The Detroit Lions selecting Ohio State cornerback Jeffrey Okudah is a fairly common projection in contemporary mock drafts. Okudah is universally regarded as the top CB in the 2020 NFL Draft class, and he’s got star potential.
But the Lions taking Okudah at No. 3 over his Buckeyes teammate, EDGE Chase Young? That’s an unprecedented stunner delivered in an unusual mock draft from Pro Football Focus.
In the PFF Analytics mock draft, analysts Eric Eager and George Chahrouri aren’t attempting to forecast what teams will do in April’s draft. Their goal is to analyze what they believe the teams should do, based on PFF analytics and positional value to a team. And for the Detroit Lions, that leads them to conclude Okudah is more valuable in the win column than Young.
Or in their own words,
A lot of Lions fans want to see Chase Young here. However, Matt Patricia (and Bill Belichick) simply don’t value edge as much as they do secondary players, and with Darius Slay wanting a trade, Justin Coleman struggling during the second half of 2019 and Quandre Diggs already out the door via trade to Seattle, it’s high time for the Lions to rebuild on the back end. Okudah is an excellent prospect as a press-man corner, which should allow the Lions to rush more players than they did in 2019.
It’s an interesting and unexpected twist. With QBs Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa going 1-2, having the Lions select Okudah over Young is a provocative idea. It doesn’t seem likely to happen, but that’s not the point of this interesting PFF mock.
