Daily DLP: 5 Potential Draft Targets to Avoid - Detroit Lions Podcast

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Hey everyone, Jeffers, in here with your daily DLP, it is Sunday.

We made it this Sunday.

March Madness enters its fourth day.

March 22nd.

Happy spring to all of you.

Welcome to mud season in Michigan.

It's the staying out, getting late, getting light later in the day and staying light

later at night, which I personally like.

We got some things to talk about with the Detroit Lions.

Today I wanted to focus on, I want to do a little draft show, but I want to do it a little

bit different because everybody always talks and wants to know what I would do or what

I think the Lions would do.

There comes a point in time where we have to establish out there what we also don't want

them to do.

There are players who fit with the general theme of the Lions that I just am not as interested

in them taking as I am with other options or as other people might be.

I'll give a couple of examples of this.

Let's go back to the Sambo Port of Draft where it was pretty obvious that the Lions were

going to be taking a tight end that year.

There were a lot of good ones.

One of the guys that I was really against the Lions taking that year was Luke Musgrave.

He had one of the worst senior bulls I've ever seen.

He could not get off a jam and all couldn't make a contested catch.

Really struggled to get himself space in the red zone drill.

I remember Chris and I were in Rust Brothers there too and we were all looking at you like,

why is this guy touted so high?

I'm very glad that the Lions opt for Sambo Porta and Musgrave went to the Packers and thus

far has not done a whole lot and he was a good, perfectly viable prospect.

We'll go back to last year and those of you who have been watching the DLP for a little

bit even though the daily didn't start then, you'll know that I was mortified about this

time last year that the Lions were going to take landed Jackson, the defensive end from

Arkansas, who definitely fits the crush the can style, looks the part but dude just had

no twitch, makes Celtic Falk look super twitchy and I was scared that the Lions were going

to take him and again solid football player, like I think he's going to be okay in the NFL

but I just wanted other options, I wanted the Lions to avoid him.

So I want to put these guys out there on record now and again it's nothing personal with

these dudes, it really isn't and there's a variety of reasons for each one, we'll get

to do them all but there are guys that I would just prefer that the Lions overlook even

though they probably fit what the Lions would look like, I could say I don't want them

to take the first round running make, obviously I'll put Cher on my lows ridiculously good,

number two overall player, but I will start with, and I'll start with the layup, corner

packs your mod McCoy from Tennessee, he is currently the number 20 overall player on

the Detroit Lions podcast, consensus board, big board that updates daily, great tool

that Chris has put out there, please look it up and use it because it's sweet.

McCoy, cornerback from Tennessee, missed the 2025 season with an injury that he suffered

in January of 2025, had opt in not to play even though he was allegedly cleared to come

back, decided they wanted to sit up for his draft stock, okay I'm not going to fault

the guy for that, didn't work out at the combine because he still wasn't right, he's

got a pro day coming up at the end of next week, it leaves the 31st of March, and there

is a little bit of consternation that he might not work out there either, that he still

might not be right.

This is a guy who started 17 games in college across two programs, his 2024 tape at Tennessee

was filthy good.

Legitimately, first round caliber stuff, speed, instincts, power, ability to adjust to

routes, man that injury and that inexperience, I'm going to have to fix on that, and some

of it is the fact that the Lions don't really need a first round corner either, we talked

about this the other day, with Terry Arnold, DJ Reed, now Ruckia sins back, you add Roger

McCurrie and in the slot, Christian Isian can play either spot, slot or outside I thought

I think he's going to be more safety.

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I still like Nick White's side, they potentially already have their top five cornerbacks on

the team already and I'm good with what they've got, like I wouldn't bother me all if

they added somebody, but I would rather it be somebody who I trust can play.

This is a case where he's a good prospect and I think he's going to be a good NFL player,

but I want another team to fight that out or not.

Again, nothing against McCoy, but look, I am always, and people who follow me in the drafts

since I started doing this professionally in 2004 will know this, I'm always more

gun shy than most of my draft media peers on injuries, especially guys that don't come

back from injuries and show that they can do it.

So that's McCoy.

I will also throw a guy that I don't think that Lions have any interest in simply because

they are loaded at White Receiver now, and that's Jordan Tyson from Arizona State who

is, wow, skill wise, he's the best White Receiver in this draft.

But a lot of injury history with him, he's another guy that still isn't working out after

he suffered his injury and the way he plays, he is hell bent, man, he is not going to protect

himself.

That's just not who he is.

So I would, I'm not worried about that one so much with Detroit because I don't think

that they're in the market for a White Receiver, at least before the middle of day three.

We'll see if that holds true.

We'll get the one that's not injury related because again, I am, it's very difficult for

me personally to reconcile the fact that Brad Holmes loves to take risks on injured players

and it's like my biggest repulsion, like I've come to terms with it because in general

Brad has done a very good job in the draft for the most part and his rick straws, Josh

Paschal, Levi Anzarek, like I've had to learn to accept that that's what's going to happen.

This would mean I have to love it.

We've now signed a guy who makes Marcus David Port look healthy to replace Marcus David

Port and I have to reconcile that one too, but this pain in terms of very low risk proposition,

but right now he's edge three, that'll change in the draft, he can be edge six by the end

of the draft for all we know, which would be nice.

Well, he's on a minimum contract, we're good.

I will get to another guy who could very well be in the Lions plans to be their edge number

two, and I like this player quite a bit.

He is the number 20 overall player, right?

Oh, McCoy's 15 overall, a key mezzador, number 20 overall on the current bigboard, and

there's a whole lot to like about a key mezzador and it's all related to how well he plays

when the ball is snapped.

He's got power, he's got eyes, he gets off blocks, he attacks the run, tenacious finishes

pretty darn well.

Couple of things though that make me hesitant and make me hope that another team drafts

him and not the Lions.

Again, nothing like what I'd be upset if they drafted him at 17, not really, no, because

he's a good football player and he would make the Lions better, but I think there are

better options there.

First off, he's going to be 25 as a rookie and if you watch the Miami tape, specifically

the last two years, he's gotten by a fair amount by just being more physically mature and

mentally football wise more mature than the guy is trying to block him, and I don't think

that's going to fly as well in the NFL.

No, he's also been around a long time, six years in college was productive in about two

and a half of them, thick a lot of what he did this past season was related to blocking

attention focused on Rubin Bain on the other side, now in Detroit, he would also have that

benefit because they're going to focus on Ed Hutchinson more, so I get that one, that's

kind of a weak critique, but again, it's just just my gut on that one, like I'm not going

to fault anybody, I know Bishoff loves him, not going to say he's wrong, I think Akima

is going to be a football player, but I would rather find it out with another team.

That's just me, open to being wrong on that one though.

Next up, Caleb Banks, we're going to go back to the injury bank, no pun intended.

Defensive tackle from Florida, who is currently nursing a broken foot, it's the second time

he's broken it in a year.

Fun football player, very impressive athlete for being his size, he's 325 pounds, he is

by the way, is the number 28 overall player on the consensus board.

A bit of a snap jumper, doesn't exactly play the run all that effectively, so I'm not

too concerned that the Lions are going to be interested in him in the first round, the

second round though, if he's still there at 50, and based on the injuries and his scatter

shots approach to run defense, he might be.

First off, I think that last part is going to repel the Lions from him, but I just want

to say that because he does beat the Elin McNeil mold, and if they're looking for a direct

backup to Elin McNeil, like Banks makes sense, there's almost with another team, that's

one that, you know, I'm pretty certain on that one, he is much lower on my board than

he is in the consensus board, I will probably bring that down, and then again, injuries

are part of it, and again, I'm sketched my injuries like straight up, can't help it.

LT Overton, talked about him when I made him the prospect of the day, I'm not really

sure exactly what he does well.

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Well enough at the NFL level to be more than like a fifth or a sixth round draft pick.

He's not super twitchy, he's not exactly quick, not the best athlete.

He's a former five star that it looks like he peaked early athletically, and has sort

of gotten by on that, and for the race that he's projecting, again, what is he, 87 overall,

that's the third round.

I don't see a third round player there, so I hope that that's one that, you know, the

ship goes sailing by.

Last one I'll bring up, and this one is gonna be one that I probably will anger a few

people based on the amount of times that he has selected in mock drafts, in the mock

draft channel on the Detroit Lights podcast Patreon, because he's a popular one, that's Kyle

Lewis.

Does he linebacker, is he a safety, is he both, is he neither?

Player from Pittsburgh.

I worry that he's more of the night there.

Great athlete plays safety, and I think he's much more of a safety than an oversized safety

than an undersized linebacker.

He's what, he came in at six foot, 220 pounds, pretty darn good athlete, but not a great

tackler.

The first thing you notice about him, he's a diver at feet, he bounces off of tackles

at times, doesn't anticipate blocks well.

When you're coming down, if you're a box safety, one of the things you have to do is you

have to be able to strafe around blocks, you have to be able to see around blocks.

He doesn't do that very well.

They played him as a linebacker, they played him as a hang defender.

Okay, that's nice, if you can cover.

You'd allow a 75% or greater completion percentage at all three of his years.

So while we do need somebody to replace Alex Anzlone as a coverage linebacker, and Lewis

looks like he's the part in practice, in college, in the ACC, that's not who he was.

You're projecting him to be in the NFL, something that he wasn't in college.

I will let another team do that.

And if he proves to be successful at it, then you side him to a second contract in four

years.

I think he's a day two player, probably third round, and that's one, again, chance to be

a good football player, no doubt about it.

And he definitely fits the grit, too, based on what I understood from people who've talked

with him, but that's one that I just rather other people go in.

That's the guys on my list that I hope that the Lions avoid, again, israeli related or

lack of positional fit, scheme fit, whatever.

I get these guys every year, and I thought I'd put it out there a little bit earlier

as the pro-day circuit keeps going on.

Wanted to bring up one guy that I am very interested in as I've watched him more and

was tipped off to him recently, and by the way, check it out at footballrealgm.com.

I posted, I had the chance to meet with a couple of different people, an NFC West area scout,

who's, I bet with after one of the recent pro-days, and also a former player-turned assistant

and the last timeframe is fairly recent, not immediate, but recent, and I met with him

as well, and he was very high on this guy, and I will bring him up.

Yeah, Travis Burke, offensive tackle, Memphis Tigers, six foot nine, 325 pounds.

You're thinking, Dan Skipper, yep, thinking Cornelius Lucas, who, by the way, is still playing

in the NFL 10 years later, yep, he is that big, he is a fun one.

His film, while inconsistent, offers a lot.

He's bounced around a little bit, four-year starter started for Gardner Webb at left tackle

for a year, moved to FIU for two years, started at left tackle there.

By the way, the person that he took over for there, Miles Frazier.

One, so there's a little bit of a connection there, and then he moved to Memphis and became

their right tackle, and he is a right tackle in the NFL, and a lot of that has to do with

the fact that he is a run-blocking nightmare on the edge, specifically when he crashes

inside, oh my goodness, like, Travis fading power, when he blocks to his inside shoulder

or down blocks, which is like picking off the guy, won't get the inside.

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When he run blocks, you don't know that he's six nine, he blocks with very good leverage

and decent pad level.

Just a pros here.

I'll standing like that, he understands how to play with it.

What I mean by that is that he knows how to be tall.

There are some tall, taller players, Obena Aze, who we had a couple of years ago as an

undrafted free agent, didn't know that.

He thought he was small and tried to move like it, and that's one of the reasons why he's

not around.

Burke knows he's a big man and knows how to use it.

Impressive latch strength and shoulder torque in the run game.

If you watch any of his highlight videos that I suggested doing it, if you're interested

in him, he just slams people.

It's almost like a pro wrestler, like picking people up and throwing them down, incredible

upper body torsion rip, love it, love it.

Finisher's mentality goes without saying that he fits the grip.

Good leg drive while engaged, and this is one of the areas that a lot of taller guys

and dance skippers included in this, had trouble with, because they don't want to overextend,

they will either get narrow or stop their feet in the run game.

Burke does not do that, and I watched a lot of tape of his even go back into his FIU

days, and he's good about that.

Absorbs bull rushes nicely, I wrote.

I would say better than average, or better than expected, honestly, for another, again,

another thing with tall guys, especially with smaller bull rushers, a guy like Al-Qaeda

Muhammad, as an example, who's no longer with us in Detroit, but he was really good at

getting his hands into the chest plate and pushing up.

Burke does a good job, especially his taller guys, Burke does a good job of mitigating that,

and he does have anchor strength, and again, the strength in his legs and his shoulders

to take that in.

In their decent feel for twists and blitz pickups, it's not perfect, but I thought he got

better at it, the more he played, specifically on the right side, remember, he changed from

the left side to the right side, and changed blocking schemes as well, aside from changing

colleges, so teammates around him and everything.

I thought his end of season tape, that was better than the beginning of, which is kind

of what you want to see, the fact that he's not a done thing, like he can adapt and progress.

Good punch placement for being so tall, seals the outside edge in the run game.

Again, that's probably his best attribute, and he would be Jamir Gibbs' new best friend,

my goodness.

If you're trying to come across as the backside linebacker, he's going to flatten your

ass and let you know it, too.

I like that, I like that a lot.

There are some throwbacks, one of the reasons why he is generally projected as a day three

pick.

I think he's got a chance to slide into the end of the third round, or the line's first

pick of the fourth round, I really do, and some of it's based on my conversation that

I had recently, again, check it out at footballrealGM.com, the five cents on adrift conversations, but I like

it.

He does lack quickness off the snap, he doesn't lack twitch, but he's not a quick mover.

What I mean by that is, twitch is sort of like reactive quickness, and just being able

to switch, it's difficult to explain, but he's not necessarily a quick mover off of it,

but once he's going, once he's moving, he does show some twitch.

As it consistently set deep enough against the outside rushers, this does show on both

left and right tackle.

He's afraid to open the gate to the inside, and that's why I wrote down here, leaves the

inside gate open when setting wide.

The USF Southern Florida game was not good for him, because they had a rusher who could

start outside across his face to the inside, and when he's generally beaten is when he

has to worry about guys like that, and I don't want to call it a short set, but it feels

like he's not getting deep enough, because he's worried about them crossing his face to

the inside, and that will leave the outside shoulder vulnerable, and he can get beat there.

The good thing is, he's long enough that he can at least get an arm on them, and does

a decent job of keeping them from flattening to the quarterback.

I'd be perfectly happy with him as the Lions first forth round pick.

I think he's probably needs to play at right tackle.

I think he is a guy that also, if you're going to move Penae to the left side, you can probably

put Larry Borom in for half a season or so until Burke is truly ready to play, if you're

not ready with them right away.

I like him.

Prospect of the day.

Travis Burke from Memphis, can't be all negative all the time.

Sometimes you get it, sometimes you get like guys, sometimes I get rushily like guys.

That's what we do in this industry.

I appreciate you all liking and subscribing, joining in on the Daily DLP.

Enjoy your Sunday, Jeffers, and signing out.

Be good to one another.