The 2025 NFL Draft is in the bag, and once again, the Detroit Lions picked players that essentially nobody expected them to pick. That is, unless you were paying attention to the top-30 meetings they had.
These meetings are important to the Lions, and that's shown over time. In 2023, they drafted four players they had top-30 meetings with ahead of the draft, and signed one of them
The four players the Lions had a meetings with that year were Sam LaPorta, Brian Branch, Hendon Hooker and Antoine Green. The undrafted guy was Adrian Martinez.
Last year, they drafted four guys they had meetings with and then signed two, one more as a UDFA.
Those were Sione Vaki, Terrion Arnold, Ennis Rakestraw, Giovanni Manu, and Nate Lynn.
In 2025, they drafted two of the 16 players reported. That was Tyleik Williams and Isaac TeSlaa. As time goes on, we'll probably find out that Tate Ratledge and Miles Frazier were in for 30 meetings, too.
This is why Lions fans may want to really start paying attention to these things going forward. It's almost like having a little cheat sheet that tells you who the Lions could draft. It might also give you the opportunity to see that the Lions are thinking differently, position-wise wise than you.
Like Lions fans really wanted an edge rusher. The Lions only reportedly met three, and only one of them was a first-round guy. That was Shemar Stewart. He wound up going 17th to the Bengals.
We'll see what happens next year, but it could be safe to assume that some of the answers will be the visits.
