If there’s one thing that has been talked about, discussed, and scrutinized to the nth degree when it comes to the Detroit Lions, it’s the 2024 NFL Draft and how it just has not been good. You won’t hear me argue against that. It has not worked out, to say the least. But after roster cutdowns from the rest of the league, it’s pretty clear that the 2024 draft class might be one of the worst ones we’ve seen in quite some time. And the numbers back that up in a big way.

The Lions’ 2024 draft class, player by player

Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold, the team’s first-round pick in that draft, is gone. He dealt with some legal issues over the offseason and now is on the Seattle Seahawks, where he is not going to play because he’s going to be on the commissioner’s list until everything gets solved on his legal end. Ennis Rakestraw Jr. missed his first two seasons largely due to injury. He’s been off and on this summer and has made Detroit’s 53-man roster, but how much he actually plays remains to be seen.

Giovanni Manu practiced exactly one time this summer, and even if he had practiced the whole time, we just haven’t seen it from him in two years. The Lions are fooling around with moving him to guard and trying a bunch of different things. It just hasn’t worked out. Sione Vaki still has some upside as a really good special teams player, and now that the Lions don’t have Isiah Pacheco heading into the start of the season, we could actually see what Vaki looks like as a running back. Maybe he can show the world it looks good.

Mekhi Wingo did make the roster, which felt like a shocker. Didn’t think he was going to make it, but he did. Christian Mahogany made the roster as well. He is going to be Detroit’s starting left guard in Week 1, and assuming they don’t pick up anybody else who can compete for that job and he plays well, he’ll hold it down the whole season.

So it seems bad, right? No Pro Bowlers, no major starters pulled from this class. Only one real actual starter. Brad Holmes is going to get a lot of flak for it, and to a degree, he should. But today I am arguing that it’s not really his fault, or at least not totally his fault.

The 2024 draft was historically bad for the entire NFL

Here are the numbers. There were 257 draft picks in the 2024 class. 96 of those 257 players (37.4% of the class) are no longer with the team that drafted them. After just two seasons, 37.4% of the class is gone, on a different team, or looking for a place to play right now. That’s crazy.

It’s not unusual to see later-round picks get cut and go look for another team. But this is something much bigger than that. Out of those 257 picks, there have been 14 Pro Bowl selections, six All-Pro selections (which is not bad), but only 27 starters out of 257 players. I’m not talking about guys who started one or two games. I made the rules incredibly strict: you have to have started your whole rookie season, started your whole second season, and by all indications will start the 2026 season. Only 27 players in the entire draft fit that criteria.

Breaking it down team by team

The Eagles, Patriots, Rams, Raiders, and Texans all have two Pro Bowlers from the class. The Commanders, Giants, Chargers, and Jaguars have one. The rest of the league doesn’t have any. For All-Pros, the Eagles have two, and the Patriots, Vikings, Raiders, and Bills each have one.

For starters, the 49ers, Steelers, Texans, Cowboys, and Bears each have two. 18 other teams just have one.

Here’s where it gets really interesting. The Patriots have seven players from that draft no longer with the team. The Jaguars lost six. The Colts, Texans, Bengals, Falcons, and Cardinals are all missing five guys. Other teams are missing large numbers of players, and the Lions, interestingly enough, still have essentially everyone and still have a plan for all of them except one. When looking at this draft as a whole, you might even be able to say Holmes and the Lions deserve a little bit of praise for that.

Even the “winners” of this draft weren’t that impressive

Look at the Patriots, who made the Super Bowl last year. They have one player left from this draft, and it’s Drake Maye. They succeeded with one pick. Seven of the other guys are not on the team. They still made the Super Bowl, and that’s impressive, but it tells you everything about how bad this class was.

Even the Eagles, who walked out with Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell (a really good draft for them), look at the rest of their picks. Are those guys lighting the world up? Three of the players they drafted aren’t even on the team anymore. They really only drafted one starter going by our rules here.

I know this isn’t going to change the way some people feel about Holmes. Some people are still going to bring up this draft and talk about how he should be fired because of the 2024 NFL Draft. Not everyone is going to see this article, and some people are going to see the headline and think I’m some sort of paid shill. But I think it’s very clear at this point. This draft was really bad, and no matter what Holmes did with it, the outcome was going to be ugly. There’s just no team you can point to and say they crushed it. Bad draft all around.

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