It’s fair to say the Detroit Lions have seen the work put into the 2022 NFL Draft pay dividends.
Defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson, selected No. 2 overall, already owns one Pro Bowl appearance and was well on his way to a monster 2024 when a leg injury cut short his season after five games. Safety Kerby Joseph has racked up 17 interceptions, including an NFL-high nine last season, and receiver Jameson Williams is coming off his first 1,000-yard season.
It’s a pretty impressive haul, one Pete Prisco of CBS Sports gave an A-plus to on Tuesday, in regrading each team’s draft class. That’s bumped up from the B-plus he originally handed the Lions shortly after the draft, and it all but matches our regrade of the 2022 class, published ahead of April’s 2025 NFL Draft.
“They had the second overall pick and landed edge Aidan Hutchinson, who might have been on his way to Defensive Player of the Year honors before breaking his leg last year,” Prisco writes. “He is a special player. They followed that by trading up to get receiver Jameson Williams, who is their deep threat and had a big season in 2024. The also landed a starter in third-round safety Kerby Joseph, who is coming off his best season and was All-Pro, and backups in edge Josh Paschal (second) and linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez (sixth).”
The Lions rewarded Joseph in April with a four-year, $86 million extension, making him the highest-paid safety in NFL history. The fifth-year options for Hutchinson (28½ sacks in 39 games) and Williams also were picked up in April. Injuries have hampered Paschal’s production with the Lions — he has 62 total tackles, including five sacks, in 36 total games — and a torn ACL cut short Rodriguez’s 2024 season, though he’s carved out a role on the Lions’ defense, starting 15 games as a rookie, appearing in all 17 in 2023, and starting six of his 10 games played last season.
Edge rusher James Houston, a sixth-round pick, burst onto the scene with eight sacks in seven games as a rookie, but was unable to build on that momentum, and was released last November, hooking up with Cleveland, where he appeared in three games for the Browns. Tight end James Mitchell (fifth round) signed a futures deal with the Carolina Panthers after making 13 catches in 30 games (one start) with the Lions. Chase Lucas, a seventh-round pick, was mostly a special-teams performer shuttling between the active roster and practice squad in two seasons with the Lions.
Here is a look at the Lions’ 2022 draft class:
▶ Round 1 (No. 2 overall): Aidan Hutchinson, DE, Michigan
▶ Round 1 (12): Jameson Williams, WR, Alabama
▶ Round 2 (46): Josh Paschal, DE, Kentucky
▶ Round 3 (97): Kerby Joseph, S, Illinois
▶ Round 5 (177): James Mitchell, TE, Virginia Tech
▶ Round 6 (188): Malcolm Rodriguez, LB, Oklahoma State
▶ Round 6 (217): James Houston, LB, Jackson State
▶ Round 7 (237): Chase Lucas, DB, Arizona State
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