It’s been a week since the 2024 NFL Draft has ended. Detroit and the Detroit Lions put on a freakin’ show on the national stage. For Detroit, it was a complete reshaping of their perception. With 775,000 people cram-packed in Campus Martius for the weekend, Detroit rebranded itself, in an instant, as a destination city for big-time events.
As for the Lions, general manager Brad Holmes certainly knows how to be a bit of a showman. Whether you question some of his decisions or not, it’s hard to deny that Holmes added some serious flare to the Lions’ weekend—trading up to get the top cornerback in the draft, moving up three more times in the five remaining picks, taking a huge developmental swing on a player from a Canadian college who has never rostered a drafted player, and taking a fun two-way player. Oh, and then finishing off the draft with arguably two of the biggest steals on Day 3.
It’s been a dramatic week absorbing all of this information, but now that the dust has completely settled, let’s ask a very simple question about the Lions draft:
Which Lions rookie are you most excited to see play?
My answer: Given that this team has struggled to find good cornerback play since Darius Slay was forced out of town, the easy answer is Terrion Arnold. Not only do I expect this guy to start out of the gate, but just the way he carries himself is so… un-rookie-like.
It’s all about the details@ArnoldTerrion pic.twitter.com/vEMGJOofqx
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) May 2, 2024
But I’m going to forego the easy answer here and say Sione Vaki. The Lions seem so excited about this guy that it’s hard not to share that enthusiasm. While I know he’s likely destined for mostly a special teams role early in his career, Holmes seemed overflowing with eagerness to see him on the offensive side of the ball.
“He started making these plays running the ball and in the passing game. When I saw that, I was like, ‘He’s not even majoring in this and he’s looking like that?’” Holmes said. “And then you get more into his background, and he was more of an offensive player in high school. He did a lot of things on offense. But it was very impressive what he did with the ball in his hands, and not just making (people) miss and things like that, but he runs hard. Again, he’s a football player who plays football how we like it.”
Now imagine the creative mind of offensive coordinator Ben Johnson taking his new weapon and finding unorthodox ways to use him. Maybe they take things slowly with Vaki. They’ve shown in the past they don’t want to overburden young players with too many roles too early. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that we’re going to see some Vaki packages on the offensive side of the ball sooner rather than later.
Which Lions rookie are you most eager to see on the field?
