B+
Detroit Lions
The Lions cashed the board's mistake on McCoy: B+.
by SunDGod ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 13 picks
· 13 steals
· 0 reaches
You build a draft on nights like this. Jermod McCoy had no business being available in No. 222, and the Lions did the only sane thing and turned in the card. The bottom line is a respectable B+.
The phones were where this weekend was really won. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped running back, which is a strange place to end up.
Cornerback is handled and the depth chart looks a good deal healthier for it.
Not a headline-grabber, but a perfectly good weekend's work.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 18 they get a quarterback's worst nightmare, outstanding value to boot. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
They robbed the room for Spencer Fano here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
You do not let an offensive lineman like Jake Slaughter reach the 82nd pick and blink. They did not. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
A cornerback of that caliber at Round 3, Pick 23 is the definition of value, full stop. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Jordyn Tyson in the Round 3 slot should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Kenyon Sadiq at No. 94 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
A top-tier interior defensive lineman at a bargain, Kayden McDonald in the 118th overall pick, plain and simple. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
Steal is underselling it; Sonny Styles at pick 130 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. The roster fit checks out.
The board fumbled Dillon Thieneman all the way to the Round 4 slot, and they scooped it up. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They will replay Cashius Howell at pick 139 for years; that is how good the value is. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Taking Jermod McCoy in Round 7, Pick 6 is close to grand larceny; a cornerback that good had no business lasting this long. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Somehow Chase Bisontis was still sitting there in pick No. 227, and they pounced on premier offensive lineman value. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Cole Payton in slot 238 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.