brought it up multiple times already. The Lions could trade out of the first round and find themselves with some extra picks on day two.
You also know that I haven’t been the biggest proponent of trading up unless you felt there was player you couldn’t miss out on and you felt that the team was in a place where they could contend immediately. The Lions might be in that place right now.
On Wednesday the Lions hosted the top corner in the NFL draft when they brought in Alabama’s Terrion Arnold for a top-30 visit. Arnold is expected to be out of the Lions reach with the 29th pick, but he could be had if the Lions were to trade up.
This isn’t the first time the Lions have looked at Arnold by the way. Lions GM Brad Holmes attended the Alabama pro day and, as far as we know, that’s the only pro day that he attended this year.
How far would the Lions have to move up and are they willing to move off some picks to do it? It would not be the first time the Lions have traded up. They made moves to get Jameson Williams in first-round in 2022 and they’ve traded up in the later round multiple times in every draft.
Right now Arnold is slated to go somewhere between 11-20. Most mocks I’ve seen have him going at 15 to the Colts. If the Lions wanted to move up from 29 to get him, it’s going to cost quite a bit. Something like the 29th pick, 61st pick and next years first or second round pick would get it done.
If you’re the Lions, you make that move if you feel that Arnold is the guy that can truly improve your football team right away and you feel that you’re a Super Bowl team with him instead of without him.
If the Lions don’t feel that they can’t live without Arnold, they can take a shot at his teammate Kool-Aid McKinstry with the 29th pick. The Lions have also shown a ton of interest in him as well.
I’m a big proponent of going to get your guy if you like him enough as long as it’s done the right way and in the right context. If Arnold is their guy and they fell they can win it all, that’s the right context to go get him. This years draft could be Detroit’s most interesting one yet.