{"id":835614,"date":"2026-07-31T12:33:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835614\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T12:33:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:33:31","slug":"4-takeaways-from-detroit-lions-inside-the-den-for-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835614\/","title":{"rendered":"4 takeaways from Detroit Lions\u2019 \u2018Inside the Den\u2019 for 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday evening brought on a surprise drop of \u201cInside the Den,\u201d the Detroit Lions Emmy-award winning documentary series. The latest installment was a look back at the 2026 NFL Draft<\/a>, and it provided for a lot of insight into the things that happened\u2014and nearly happened\u2014for the Lions. Here are a few of the biggest takeaways from this newest episode.<\/p>\n

The Lions feelings on Blake Miller changed their approach to Day 1<\/p>\n

Every team\u2019s media department has what very well could be their most difficult job of the year when it comes to producing a behind-the-scenes look of draft day. They comb through hours upon hours of footage, making sure not to unveil sensitive intel\u2014like flashing a draft board directly to the media to make your point<\/a>\u2014while also looking to cut and edit things in a way that makes it appear as everything happened just the way your team had wanted it to happen. Franchise propaganda provides for a lot of hope, but even so, there\u2019s a lot of footage here that shows the Lions were actually pretty high on their eventual first-round pick, Clemson\u2019s Blake Miller.<\/p>\n

Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell were shown having a discussion about how\u2014and when\u2014the run on tackles would happen, with Holmes wondering if one would potentially go before the sixth overall pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the good news is we got hot on Miller,\u201d Campbell said just a few minutes into the time for Las Vegas to make their pick at No. 1. \u201cYou know, that [liking Miller] helped big time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lions appeared to be content with a few names coming off the board at offensive tackle, but by pick No. 12, Detroit started to get active on the phone to ensure they\u2019d come away with Miller. Holmes\u2019 first call was to Eric DeCosta, the general manager for the Baltimore Ravens, who held the No. 14 pick. Baltimore\u2019s asking price was No. 17, 118, 128, and a third-round pick in 2027. The Los Angeles Rams, sitting at No. 13, wanted No. 17, 50, and 118 for No. 13 and 93. Even the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had their price for Detroit to move up to No. 15: No. 17, 118, and 128 for No. 15 and 195.<\/p>\n

But once the Rams went with Ty Simpson, and the Buccaneers took Rueben Bain, Detroit felt confident that Miller would be there at No. 17. Who Detroit preferred to Miller remains to be revealed, but what\u2019s clear is Miller was the player among the tackles they seemed willing to move up and make sure they left with on Day 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do all the rankings, and when we started to dive into those tackle rankings, it really just kind of came very very clear that we\u2019d love have this guy as a Lion,\u201d Holmes said about Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe it worked out that way,\u201d Campbell told to Holmes in the Lions draft room. \u201cI mean, that was crazy. I thought all those tackles were gonna be gone. Got our guy and didn\u2019t have to give up anything to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a damn thing,\u201d Holmes added.<\/p>\n

No fourth round picks would come in between Holmes and Derrick Moore<\/p>\n

Much like Detroit\u2019s first day of the draft, the Lions identified a player they wanted to come away with, but weren\u2019t sure if he\u2019d be available at their selection (No. 50).<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always reset and you have that stack, cluster of players that you would really like to have,\u201d Holmes described about the process for Day 2 of the draft, \u201cbut Derrick [Moore] was at the top of that stack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to Day 2 of the NFL Draft, we see both Holmes and Campbell share their interest with Sheila Ford Hamp about Michigan\u2019s Derrick Moore, identifying him as an intriguing player for tomorrow. But then when the day arrives, we hear Campbell spell out his interest more plainly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love to get the rusher from Michigan. He\u2019s kind of our top target right now. There\u2019s a lot of guys in there that are really good players we like, but that\u2019s kinda because he can play d-end, able to rush, but you know, bring something we can use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, Holmes felt Moore would stick around until the Lions pick at No. 50, but once Kansas City took R Mason Thomas with the pick at No. 40, Holmes grew concerned with the number of teams after the Chiefs and before the Lions\u2019 pick that had a need at defensive end. So much so that the video footage of Holmes and Campbell learning about the Thomas pick caused Holmes to shift in his chair and grab his phone\u2014and Campbell to bite at his fingernail.<\/p>\n

\u201cDerrick Moore was our No. 1 guy, we have multiple fours,\u201d Holmes recalled of his thought process in moving up for Moore. \u201cThat\u2019s why I felt like let\u2019s not lose out on our top guy. That\u2019s why we went ahead and just made the move up just to make sure that we secured them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detroit had their sights set on an undersized defensive tackle heading into Day 3<\/p>\n

As the second day of the NFL Draft winded down, a few of the Lions staff gathered to discuss players still available for Detroit\u2019s final selections on Day 3. Holmes throws out a hypothetical: \u201cWould you take [Keith] Abney over [Kendrick] Law?\u201d The Lions director of scouting, Dwayne Joseph prefers Law while Brian Hudspeth, the Lions director of college scouting, would be in favor of Abney. Senior advisory Don Corzine throws out his favorite player: Jimmy Rolder.<\/p>\n

While these three players would all end up getting selected by the Detroit Lions, Holmes asks everyone in the room to give him their \u201cHalton, Rolder, Abney, and Law rankings.\u201d As in Gracen Halton, the defensive tackle from Oklahoma. The San Francisco 49ers would end up taking Halton with the No. 107 pick, 11 spots ahead of Jimmy Rolder going at No. 118.<\/p>\n

If Detroit\u2019s guy wasn\u2019t at 118, Holmes was ready to move back<\/p>\n

\u201cIf our guy\u2019s not there, then I\u2019ll let you know,\u201d Holmes told a member of the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers were willing to part with No. 123 and a pick in the sixth round according to the footage from \u201cInside the Den,\u201d and Holmes reiterates to his staff that if the Lions\u2019 top guy isn\u2019t available at 118, he\u2019s willing to move back because there were \u201cfive guys\u201d that Detroit considered to be their top targets at this point in the draft.<\/p>\n

The Chargers would instead make that same trade offered to Detroit with Houston, sending No. 123 and No. 204 to the Texans for No. 117 to select Travis Burke, an offensive tackle from Memphis. That left the Lions with the prospect they\u2019d been hoping to grab in Jimmy Rolder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday evening brought on a surprise drop of \u201cInside the Den,\u201d the Detroit Lions Emmy-award winning documentary series.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,371406,295909,407498,593,85],"class_list":["post-835614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-detroit-lions-analysis","tag-detroit-lions-draft","tag-detroit-lions-opinion","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835614","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=835614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}