The 2025 NFL Draft is next week, and with that in mind, we’re going to zero in on the 28th pick and profile some of the players that best fit the Detroit Lions at that pick. Here’s who we’ve covered so far:
- North Dakota State offensive lineman Grey Zabel
- Texas A&M edge Nic Scourton
- Texas receiver Matthew Golden
- Boston College edge Donovan Ezeiruaku
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Detroit Lions fans really want a defensive lineman as fast as possible. They want one on a boat, and they want one in a moat. Harmon is a guy who many Lions fans have been a fan of at 28.
He’s coming off a strong final year at Oregon that saw him notch 55 pressures and five sacks for the Ducks. Lions fans may also be aware of Harmon because of his three seasons at Michigan State. He was decent there, but he really became a solid player after the transfer.
There’s versatility here that’s fun. He can play inside as a defensive tackle, and then you can kick him outside as an edge rusher. He has a lot of strength on the inside and is capable of throwing away hands of offensive linemen, and he tends to mix up his pass rush moves instead of trying to win with the same thing over and over again.
He’s also never missed a game in college. After a year of injuries, the Lions would probably love to have guys who remain on the field going into a big year.
The knocks are some big ones. He has a bit penalty problem. He committed some big ones like roughing the passer and unnecessary roughness. Those are the flags that tend to really hurt your attempts to stop the offense. There’s also a small concern about conditioning since he was 250 pounds at Michigan State. But he measured in at 313 pounds at the Combine, so maybe that’s one you don’t have to worry too much about.
The thing to worry about is whether or not he’ll be there at 28? He is Dane Brugler’s 16th-ranked player in the entire draft. He’s our 26th-ranked guy. We have his average draft position set at 27.95. Could he make it there? We’ll see.