With the 16th pick, the Detroit Lions select Taylor Decker, OL Ohio State

With their first round pick, the Detroit Lions reinforced their offensive line with the selection of Taylor Decker of Ohio State. With Riley Reiff and the rest of their tackles a major question mark, the Lions felt that they had to jump at the chance to get a starting caliber tackle. In fact, the Lions had their pick into the commish within 2 minutes so they were very excited about the pick.

Decker is probably more natural on the right side but if they let Riley Reiff walk in free agency, then Decker will slide over to the left for them and try to keep Stafford clean for as long as he’s the quarterback. Decker is a mean, nasty blocker with great power and blocking skills. The big question for him is his footwork. It can be rather slow and clumsy at times and this is why he’s probably not a sure thing at left tackle right now.

One big question mark for him is if his pass blocking skills look better than they are because of the zone option system that he played in where the quarterbacks didn’t have to hold the ball too long and were required to get the ball out quickly. This is a fair concern, he really hasn’t been asked to hold off a blocker while the quarterback waits for the routes to develop but this is something that he can learn.

In the second round, look for the Lions to take a wideout or a defensive tackle to bolster those areas of the team.