The Detroit Lions have one of the NFL's most talent-laden rosters, but should still be one of the league's most interesting teams to watch during the offseason.
They have one of the league's best cap situations and some clear needs to address.
With a need on the edge, at cornerback, and potentially on the offensive line, the Lions will need to be busy during free agency to fill all of their needs.
Even if they have a successful run in free agency, they could still need to address one of these needs in the draft and that's exactly what was projected in a new mock draft.
In the latest mock draft for Athlon Sports, Luke Easterling predicted the Lions would use the 28th pick in the NFL Draft to select Texas A&M edge Nic Scourton.
Scourton earned All-SEC First Team honors in 2024, but it was far from his most productive season.
Scourton only accounted for five sacks in his lone season at A&M.
It was a surprising output after his previous season at Purdue. In 2023, he led the Big Ten with 10 sacks.
Like many of the prospects in this year's draft, Scourton's stock is largely based on his potential.
He is an impressive athlete and had some solid production earlier in his college career. He also has plenty of time to continue developing as he won't even turn 21 until the end of August.
The Lions were predicted to add some more SEC talent in the next round of the mock draft.
Their projected second round pick was Ole Miss cornerback Trey Amos. Amos also earned All-SEC honors, but did so with more impressive numbers.
He allowed opposing QBs to complete just 51.6% of their passes when throwing his way and had more interceptions than touchdowns allowed.
Amos feels like a safer pick to balance out the risk of Scourton in round one.
If the Lions can do it, they should probably turn to free agency to find an edge rusher before going after one of the upside picks who will be available late in round one.
If they can't, Scourton's sophomore season is one of the best years out of the edges who should be around at the end of the first and that could make him and Amos an interesting combination to round out the roster.
