Detroit's Top-Heavy 2022 NFL Draft Haul
The Lions walked out of the Draft with two potential foundational building blocks.
The Jacksonville Jaguars’ selection (for better or for worse) of defensive Travor Walker led to the Aidan Hutchinson from the University of Michigan falling into the proverbial laps of the Detroit Lions. You can't blame the team and its fans for their excitement about this, considering Hutchinson-to-Jacksonville seemed like a lock for so much of the pre-Draft process. Except now, it's the Lions who might be getting the guy who everyone thought was the #1 overall prospect in this Draft class.
If nothing else, the All-American defensive end (and Michigan) native might've been the safest, highest-floor player in the entire Draft. I don't think he's in the same tier of guys like the Bosa brothers (Joey and Nick) or Chase Young, in terms of his pro-readiness and potential ceiling. But Hutchinson will be the type of player who'll get six to eight sacks every year, at minimum, just by his hustle and relentlessness alone. If that number seems underwhelming to you, don't forget the fact that not a single player on the 2021 Detroit Lions registered more than 7.5 sacks.
The Lions followed up their home run pick at #2 by taking another massive swing, trading a hefty cache of picks to move up from #32 overall to #12 overall, to pick wide receiver Jameson Williams from the University of Alabama. Plenty of people (present company included) thought that Williams might've been the best receiver in this class, even after suffering the torn ACL injury this past January. His combination of elite top-end speed, ridiculous acceleration off the line, strong hands, and expansive catch radius is downright terrifying, if paired with the right quarterback to take advantage of all of that (if you're a bit dubious about Jared Goff being that guy, you would be correct).
Yes, there's a very high likelihood of Williams missing a significant portion of the 2022 season, as he continues to recover from that injury. That probably scared off at least a handful of teams under pressure to accumulate wins this year. But the Lions are just the type of team who can afford to take such a gamble... even if it meant a somewhat drastic overpay in making the trade up (Minnesota effectively squeezed the additional additional value of a late third round pick out of Detroit, if you go by the draft pick value chart).
Williams' addition to the offense -- whenever it happens -- is particularly intriguing, given the cast of skill position players he's joining. Amon-Ra St. Brown quietly finished with 90 catches for 912 yards and 5 touchdowns last year. DJ Chark isn't that far removed from being a thousand-yard receiver. Detroit clearly thought enough of both Josh Reynolds and Kalif Raymond to hand them both contract extensions this offseason. T.J. Hockenson finished in the top 10 in receptions by tight ends last year, despite not playing in the final five games of the season. Running back D'Andre Swift led the team in rushing yards and finished second in catches, accumulating 1,069 yards from scrimmage -- in only 13 games. And Detroit's staff, for better or for worse, uses running back Jamaal Williams to ensure the team doesn't overload Swift's workload (memo to the Lions' coaching staff: seriously, #FreeDAndreSwift).
However, Hutchinson's supporting cast on defense still needs quite a bit of help (and that's putting it politely), and Detroit still has a glaring question regarding their quarterback of their present, and their future (Jared Goff's $30.65M salary cap number in 2023, and $20M in cap savings if they move on from him, is not being talked about enough).
That's why the Lions are still likely to finish with somewhere between five and eight wins this year; the Vegas sportsbooks currently have their over/under at six wins.
Point being, this team is better oriented to compete next year -- as in 2023. Hutchinson and Williams are two excellent building blocks to further develop for when this team is ready to make that competitive leap, at that time. ■