{"id":753581,"date":"2026-02-15T09:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/753581\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T09:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T09:36:27","slug":"espn-has-detroit-lions-looking-to-sec-in-nfl-mock-draft-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/753581\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN has Detroit Lions looking to SEC in NFL mock draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the 2026 NFL draft gets closer with each passing day, ESPN’s Field Yates predicts<\/a> the Detroit Lions<\/a> to select an elite offensive tackle at No. 17 overall to retool the franchise’s offensive line in his latest projection.<\/p>\n

According to Yates’ projection, the Lions<\/a> will select offensive tackle Monroe Freeling out of Georgia<\/a> at No. 17 overall, which will shore up the left tackle position, with veteran Taylor Decker’s future with the team uncertain.<\/p>\n

With Taylor Decker’s future uncertain, the Lions must shore up the left tackle spot. Freeling is a player I’m higher on than most draft analysts, ranking him third among offensive tackles. I believe he has a real shot to skyrocket his draft stock between now and April. Freeling has only 18 career starts and under 1,600 snaps played, but the upside is massive. He stands at nearly 6-foot-7 and 315 pounds with 35-inch arms; those measurables combined with great pass protection skills are hard to find. Freeling allowed only two sacks last season. – Field Yates, ESPN<\/p>\n

Given that offensive tackle is one of the Lions’ most important positions of need this offseason, Freeling would immediately improve the pass blocking on the left side of the offensive line for new offensive coordinator Drew Petzing in 2026.<\/p>\n

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This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: ESPN has Detroit Lions looking to SEC in NFL mock draft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the 2026 NFL draft gets closer with each passing day, ESPN’s Field Yates predicts the Detroit Lions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,2506,12,6118,7,147,54561,6,1482,4136,19192],"class_list":{"0":"post-753581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroitlions","11":"tag-espn","12":"tag-field-yates","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-lions","15":"tag-monroe-freeling","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-offensive-line","18":"tag-offensive-tackle","19":"tag-taylor-decker"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116073974040137129","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753581","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=753581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}