Lions Fit Board

An attempt at building an NFL-styled 150-175 person board for the Lions to consider during the 2023 NFL Draft based on their trends.

One of my favorite Draft podcasts out there is CBS Sports’ With the First Pick, featuring Ryan Wilson, and more importantly, former Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, providing a very up close look at how NFL general managers tend to think and operate. Spielman recently mentioned that teams’ boards will feature only about 150-175 names or so, players they end up having draftable grades on.

Former Vikings GM Rick Spielman, whose brother, Chris, is a Lions front office executive.

Thus, I attempted a similar feat, though mine stretches up to 197 names, as I do not have as wide a berth of access to these prospects, and thus do not get the up-close and personal looks that some general managers will use to erase prospects from their board.

So, if you can forgive me for an additional 22 names, I present to you my Lions fit board:

KREGEL LIONS FIT BOARD - 197 PROSPECTS BUILT FOR THE MOTOR CITY

The link should give you viewing access.

Here’s a few tidbits on how it is put together….

I have broken this down in multiple pieces but plenty of different things go into developing a "fit" mold:

• Historic data from the Lions last two seasons under Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell.

• Historic data from Brad Holmes' time as Director of College Scouting in Los Angeles, as well as secondary data from the New Orleans Saints during the overlap of Dan Campbell, Aaron Glenn, and Jeff Ireland.

• Secondary data from the Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Chiefs due to John Dorsey's presence in the Lions front office.

• Measurable combine data and Relative Athletic Scores

• Scouting trends and tendencies.

• Schematic fit and personnel grouping.

In short, we use any relevant data to break it down and create a generic profile of the type of player that Brad Holmes seems more geared towards targeting. For example, as I mention in a data breakdown piece earlier, Holmes has a clear tendency towards players who run fast 40-yard dashes, with excellent 10-yard splits, and then also perform well in the broad jump and vertical jump. Thus a clear tendency towards fast and explosive players:

Testing Tendencies: Evaluating Holmes' Use of Combine Data

The piece should breakdown some of the further little trends and benchmarks we can roughly observe. These are still new given Holmes’ youth as a general manager, but each offseason it comes a bit clearer and clearer into view. We also augment that with relevant free agency transactions that help use get a clearer image:

Lions Draft Strategy Hints From Free Agency

The Scouting Process here uses multiple steps:

• I personally watch a lot of these dudes. YouTube has tons of game cut ups you can use to easily and quickly digest 2 full-games on a dude over the course of your average work lunch break.

• I also consult scouting material from well-respected sources with consistency over the years, including:

  • NFL.com's Lance Zierlein

  • The Athletic's Dane Brugler

  • ESPN's Matt Miller

  • Resources from The Draft Network and The 33rd Team

  • Podcasts such as Daniel Jeremiah's Move the Sticks, and Ryan Wilson's With the First Pick.

• The aforementioned sources above are a large part of how we find intangible pieces. Players who get the check mark there are players that are noted for their work ethic/football character/football IQ via largely Brugler or Zierlein's reports and sourced info.

So it is a mix of my personal watching, thoughts, and then screened against a loose consensus of the media. For example, if I watch two games and think "man this dude is powerful" but 3 or 4 other resources raise a concern on play strength, good time to lower my opinion on there, for example.