B+
Detroit Lions
Klein should have been long gone. The Lions pounced, and earned a B+.
by SunDGod ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 7 picks
· 7 steals
· 0 reaches
The board owed the Lions one, and it paid up: Marlin Klein, the No. 158 name on the board, sitting there at the 181st pick like a gift left on the doorstep.
A whole weekend of picks and edge rusher is somehow still a want. The trade work was a quiet net positive. Job largely done: cornerback settled and 5 of 9 of the wish list covered.
Luke Haggard gives the group a proven body among the projects.
All told, a solid class that does its job everywhere but edge rusher.
Pick-by-Pick
In the 17th overall pick they get a coverage-and-run second-level piece, and a steal at that.
Good things come to war rooms that wait, and Emmanuel Pregnon at the Round 2 slot is the proof. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Circle this one: Christen Miller at pick 77 is a fall that decides a draft. A minor itch, scratched.
Malik Muhammad in No. 118 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Value with a capital V on Kage Casey in Round 5, Pick 28, a genuine coup. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
They robbed the room for Marlin Klein here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
They read the board right and Cole Payton was the payoff at slot 213. It fills a real need, too.