Best trade up partners and scenarios for the Detroit Lions in the 2024 NFL Draft

The 2024 NFL Draft is almost here and soon downtown Detroit will be packed full of football fans looking to find out who their team will draft. Until then, there's going to be a lot of Detroit Lions fans wondering if the Lions will actually make a pick at the 29th spot or will they trade up or down? 

Trading down is a lot easier to do in this spot. We've already outlined what the best trade down scenarios would be for this team. Now it's time to talk about trading up. 

For the record, I don't think it's a great idea from this spot. Trading up in the past was easier because the Lions had higher picks that they could offer up. Now they're trading from the bottom of the rounds and if they want to move up, it's going to cost more to do so. 

With that in mind, here are the best trade up scenarios and partners for the Lions:

Los Angeles Rams

There's obviously some history there when it comes to trading picks. There's also a relationship between Lions GM Brad Holmes and Rams GM Les Sneed. The other thing is that the Rams have a ton of picks. So I think the Lions might be able to go into this trade up scenario and come out with more than just a higher pick. Here's the proposal:

Lions get: 19th, 196th and 217th picks
Rams get: 29th and 73rd picks

The Lions obviously have to give up that high third-round pick to get this done. They do get to move up to 19 where they could have their pick of some really great players that could help them out. 

Grabbing the 196th and 217th picks is all about having some sort of value to use when the Lions try to trade back into the third or fourth rounds. 

Arizona Cardinals

There's a solid chance that the Cardinals could trade down from the fourth pick and have multiple first round picks to use. I'm not saying the Lions should trade to four here. I'm saying the Cardinals probably wouldn't mind doing a little pick swapping at the the end of the round with their other first round pick they currently have. Here's the proposal: 

Lions get: 27th and 66th pick
Cardinals get: 29th and 61st pick

Real simple stuff here and it doesn't hurt the Lions. They move up two spots in the first to maybe grab someone ahead of another team and then they move down five spots in the second round. Everybody wins. 

Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles are a team that I think would be interested in trading down so they could make sure they have enough picks to grab every Georgia player on the board. In all seriousness, the Lions have something the Eagles would probably love to have and that's future assets. They're going to be in some cap trouble soon and the more young players they can have will help them. Here's the proposal: 

Lions get: 22nd pick
Eagles get: 29th pick, 201st pick and a 2025 4th round pick

Yes, the Eagles get their fourth round pick back from last year and all they had to do was move down a few spots. They basically got D'Andre Swift for free for a year. Not bad. 

Chicago Bears

Well, here's the one where I'm going to go for it. The Bears have four picks in this draft and that's it. That's not enough for this young building team if you ask me. So let's cut a deal for the 9th pick shall we? Here's the proposal:

Lions get: 9th pick
Bears get: 29th pick, 73rd pick, 164th pick, 2025 second-round pick and a 2025 sixth-round pick

The Lions get to the top of the board and can pick a real game changer here. The problem is that they gave up a lot and now the Lions are the team that has limited draft stock. There is trade down opportunities for them with that second-round pick that they kept. So that's nice. 

The Lions don't make a move like this unless they're sure they are a couple players away from winning it all. They just might be by the way. Still, this is pretty big risk if you ask me.