The Detroit Lions are entering the 2025 NFL Draft with seven picks to use. However, only three of those selections are their own original picks, due to a variety of trades and a third-round compensatory pick.
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One of those trades came all the way back at the 2023 trade deadline, when the Lions sent a 2025 Day 3 pick to the Cleveland Browns for wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones in an effort to bolster their receiving corps amid their first potential playoff berth in seven years.
Detroit ultimately made the playoffs, winning the NFC North with a 12-5 record, while hosting their first playoff game since 1993. They ultimately bowed out in the NFC Championship Game in a close 34-31 game to the San Francisco 49ers, ending an amazing season for the franchise.
While the Lions had a strong year, what was Peoples-Jones’s impact on the NFC Championship team?
Let’s revisit Detroit’s trade for Peoples-Jones and see the return for both sides.
Original trade terms for Donovan Peoples-Jones
Detroit receives: WR Donovan Peoples-Jones
Cleveland receives: 2025 sixth-round pick
What did the Lions do with the pick?
The Browns did not keep the sixth-round pick they received from Detroit, instead moving it in the Cooper trade to get back a third-rounder and a seventh-rounder in next year’s draft.
Buffalo then moved the pick to the Dallas Cowboys along with cornerback Kaiir Elam for a 2025 fifth-round pick and a 2026 seventh-round pick.
The Dallas Cowboys selected Oregon OT Ajani Cornelius with the pick.
How did each team fare from the trade?
Peoples-Jones was the headliner of this trade, as he headed to the Lions midway through the 2023 season to bolster their receiver corps.
In eight games (one start) with Detroit, Peoples-Jones caught just five passes for 58 yards, while playing in only 13 percent of the Lions offensive snaps.
He re-signed with Detroit on a one-year deal last offseason, but was released and joined the Lions practice squad. He did not make an appearance in 2024.
