The Lions Should Draft This Guy: Michigan’s Derrick Moore has what the Lions need, and they don’t have to draft high to get him

The Lions can get a guy who can set the edge in the run game and get to the quarterback and they don’t have to draft him in the first round

Mike Payton — Detroit Lions Beat Writer
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We’re getting closer and closer to the 2026 NFL Draft for the Detroit Lions. With that in mind, we’re starting our new series called The Lions Should Draft This Guy. We’re going to profile a bunch of players we feel the Lions would love, and talk about their positives and negatives. Follow along! Here’s who we’ve covered so far:

The Positives Of Derrick Moore

We’ve talked a lot about players who can do more than one thing and how important it is to the Lions. Moore is one of those guys. Not only did he put up 41 pressures, 11 sacks, and a 92.4 pass rush grade, but he also graded out at 76.3 against the run.

Moore can bull rush guys, and he has some moves to go with it. But the thing the Lions might love about him the most is his unselfish play. Moore is looking for the ball, and it doesn’t matter if he’s the first or second guy there; he’s going to get there in the run game. Either that or he’s going to make sure someone else can. Aidan Hutchinson would be able to take advantage of this. As would Alim McNeill.

Moore is rising up the board right now, but the Lions could potentially draft him in the second round or the high third if they trade up or down and get a third-round pick.

The Concerns

We mentioned some moves, but Moore is going to need to grow his moveset more in the league to be a little better against NFL tackles. There’s also some inconsistency in his anticipation of what his opponent is going to do. The good news is that these things are coachable.

There’s the injury stuff. He hasn’t missed a lot of games, but he did miss the NFL Combine with a hamstring injury and missed a game his junior year with a knee sprain. Nothing crazy, but you hope it’s not the beginning of something new.

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