While the Detroit Lions may not have been explicitly targeting an offensive tackle in the 2026 NFL Draft, they had to be happy without how the board initially fell. Through the first eight picks, there wasn’t a single offensive tackle off the board. However, the Cleveland Browns took Utah tackle Spencer Fano with the ninth pick. Then the New York Giants took Miami’s Francis Mauigoa with the very next pick. Kadyn Proctor went two picks later to the Miami Dolphins at 12.
In Allen Park while that was that was happening, Lions general manager Brad Holmes started to explore a trade up for the player they eventually drafted at 17, Clemson tackle Blake Miller.
“We did, yeah,” Holmes said regarding talks of a trade up. “We talked to teams up—way up—and we just talked about (it) and tried to see if we can be at peace with what the capital is that you’d have to expend. But we definitely explored strongly about trading up.”
It’s not clear which teams they talked to and what the price would have been to make that move, but, obviously, the price was too rich for Holmes to pull the trigger. Instead, they waited patiently for the board to fall, hoping Miller would still be available by 17.
And when the Los Angeles Rams—with Pick 13—made the most shocking pick of the first round with quarterback Ty Simpson, Holmes had a pretty good feeling they were in the clear the rest of the way.
“Right after LA took the quarterback, I felt pretty good that we might be able to just get Blake,” Holmes said.
Complicating the Lions’ decisions on Thursday night was the fear that another team may try to jump Detroit. It was no secret that the Lions were in the offensive tackle market, and there were plenty of rumors this week that teams were making calls ahead of Detroit about a potential trade up.
“I felt like, from the outside looking in, we had this big tackle target on our backs,” Holmes said. “So if a team behind us was in the tackle market then they might want to jump us as well. So, we definitely explored [a trade up], but right about (Pick) 14 I felt pretty good that we would be able to keep our assets and still land Blake.”
Patience turned out to be a virtue for Detroit, as they got their player and kept their picks. They’ll enter Day 2 with their second-round pick intact (50th overall), and they still have seven Day 3 picks to play around with.
