Detroit Lions Podcast: Jeff Risdon's First Look at the 2025 Draft
The Detroit Lions may be having their most successful season of all time, but the 2025 draft is still on the way. Remember when it was said that the NFL Draft was he Lions Superbowl? This regime has definitely changed that for Lions fans.
So what are the Detroit Lions needs this year? Where are they likely to be drafting when we get to the 2025 draft? What kind of players will be available that late in the draft? Jeff keeps his finger on the pulse of the draft all year and now he's taking that finger and giving it to you.
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Join us every day for your Daily DLP for the latest, most relevant Detroit Lions news, rumors, analysis, and information, right here at Detroit Lions Podcast.
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The show where Kool-Aid runs blue, faces turn red, and rose-colored glasses never go out of style. This is the Detroit Lions Podcast. Hey everyone, this is Jeffers and from the Detroit Lions podcast in Lionswire. And in my earlier solo show this week, I promised that I would have something draft-related for you. Well, here it is. We've got few names here that should be under consideration for early contenders to be the Lions' first pick in the 2025 NFL draft. I've got about eight to ten names written down here. All right, let's go through them. And these are in no real order in terms of likelihood for lion's-ness or my personal ranking, although I will weigh in on like the most. Back to lead with him, though. We'll start with just a basic overview. Are there positions that you can rule out? I don't think they're taking quarterback. I don't think they're taking running back. I don't think they're taking tight end. Everything else? Off-ball linebackers can be a tough sell. It would have to be an exceptional guy. I don't see an exceptional guy in this class. We'll see. They surprised us with Jack Campbell back in the day. Oh, we'll see. I think they think they're better than some fans think they do. We'll see. So I'm not hitting those positions, primarily focusing on the trenches here. I do have a cornerback, and I do have a wide receiver or two on the list as well. But let's go through them. Sort off with one of the guys that I'm when I watched them, and I've watched them play a few times, was like, "Oh crap, this guy sure looks like what the lions like at Edge," and that's Landon Jackson from Arkansas. He's big. He's six, seven to 70-ish, just plays power to speed, can do a little bit of speed to power. But this is a guy who is an edge-setter who fits the Marcus Davenport, crushed the can type of pass rusher on the outside of the lions, really seemed to favor in Eric Glenn's defense. Now, I wish for this. If A.G. and or Ben Johnson leaves, there could be scheme changes. There could be, you know, what they're looking for is different. But I'm going right now on the premise of building this current team in the same model. So, and Landon Jackson certainly fits that. He is a guy who's got a lot of a lot of experience playing. He can go over either shoulder of an offensive tackle. Like I said, he sets the edge pretty nicely against the run. I have some concerns about his twitch. He's not the twitchiest athlete. He's not the most live guy in space. He's not a guy who's going to like bend the corner all that well. But that's not something that the lions are showing that they really want all that much from a base and he's got some ability there. So, he's he's certainly one to know. Next on the list is a guy. So, and I had this in too. There's going to be some guys that I don't list. And that's because I think they're going to be gone. James Pierce from Tennessee is one of those guys. Nick Scarden from Texas A&M is another one of those guys. But his teammate, Shamar Stewart, is my personal favorite right at the moment. And again, this is this is November. It's not Thanksgiving yet. So, it's really early on the draft stuff. I get that. But guys who fit what the lions look for, Shamar Stewart is absolutely that guy. He's six foot six. I want to say 290 pounds. He docked up a little bit this year. And this is a guy with a former five star recruit who didn't really play all that well until this year. And he has added some weight and he's played more on the outside and which is a weird combination I get and has blossomed. This is the guy that the lions wanted Levi Ansarike to become and Levi has played very well throughout all of his injuries, has emerged as a very quality versatile defensive front guy. We'll see if they bring him back. But even if they do, there's room for another guy like that. And Stewart is higher end. He has really played very well this this year. Can play don't can reduce down inside, play your B gap. But he's really good in a in a four man front playing as a again, a crush the can type of edge, who's got explosive power and interesting speed. He's still learning how to play the run. He doesn't always had don't know he's the best eyes yet. But this is a guy arrow pointing way up. This is a guy who entered the season, not on a lot of people's top 100s. And now you're going to see him and a lot of mock drafts in the 25 to 35 overall range. And that's where the lines are going to make their verse pick. By the way, you will notice I can say first round I said first pick get a lead to open the possibility for a trade when you're picking 29 to 32, which is where I expect the lines to be picking. Hopefully 32 fingers crossed. Looking for that right now anyways. There's always the chance for a trade. And Brad Holmes has shown that he will trade. That's one of the things we like about Brad Holmes is that he's not wedded to a position or a draft slot. So could be Stuart could be number 29. He could be number 37. I do kind of think that the lines will pick somewhere in that range regardless of where they went up getting slotted. But you know, that's that's neither here nor there. Again, it's really early. Just throwing out ideas of players that if you're watching college football and you're starting to get an edge for like, Hmm, who could the lines be drafting? You know, usually by this time of the year, you know, on knee deep and mock drafts and prospects and wondering who the lines are going to get. Well, it's hard to break those habits for a lot of things. I can get that so for you. Putting on the draft wire hat today and cross pollinating with the lines wire. But yeah, Landon Jackson, Shamar Stewart, a couple of SEC power ends. Then we'll go to the next one. Even another one, L.T. Overton from Alabama. Another big guy, 200 to 85, 290 pound range. We're going to see where he winds up measuring and testing. But he's a guy who plays on the edge. He can primarily play inside though. And again, another Levi Anzureke, John Kaminsky type of player. You know, big, powerful, physical. Has shown me some things that I'm not sure that I thought he could do. He was the guy that I wasn't all super high on. I've watched their last couple of games. I'm like, there's something there. Goes to Alabama. We know Brad Holmes loves Alabama guys can't, can't rule that out. So he's another guy to know. L.T. Overton. Big guy. Another guy like Stewart, where the arrow is pointing up. I might not see him in many mock drafts at the moment. But when has that stopped Brad Holmes before? We'd love it for that. By the way, that's good. And I'll just say this as a draft analyst, somebody does, this will be my 22nd year professionally covering the NFL draft. I love it when teams are unpredictable and throw in variables and take really good football players instead of being wedded to, Oh my God. You know, we so desperately need an offensive stack. I'm just using this hypothetically. I've got a draft of offensive tackle no matter what, or you know, if you're in the top 10. And you're like, Oh, we got to get our quarterback. Well, none of these quarterbacks are good, but I got to take one anyways. That's how you wind up with Daniel Jones, folks. I don't think Brad Holmes is doing that. Thank God. Daniel Jones, by the way, the number four quarterback on the New York Giants right now as the number five overall pick in a recent draft. That's how you stay bad. We don't want that. So I love it when Brad Holmes does these things. Take really good football players that fit your team and fit your culture. We don't have that problem in Detroit. We know we know that we used to have that problem in Detroit. That's beyond that. Thank God. 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I love his ability to finish. He can he's very good on stunts, twists, gimmicks, whatever you want to call them. He's got some some refined pass rush moves on the outside. Doesn't have a tremendous amount of production. But uh you know this is this is a good football player and he fits the role that the Lions need. This is probably higher than he will wind up being drafted. We'll see. I don't know he he he strikes me as kind of a prospect that's uh I'm gonna add us rake straw at this time last year. Well actually at this time last year he was not getting first round buzz. Uh and then and that's like around Christmas time all of a sudden it's like oh and this ring show is going first round like the draft media all followed and went on that and he wound up going to the Lions in the 50s and uh you know I have a feeling that the Gelate might ride that same sort of rollercoaster where like right now he's seen as a guy that's generally projected in uh 35 to 55 range and you're gonna see him perk up into some mock drafts because he probably will test pretty well and people are gonna be like oh Louisville yeah their defense wasn't very well coached at that's true uh and and he'll get some love and then he'll settle back in and I think this is higher end. I think he's a guy that especially if the Lions trade back a little bit uh he he's much more in contention that he would be if they're picking god forbid they lose on the the NFC divisional round but that put those negative parts away wait no uh but hit but he's got a he's player I like uh and I like him more than a lot of draft analysts do at least at this point so uh he's named no uh let's go let's get to the bigger guys defensive tackle like a couple of Ohio State guys on this list uh I do have a Michigan guy too so let let's let's sandwich um because one of them plays off on some light as well let's sandwich the Michigan guy it's not Mason Graham he's gonna be long gone he's a top 15 pick uh could be a top 10 pick uh and it is a worthy one uh we'll start with Tyleke Williams guy who for for Ohio State interior line look is this a massive need on the team hopefully not but you can never have too many of these guys and with the the injury attrition wars that we've had oh hey this this is a player who I like a lot he is a penetrating be gap three tech four i whatever you want to align him in really active player on the inside great hands violent hands no side of finish knows how to work in conjunction with a gala cash and jalotte who can you know loop in um really really good football player and look I know there's people that are like I'll be playing for Ohio State like yeah Tyledecker did too pretty damn good football player you're gonna have to get over that I say this a lot and I I sincerely mean it you cannot scout the helmet and you can't root against a guy just because of where he played in college look I might have done that with Ben Roffelsberger as an Ohio bobcat rooting against Miami I won't even say their their team name because I don't like it but you you can play you proved it you got it you got to get over that folks you just if you're if you're a Spartan fan you got to accept the fact that there's good players that go to Michigan if you're in Michigan if any you got to accept that there's good players that go to Ohio State and Michigan State and Notre Dame like and end of round um it gets you uh the Michigan player Kenneth Grant Kenneth Grant is a massive guy and I've seen them live twice I was at the USC in Oregon games and he's he's functional beef man he with the thing that I love about him he gets his hands up in the passing ways so innately well that's a skill not necessarily the best pass rusher on the inside but look I think he can play very well next to Ali McNeil and help facilitate things for for 54 um much in the way that the grant does for Mason Graham at Michigan not that's not saying that Graham is not a great pass rusher in his own right I think Grant does a lot of the little things inside that help all the players around him get better and that is something that's very lion culture uh I'm not if he's gonna I don't honestly I don't have a great feel for what the NFL is gonna think of him uh Kenneth Grant I can see the NFL liking him in the 20s but I could also see him you know falling a ways into the 40s but uh if there's a middle round the lions are in that middle ground and they should be interested in a player like him uh let's get to the other Ohio State player you know the other go go to the other side of the ball easy for me to say I actually have two Buckeye offensive linemen here so I'll just throw them together the uh Josh Simmons left tackle the lions need tackles I'm not gonna say that well this is this is complicated because they drafted Giovanni Manu with their third round pick in 2025 already and we don't know what his developmental arc is going to look like there's certainly optimism with his athleticism and his build like yeah you understand why they drafted and heaven I'm pretty good authority that he wasn't going to last to their next pick like they needed a trade to get him but where's yeah I don't know it doesn't feel like the Colerys called Colby Soresville project is working all that well he had like one really good week at camp and then yeah not so good um I don't approve of the way that they moved him from college tackle in the guard last year like it didn't work so they moved him back to tackles but there's just been a lot on his plate but uh I do think if there's room okay you can never have too many offensive tackles there's room for it Simmons is currently hurt he's probably a top 20 talent got an injury history hmm who takes those guys stakes those guys he loves those guys good player too um fits the the the gap duo scheme with very well not necessarily a zone guy you know the lines have run a little bit more zone blocking this year Simmons can do that but uh I like him I like him more uh in the power big role opposite and he's a natural left tackle and with Penne being the best right tackle in the game again what there are debates that will be had endlessly of how the Taylor Decker succession plan and by the way we're not pushing Taylor Decker out if he wants to keep playing please do I think we saw how good he is by his absence in a recent camp please get it off me please stay there Taylor not not trying to push Taylor Decker out the door at all because he's still a very good left tackle he's one of the 10 best left tackles in football I'm absolutely put my name on that but you got to have some depth and uh a guy who can also play inside makes a lot of sets and they do need guards again sorestole didn't didn't work didn't work at guard cayota al shika I think we've seen what he is he's a functional backup pretty pretty good functional backup beyond that you know who knows again with with with where monu winds up he could be inside it could be outside um this summer he played tackle not particularly well the potentials there but there's room for more offensive life I think we all agree on that is it time to reimagine your future the right business skills may make a difference in your career at Capelli University we 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of their games because they're always on tv they're really good team uh and one of the reasons they're really good is because they have a devotion to building their lines up that's something that ryan day has recruited very well it's similar to the way that michigan you know when they won their national title their lines were incredible and a lot of those guys won up in the NFL take good players from good teams with familiar schemes best Donovan Jackson might be the best duo guard in the league in in this draft class really impressive he moves well for his size he is a very good jonah jackson replacement a year later not again nothing against cabins lightler who's been fantastic as right guard i he's one of the five best right guards in football right now he could be next year too but he's he's thirty ageish uh i told him it was an age for i know he's old but he's been around a long time he's on a one-year contract he can't guarantee that he's going to come back um by the way that for those of you we're not familiar with wow i handle rosters um when i look at a roster right now and i see that somebody's going to be a free agent i assume they will not be back i that that's that's my mindset that's how i approach it so right now the lions have a massive hole at right guard maybe christian mahogany can feel it i'd be great i loved him in the last draft uh he was a top 50 player for me they got him in the sixth round haven't seen what he can do yet i'm very very optimistic at christian mahogany but we'll we'll see we'll see where that where that winds off shouldn't his presence on the roster should not preclude the lions from also addressing that position is the way i will stay there i wanted to get one or two others uh and these are wide receivers uh people are going to laugh at me when i say the first name here because they think he's going to be long gone and that's tat mcmillan from arizona i'll just say i don't think he's going to test well and uh there's a growing and i'm not sure honestly i'm not sure he fits the lion's offense in the way that i think a lot of people expect to he's kind of tim patrick now tim patrick is certainly welcome to come back he's he's been very good uh blocks well and i think that's something that that you can hang his hat on but this is a guy who's hurt all the time it would be nice to get in somebody like that look i see tat mcmillan i saw him in a mock draft this week number two overall i have a very hard time fathoming that he's going to go that high he is more in the drake london type of receiver where he's probably a number two in the nfl playing off of a really good number one lions have a really good number one and i'm across st. brown they happen to have the the vertical field stretcher and james and williams a guy like tat mcmillan if he falls into the 20ish range you can see the lions made me trade up and the man that they did to get terry and aarled it was a guy who i thought was a top 15 brass bank started to fall a little bit like oh let's go get him i can see that happening with tat mcmillan um who's very impressive receiver but again not super twitchy and he's in that sort of in-between size and he's not going to run all that well i think he's a four five five guy we'll see it's it's a name to consider and uh look i know he's i covered that the other guy that i'm looking at is elik ayo manor from stanford i like him i don't know if he's going to come out he's got eligibility left he's got transfer ability i'll say this dude if you stay in college don't stay at stanford please that that is a terrible offense and he is their office uh he has i want to say he's got 70 percent of their wide receiver catches if not more this year well he's a big guy he gets open well he's very good at contested catches which is where i see you think jennifer throw contested catches then jennifer doesn't scheme contested catches well then johnson might not see hey this one has talent he's he's a he's a player that i like more than most people do but again we'll see if he winds up coming out but that that's another name to know you know what enjoy some college football it's coming up uh as i record this on uh friday morning i'm looking forward to look i already got my maxion this week heaten up my life bobcat speak teleto no real uh bobcat prospects unfortunately it's really not in the first round anyways uh if you're if you are in the maxion they'll herald fan and junior tight end bowling green both the lines lines don't need a tight end he's very redundant with what sam will have ordered those but dude can freakin play i love him a lot i hope that he winds up in the top 50 where he belongs but again he's like he's not blindsided for draft content please check out my stuff add draft wire um kirk hope joy who's a stealers guy and i run it we have a lot of stuff coming um we have just shifted really into like okay it's time to start ranking these people time to start evaluating more and more players most of my free time when i'm not doing lion's stuff is spent watching draft prospects are writing reports and greeting and so forth so uh look i know i know lion's fans are not with the draft right now it's good it's a happy change but if you get the itch we can scratch it for you with that you know what guys enjoy your weekend let's enjoy the lions going to indianapolis the colts by the way are wearing uniforms that are eerily similar they call in their indy nights uh it might look familiar to the lions new black uniforms at home they're pretty cool looks like we'll be in the all-whites let's let's sweep this afc south which i think is the worst division of football let's go get it make it happen uh be loud and proud if you're going down to indy it's a great road trip talk about that earlier um i've talked about on the huge show this week by the way thanks bill for having me in again um wonderful relationship that we're getting with the huge show in the cross-pollination i can't thank you guys enough for listening uh so with that have a good weekend and go lions let's bring it here again you've had enough of that shit
Detroit Lions Podcast: Jeff Risdon's First Look at the 2025 Draft
The Detroit Lions may be having their most successful season of all time, but the 2025 draft is still on the way. Remember when it was said that the NFL Draft was he Lions Superbowl? This regime has definitely changed that for Lions fans.
So what are the Detroit Lions needs this year? Where are they likely to be drafting when we get to the 2025 draft? What kind of players will be available that late in the draft? Jeff keeps his finger on the pulse of the draft all year and now he's taking that finger and giving it to you.
Detroit Lions Podcast Daily Lions Coverage
Join us every day for your Daily DLP for the latest, most relevant Detroit Lions news, rumors, analysis, and information, right here at Detroit Lions Podcast.
https://youtu.be/ehIcxLL0LjY
Let us know what you think about the show by commenting in the podcast thread in the subreddit, or by leaving us a voice mail message via Skype at: Detroit Lions Podcast Your input will help make the show better, and if you leave us a message on Skype, you just might be featured in an upcoming podcast! You can also give us a call at (929) 33-Lions.
Get yourself a Classic Detroit t-shirt here!
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#lions #detroitlions #detroitlionspodcast #all grit #onepride #playoffs #nflplayoffs #nfl #tampa #tampabay #bucs #buccaneers #tampabaybuccaneers #offense #defense
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