The 2026 NFL Draft is in the books and, as usual, it was full of surprises.<\/p>\n
The Arizona Cardinals<\/a> went running back with the third-overall pick. The Los Angeles Rams<\/a> selected a quarterback in the first round as an heir to Matthew Stafford<\/a>. Jermod McCoy fell all the way to the fourth round amid concerns surrounding his knee.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In comparison, the Detroit Lions<\/a> had a modestly surprising draft, but there were still some moves\u2014or lack thereof\u2014that raised eyebrows.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s Question of the Day is:<\/p>\n What surprised you the most about the Detroit Lions\u2019 2026 NFL draft?<\/p>\n My answer: I was surprised by the emphasis on pass rush.<\/p>\n It is not surprising that the Lions went heavy on defense in the draft\u2014entering the draft with a below-average depth chart, they needed reinforcements across multiple positions. However, I really expected Detroit to look for players built for run defense. Crushing the can has been the motto of the Lions defense for a few years now, with players like Tyleik Williams<\/a>, Josh Paschal<\/a>, Brodric Martin<\/a>, and Ahmed Hassanein being a few examples of draftees with an acumen for run defense. Besides Aidan Hutchinson<\/a>, the only drafted players that were pass rush-orientated were Mekhi Wingo<\/a> and James Houston<\/a>.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In the 2026 draft, Detroit added three linemen, all of whom have pass rush as a strength. Second-round pick Derrick Moore<\/a> could be the 2026 counterpart to Al-Quadin Muhammad<\/a>, a player used primarily as a pass rusher (although Moore has the ceiling to be an every-down player). Sixth-round pick Skyler Gill-Howard<\/a> provides the team with some much-needed interior pass rush, as Wingo has seemingly fallen out of favor in Detroit. With the final pick of their draft, Detroit added Tyre West<\/a>, a larger defensive end in the mold of Tyler Lacy<\/a> that can bring pressure from inside and out. Even linebacker Jimmy Rolder<\/a> could factor in as a pass rushing SAM linebacker (although WILL is more likely his future position).<\/p>\n Aside from the signing of DJ Wonnum\u2014the frontrunner to start across from Hutchinson<\/a>\u2014the Lions have done little to bolster their run defense. This is not necessarily a bad thing, as the pass rush was sorely lacking consistency last season, but it is nonetheless an interesting pivot for this organization. Plus, free agency tends to have a second wave following the draft, so Detroit could still add to their run defense. In particular, another nose tackle to replace DJ Reader and Roy Lopez<\/a> could be needed (Reader returning could still be in the cards, however).<\/p>\n Is this a sign that the Lions want to prioritize pass rush next season? Perhaps, though it could also be a case of Detroit seeing potential in their new rookies to grow as run defenders. We likely will not know how the scheme materializes until Week 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NFL Draft is in the books and, as usual, it was full of surprises. The Arizona…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4955,1817,24909,390,6295,38604,113,7,20660,19413,58,32,21114,118642,6,5450,6299,1491,8516],"class_list":["post-875989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-2026-nfl-draft","tag-aidan-hutchinson","tag-al-quadin-muhammad","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-brodric-martin","tag-derrick-moore","tag-detroit-lions","tag-football","tag-james-houston","tag-josh-paschal","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-mekhi-wingo","tag-michigan-state-quarterback","tag-nfl","tag-pass-rush","tag-roy-lopez","tag-tyleik-williams","tag-tyler-lacy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116476351860534919","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875989","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=875989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}