Why I have Detroit Lions picking LSU's Devin White in Mock Draft 1.0

This was not the direction I thought I’d be going when I sat down to do my first NFL mock draft this week.

The Detroit Lions have a lot of holes to fill on both sides of the ball. Pass rusher. Cornerback. Safety. Tight end. Wide receiver. 

I wouldn’t rank linebacker among their most pressing needs, or consider it much of a need at all. They signed two linebackers at the start of free agency last offseason, and Jarrad Davis took a nice step forward in Year 2 of his career.

But when it comes to the draft, to the process designed to let NFL teams infuse their roster with cornerstone talents, sometimes a player is too good to pass up. After texting with a few scouts this week, that’s the position I found myself in slotting LSU linebacker Devin White to the Lions with the No. 8 pick in the draft.

My sense right now is there are three blue-chip talents available this year: Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa, Alabama defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and Kentucky pass rusher Josh Allen.

If one of those players falls to No. 8, the Lions have an easy choice to make. They run the card up to the podium and pop open the bubbly they have reserved for special occasions.

Of course, the chance of one of those players making it to No. 8 — even with the possibility of two quarterbacks going in the first seven picks — is roughly the same as me being named People’s Sexiest Man of the Year for 2019. It ain’t happening.

Enter White.

White isn’t quite in that top tier of draft prospects, but he’s darn close. And if he played another position, more NFL folks might consider expanding the Big Three in this year’s draft to a Fabulous Four.

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White is a playmaker, and that’s something Lions general manager Bob Quinn has made clear he wants to add to his defense this offseason. He forced three fumbles for the Tigers last year, had 12 tackles for loss among 123 stops and broke up six passes.

That’s not quite like adding a double-digit sack defensive end to the roster, but I don’t think that player will be available at No. 8.

White wasn’t the only player I considered for the Lions. I had Michigan’s Rashan Gary going one spot earlier, No. 7 to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and I might have taken him at No. 8 had he still been on the board because of the Lions’ need at defensive end.

White’s LSU teammate, cornerback Greedy Williams, also was in the mix, but I couldn’t pull the trigger on him at the end of the day because I can’t see Lions coach Matt Patricia falling in love with a player who has tackling issues. 

I did not consider Iowa tight end. T.J. Hockenson at No. 8, even though he’s the apple of every mock drafter’s eye for the Lions right now. I think Quinn’s recent comments about tight end being a priority position for the Lions to address this offseason, while true, have clouded some people’s views on what the team will do in Round 1.

There are a few more pass rushers (Houston's Ed Oliver, Mississippi State's Montez Sweat, Clemson's Clelin Ferrell) and defensive backs (Washington's Byron Murphy, Georgia's DeAndre Baker) that the Lions must consider, but for now, with two months to go until the draft, I think White is the right pick.

Beyond his talent, he plays a position that Patricia places a high value on and I believe the Lions can pair him with Davis and have a dominant stack linebacker duo down the road. That would leave the underappreciated Christian Jones out of a starting spot this fall, and that’s un-Lions-like — Quinn has used all three of his previous first-round picks to fill a position of need — but White is too good a player to pass up.

By the time the pre-draft process is done, White will roundly be considered one of the five or six best players in the draft, sort of like Roquan Smith last year.

The Chicago Bears took Smith eighth overall, and I can see the Lions doing the same with White come April.

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Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter.