Jan. 27, 2026, 8:45 a.m. ET<\/p>\n
Now that the Seattle Seahawks<\/a> and New England Patriots<\/a> are set to meet in Super Bowl LX, 30 teams are now in offseason mode and the first 30 picks of the 2026 NFL draft are now set. That means full first-round mock drafts are just about ready to roll, especially now that the final deadline for underclassmen to declare for the draft has passed.<\/p>\n Indiana and Miami underclassmen had extra time thanks to those teams reaching the National Championship game.<\/p>\n You also know draft season is really in full swing when NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah<\/a> drops his first mock draft of the season. He did just that on Monday, so let’s take a look at who DJ has the Lions<\/a> selecting at No. 17 overall.<\/p>\n That player turns out to be Miami edge rusher Akheem Mesidor. Here’s what Jeremiah said about Mesidor:<\/p>\n Mesidor would thrive opposite\u00a0Aidan Hutchinson<\/a>, going from one dynamic pass-rush duo (with Bain at Miami) to another. – Daniel Jeremiah, NFL Network<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Imagine that path. Getting to go from playing with Rueben Bain at Miami to playing with Aidan Hutchinson with the Lions. Mesidor is more than just “the other Miami edge rusher.” Mesidor recorded 13 sacks in helping the Hurricanes reach the National Championship game as the No. 10 seed in the College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n Of Mesidor’s 13 sacks, 5.5 came during the Hurricanes’ CFP march (1.5 vs. Texas A&M<\/a>, two vs. Ohio State<\/a>, two vs. Indiana).<\/p>\n Mesidor brings versatility and quickness to the table, which helps make up for being a little undersized at 6-foot-3 and 280 pounds. But, 13 sacks for a team that made a long run in the College Football Playoff is hard to ignore.<\/p>\n The Lions very much need help on the edge. Hutchinson isn’t going anywhere, but Al-Quadin Muhammad and his 11 sacks last season are set to hit the open market in March. Even if Detroit gets him back, more depth is never a bad thing, especially in a division where they see Green Bay Packers<\/a> quarterback Jordan Love and Chicago Bears<\/a> quarterback Caleb Williams twice a year each.<\/p>\n For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Billy Riccette on X,\u00a0@Billy_Riccette<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jan. 27, 2026, 8:45 a.m. ET Now that the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots are set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":711083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[95878,146,113,2506,7,147,6,52959,96502,97086,95882,95930,96164,96089,96156,96242,95893,95976,96166,95896,95888,95895,95906,95977,96099,95883,97971,95894,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-711082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-lions","11":"tag-detroitlions","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-lions","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sstssportsnfllions","16":"tag-sstsnlions","17":"tag-tagaidan-hutchinson","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","20":"tag-tagcaleb-williams","21":"tag-tagchicago-bears","22":"tag-tagcollege-football-playoff","23":"tag-tagdetroit-lions","24":"tag-tagfacebook","25":"tag-taggreen-bay-packers","26":"tag-tagjordan-love","27":"tag-tagnational-sports","28":"tag-tagnfl","29":"tag-tagnfl-hub","30":"tag-tagoverall-positive","31":"tag-tagseattle-seahawks","32":"tag-tagsec-conference-football","33":"tag-tagsports-news","34":"tag-tagsuper-bowl-60","35":"tag-tagtwitter","36":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/711083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}