Will Detroit take Ohio State’s Jeffrey Okudah over Auburn’s Derrick Brown or Clemson’s Isaiah Simmons?
Bryon Jones just signed a five-year, $82.5 million contract with Miami.
Darius Slay is a three-time Pro Bowler coming off a down season at age 29 but still signed a three-year, $50 million contract extension after Philadelphia traded for him.
Meanwhile, players of similar abilities who play at different positions are signing for significantly less.
As Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press points out, it’s a good time to be Ohio State cornerback Jeffrey Okudah.
The presumed top cornerback prospect in the 2020 NFL draft is expected to land in the top 10, if not the top 5, and Detroit is a favorite landing spot for him among the various mock drafts.
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“Good cornerbacks are hard to find, yet essential to have in what has become a pass-first league,” Birkett writes. “The best ones rarely hit free agency, and when the even above-average ones do, they get paid handsomely.”
Detroit plugged some of its holes with the signings of CB Desmond Trufant and DL Danny Shelton and Nicholas Williams.
But that doesn’t mean Detroit wouldn’t still consider a CB (Okudah) or DL (Auburn’s Derrick Brown) with the No. 3 overall pick. You can add in Clemson LB/S Isaiah Simmons into the No. 3 mix, too.
“… (T)he positional value Okudah provides, and the long-time financial ramifications of finding a star at the cornerback position, mean he should get the nod over Brown and Simmons if all three are around when the Lions make their pick.”