I'm not going to waste your time with a preamble. I'm just going to say that right out front that the Detroit Lions' 2025 draft class is better than their 2024 draft class. Here's why:
P.S. That might have been a preamble
Take everything you know about the 2024 Lions draft class out of your mind real quick. When the dust settled on that draft class, what did you know about it? You knew that Terrion Arnold and Ennis Rakestraw were likely to be the only real contributors to this team right away.
Giovanni Manu was a project; the Lions never really narrowed down exactly what Sione Vaki's role was going to be, Mekhi Wingo was a steal, but buried on the roster, and there was back and forth on whether he'd be an interior defensive lineman or edge rusher and Christian Mahogany felt like a steal too, but at the time we knew he was future thing.
Now that the season is over, we pretty much have the same questions we had before. We know Arnold is a starter, and we're pretty sure Mahogany will be in 2025. We know that Rakestraw was supposed to start a game, but then he got hurt.
Outside of that, we still don't know what Sione Vaki is other than a good special-teams guy, we don't know how long Manu is going to take, and Wingo looked good early, but also got hurt early.
The 2025 class is a lot easier to figure out and has players who are all expected to contribute somewhere right away.
Tyleik Williams should be the Lions' starting defensive tackle till at least November, and then we know he can slide over to that nose tackle role and start there.
Tate Ratledge should walk right into the starting right guard spot. Miles Frazier can come off the bench and be the Lions' do-all depth guy who can play basically any position they need him to.
Ahmed Hassanein was a giant steal if you ask me. He's going to be a big part of the Lions' pass rushing plans in 2025. At this point, it would not shock me if he's starting Week 1.
Isaac TeSlaa should be expected to supplant Tim Patrick right away and be the Lions' X-Receiver. Dan Jackson can fit right into a special-teams role and be Detroit's safety four.
The only guy I'm not sure of is Dominic Lovett. He's fast, but you just don't see it on film. I'm not sure what they're thinking with him. We'll find out at camp.
At the end of the day, we still need to see everyone take the field and show what they've got. But I can tell you what the plan for basically all these guys is going to be, and I still don't know what the plan is for some of the guys taken last year. For that reason, I just have higher confidence in the 2025 class.
