Without a doubt, the most polarizing move the Detroit Lions made in the 2025 NFL Draft was their aggressive trade up from 102 to the 70th pick in order to draft Arkansas wide receiver Isaac TeSlaa. That pick received the lowest grade from our fans, and it’s running away with the vote for “least favorite pick,” both due to the perceived reach and the draft capital it cost to go up and get him.
But it almost didn’t happen.
Michael Silver of The Athletic had unparalleled access inside the Jacksonville Jaguars’ draft war room over the weekend, and he was diligently watching as the Lions tried to pull off this trade with the Jags. He described how early in third round Jacksonville was weighing Detroit’s offer with another trade that the Rams had offered for the 70th pick: a future second-round pick.
Eventually they chose Detroit’s offer, but the Lions were still weighing whether they wanted to pull the deal off—Jacksonville believed one of their targets was Louisville defensive end Ashton Gillotte, who went off the board a pick 66.
With the Jaguars on the clock, the Rams pulled their offer (they wanted Gillotte), but the Lions finally agreed. Only one problem: there was a communication breakdown.
“Then things got dicey,” Silver wrote. “[Jaguars director of player finance Trip] MacCracken nailed down the trade with [Lions COO Mike] Disner and both contacted the assigned NFL representative to make the terms official. However, a communications issue with the league slowed down the process.”
The clock ticked down to 90 seconds left, and the trade had not yet commenced—drawing a call from Lions general manager Brad Holmes.
“Hey,” Holmes asked, “are we gonna be able to make this deal, or what?”
Eventually, the trade got made, and the Lions were able to select TeSlaa with “seconds to spare,” per Silver.
Given how massive the move was, it’s fair to wonder how different Detroit’s 2025 class would have been if they didn’t beat the clock