Detroit Lions draft history

This article is part of series on the
Detroit Lions draft history
Draft picks from 1936 to 1969
Draft picks from 1970 to the present
List of first-round draft picks
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The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the North Division of the National Football Conference.^[1] The franchise was founded in Portsmouth, Ohio, as the Portsmouth Spartans and joined the NFL on July 12, 1930.^[2] After being purchased by George A. Richards in 1934, the franchise was relocated to Detroit and renamed to the Detroit Lions in reference to the city's Major League Baseball franchise, the Detroit Tigers.^[3][4] The team plays its home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.^[5] The Lions took part in the first NFL draft of college football players in 1936 and have participated in every NFL draft since.^[6][7] With the eighth pick of the first round of the 1936 draft, Sid Wagner, a guard from Michigan State University, became the Lions' first draft selection.^[2]

When a team selects a player, the team receives exclusive rights to sign that player to a contract and no other team in the league may sign them, with limited exceptions.^[8][9] From 1936 to 1959, the NFL draft was the only collegiate draft for players of American football, except for that of the short-lived All-America Football Conference (AAFC) in the late 1940s.^[10] However, starting in 1960, the newly-formed American Football League (AFL) began a competing draft of the same group of collegiate players. The NFL and AFL competed for the same players from 1960 to 1966, creating a bidding war for signing draft picks and players that threatened the financial sustainability of each league. In 1967, the AFL and NFL announced a merger that would be finalized in 1970. During this time, both leagues implemented a common draft, thus avoiding competition for signing draftees.^[11] In addition to the annual draft, special drafts have occurred. These included the 1950 AAFC dispersal draft and the 1984 NFL supplemental draft, where existing NFL teams, including the Lions, were able to select players from other leagues. The AAFC dispersal draft was organized after the AAFC merged with the NFL; three teams from the AAFC were admitted into the NFL, while most of the remaining players from the other five AAFC teams were placed in the dispersal draft.^[12][13] The 1984 supplemental draft occurred after the formation of the United States Football League (USFL) with the primary purpose of selecting players that had already signed with a USFL team in a separate process from the annual draft. The Canadian Football League (CFL) was also included in this supplemental draft.^[14] In addition to the 1984 supplemental draft, the NFL has hosted an annual supplemental draft since 1977 for players who had circumstances affect their eligibility for the NFL draft.^[15] The Lions have only selected a player once in a supplemental draft, taking Kevin Robinson in the ninth round in 1982.^[16] With this selection, the Lions forfeited their normal ninth-round pick in the 1983 NFL draft.^[16] Additionally, eight expansion drafts occurred, with the most recent in 2002, where newly formed NFL teams were allowed to draft players from existing NFL teams within certain limitations.^[17][18]

Throughout the history of the NFL draft, the number of rounds and the number of picks have fluctuated significantly, depending on the number of teams in the NFL. Thus with 32 teams in the NFL since 2002, there have been 32 standard draft picks per round.^[19] The number of rounds peaked to 32 in the years during and after World War II, although that number has been routinely reduced down to the current seven rounds per draft.^[20] The order of the draft selection is derived from the previous season's final standings, with the worst team in the league selecting first and the champion selecting last.^[21] However, for 12 years from 1947 to 1958, the first overall pick was chosen by a lottery, with that selection replacing what would have been the team's original first-round selection based on their record the previous season. When a team won the lottery, they were then removed from the next year's lottery.^[22] The Lions won the lottery pick in the 1950 NFL draft, using their bonus pick to select Leon Hart, an end from Notre Dame.^[23]

The Lions have selected 15 players who were eventually elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.^[24] Five of these players—Fred Biletnikoff, Otto Graham, Johnny Robinson, Mac Speedie, and Y. A. Tittle—chose not to play for the Lions and instead signed for teams in competing leagues.^[25] Seven of the Lions' draft picks have won the Associated Press NFL Rookie of the Year Award: Lem Barney (1967), Mel Farr (1967), Earl McCullouch (1968), Al Baker (1978), Billy Sims (1980), Barry Sanders (1989), and Ndamukong Suh (2010).^[26][27] The Lions have drafted first overall four times, selecting Frank Sinkwich in 1943, Leon Hart in 1950, Billy Sims in 1980, and Matthew Stafford in 2009.^[7] They have also drafted at second overall six times: Glenn Davis in 1947, John Rauch in 1949, Charles Rogers in 2003, Calvin Johnson in 2007, Ndamukong Suh in 2010, and Aidan Hutchinson in 2022.^[7] The Lions participated in the most recent draft in 2025, selecting seven players over seven rounds, including Tyleik Williams as their first-round draft pick.^[28]