Acknowledging a failure is never a comfortable reality in professional sports. That is a position the Detroit Lions found themselves in when the team traded former No. 3 overall pick Jeff Okudah on Tuesday.

The Lions traded the 2020 first-rounder to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for a fifth-round pick. Okudah’s development has been stunted by an Achilles injury in 2021, which simply derailed his tenure with the Lions.

Falcons new CB Jeff Okudah highlights. pic.twitter.com/0RURM3XcdE

— Terry Bolden (@TwistedTorchTv) April 11, 2023

Okudah is coming off of his best season as a pro, registering 73 tackles, seven passes defensed, one forced fumble and one interception returned for a touchdown in 2022. However, he was a major factor in Detroit’s 31^st-ranked pass defense from a year ago.

What makes this failure particularly hard to swallow is the fact that there were a handful of Pro Bowlers selected after the Lions drafted Okudah in 2020.

Let’s take a look at a few:

• QB Justin Herbert (6)

• OT Tristan Wirfs (13)

• WR CeeDee Lamb (17)

• WR Justin Jefferson (22)

• RB Jonathan Taylor (41)

• S Antoine Winfield Jr. (45)

• CB Trevon Diggs (51)

• QB Jalen Hurts (53)

The 2020 NFL Draft was loaded with generational talent at numerous positions. While Okudah was as close to a sure-thing coming out of Ohio State, the Lions’ miss kept the team from adding one of the players list above.

Every team has bad misses, just like every team has huge hits. At the end of the day, there really is no such thing as a blood-bank guarantee when it comes to draft prospects.

The good news for Lions fans is that the team properly addressed its secondary with huge free agent additions in Cameron Sutton, Emmanuel Moseley and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Those three signings should help Detroit cope with the team’s whiff on Okudah.