The 2025 NFL Combine is next week and we’ll get to have our first ideas of who the Detroit Lions will be looking at in terms of players and positions. For the next week, we’ll be going over some of the positions we suspect the Lions will have interest in and listing some of the players that they’ll definitely have their eyes on. Here’s what we’ve done so far:
The Lions have a pretty strong interior defensive line when it comes to the starters. Both Alim McNeill and DJ Reader are great players. Behind them, there are some questions right now. We don’t know if Levi Onwuzurkie will be back yet, we don’t know if the Brodic Martin experiment is going to fail, and we don’t know what the full plan is for Mekhi Wingo.
With all these questions, it feels like a good idea to go out and grab some players who can not only stabilize the depth but be future starters. Here are six interior defensive linemen in the Lions range to watch at the NFL Combine:
Walter Nolen, Ole Miss
Average draft position: 26.5
The Lions are going to be looking for players who can both rush the passer and stop the run. Nolen was one of the best run-stoppers in the country last year. PFF gave him the second-highest run-stop grade behind Michigan’s Mason Graham who will be out of reach for Detroit. He’s got the pass-rush juice too. His six sacks were third in the nation.
The problem is that he’s teetering on the edge of being there for the Lions or being gone already.
Deone Walker, Kentucky
Average draft position: 46.71
Here is a guy that is a favorite for us at A to Z Detroit. His 2024 season did not go his way and that is how the Lions can get him later. In 2023 he was everything the team wants. Could stop the run and was second in the nation in pressures and third in sacks from the interior. The worry is the obvious one of will his back feel better going forward? Or will it get worse?
Darius Alexander, Toledo
Average draft position: 64.75
How about some Maction? Graham had the best run-stop grade from PFF and Nolen had the second best. Alexander is the guy that was in third. Again, the Lions take that very seriously. The problem is that his pass rush could use a little work. He did put up 33 pressures and three sacks though. That’s not too bad.
Shemar Turner, Texas A&M
Average draft position: 74.50
Like Walker, there was a bit of a step back for Turner in 2024. In 2023 he was one of the highest-graded pass-rushing interior defensive linemen in the country with 36 pressures and five sacks. The thing you worry about is the stress fracture he suffered in his foot ahead of the 2024 season. It clearly took a bit out of his game.
Aeneas Peebles, Virginia Tech
Average draft position: 87.00
PFF’s highest-graded pass-rushing interior offensive lineman. He finished the year third in pressures with 37 and had three sacks. He was second in hurries. This guy affects the passer for sure. The concern with him is that he’s undersized, but so is Mekhi Wingo. That did not stop Holmes from drafting him.
Rylie Mills, Notre Dame
Average depth position: 165.00
Mills led the nation in sacks by interior defensive linemen with eight last year. He also had 34 pressures as well. The problem you run into with Mills is that he needs work against the run.