The Cleveland Browns could be a key piece in the 2025 NFL Draft in regards to the Detroit Lions trading down in the first round.
With just a few days until the 2025 NFL Draft, the rumor mill is chugging along. While it’s certainly lying season for many of these rumors, ESPN’s Adam Schefter is considered one of the most plugged-in insiders, and he dropped a bundle of draft rumors on Monday.
If you’re looking for insight into who the Detroit Lions will be taking, you’re going to be severely disappointed by Schefter’s list. However, there is an interesting note he drops that could certainly impact the Lions. He speculates that a quarterback-needy team could very well jump into the late first round in order to leapfrog the Cleveland Browns, who have a need at quarterback and have the first pick (33 overall) in the second round.
“There are a group of teams after Tennessee that would like to address quarterback early, including the Browns, Giants, Saints and Steelers. Cleveland also happens to own the ever-valuable No. 33 pick, the first pick at the top of Round 2, which is why the Giants or Saints could explore trading back into Round 1 to jump them,” Schefter said.
All of those quarterback-needy teams could obviously pick a quarterback with their second overall pick in the first round. But the Browns, for example, are expected to seriously consider grabbing a top defensive prospect, be it Colorado CB/WR Travis Hunter or Penn State EDGE Abdul Carter. So they very well could be looking to trade up to get that quarterback later in the first round. And with the several questions facing some of the non-Cam Ward quarterbacks in this draft—including Shedeur Sanders, Jaxson Dart, Jalen Milroe, and Tyler Shough—it’s possible they may still be there late on Thursday night, leading to a bidding war to get one of those passers.
It’s unclear what the Lions plan to do with their 28th pick in the first round, but general manager Brad Holmes said he would be open to trading out of the first round if the talent level was even for available prospects and the right deal came along.
“If the compensation is right and it’s reasonable and it makes sense and like I said before, if we have the pool of players that we have kind of relatively in the same bucket, then yeah absolutely that could be an option,” Holmes said last week.
Detroit could certainly use some extra draft capital this year. By some metrics, the Lions’ 2025 draft capital ranks bottom five in the league. Part of that is due to picking so late in each round. Also, the Lions do not have their original third-round pick (due to the trade that landed them Giovanni Manu) nor do they have a fifth-round pick (Za’Darius Smith trade). Trading out of the first round could be the move to make to up that capital and come away with a more plentiful 2025 draft class.
