{"id":511386,"date":"2026-03-01T08:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511386\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T08:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T08:13:08","slug":"espn-nfl-mock-draft-forecasts-missouri-star-to-detroit-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/511386\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN NFL mock draft forecasts Missouri star to Detroit Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his initial 2026 NFL mock draft<\/a>, ESPN NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. projected the Lions<\/a> to select Penn State<\/a> interior offensive lineman Olaivavega Ioane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But, with a month’s time since and plenty of conversations with the NFL’s top minds, Kiper is changing his tune on the Lions’ first-round selection.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Kiper has Detroit looking defense in his updated first-round NFL mock draft<\/a>. Per Kiper’s mock, the Lions would select Missouri defensive end Zion Young.<\/p>\n

We’ve been begging the Lions to add a long-term threat off the edge opposite\u00a0Aidan Hutchinson<\/a>\u00a0for a while now.\u00a0Al-Quadin Muhammad<\/a>\u00a0had a surprise breakout last season with 11 sacks, but he’s a free agent.\u00a0Tyrus Wheat<\/a>\u00a0was next best in sacks among pure edge rushers … with 1.5. So, although the interior offensive line might warrant a look (Penn State’s\u00a0Olaivavega Ioane<\/a>?), Detroit has to address the lack of depth on the edge. Young has strong hands and good quickness, and he had 6.5 sacks and 46 pressures last season. – Mel Kiper Jr., ESPN<\/p>\n

The Lions drafting pass rushing help opposite of Aidan Hutchinson has been a trendy projection across most NFL mock drafts.<\/p>\n

Adding Young from Missouri would be an exciting first-round selection at No. 17 that would be sure to fire up the Lions’ fan base.<\/p>\n

For more\u00a0Lions<\/a>\u00a0coverage, follow us on X,\u00a0@TheLionsWire<\/a>, and give our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0page a like.\u00a0Follow Josh on X,\u00a0@JoshOnLions<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Lions Wire: ESPN NFL mock draft forecasts Missouri star to Detroit Lions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his initial 2026 NFL mock draft, ESPN NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. projected the Lions to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[28783,109528,64,63,12266,794,161670,4127,226401,975,15427,593,33875,133464,3374,256235,85,7709,256236,169952],"class_list":{"0":"post-511386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-aidan-hutchinson","9":"tag-al-quadin-muhammad","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-detroit","13":"tag-espn","14":"tag-first-round-selection","15":"tag-lions","16":"tag-mel-kiper-jr","17":"tag-missouri","18":"tag-mock-draft","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-offensive-lineman","21":"tag-olaivavega-ioane","22":"tag-penn-state","23":"tag-per-kiper","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-the-lions","26":"tag-tyrus-wheat","27":"tag-zion-young"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}