Just a hunch, the Lions may have tried to trade up for an edge rusher in the 2025 NFL Draft, and we have an idea of who it was

The 2025 NFL Draft is in the books, and the Detroit Lions walked out with Ohio State defensive tackle Tyleik Williams in the first round. There is no doubt in my mind that they're happy with this pick and that Lions fans should be too.

But just looking at a few different things, it gave us a hunch. Now, I want to be extra super careful here by telling you that this is my hunch, my opinion and it's not based on any inside information. 

With that said, I think the Lions tried to trade up for Texas A&M edge rusher Shemar Stewart on Thursday night. Here's why I think that. First off, on day two, Lions GM Brad Holmes talked about trading up when asked about edge rushers. 

"I don’t need to get into specifics, but there were times we made attempts to get one, and you just – they got picked before, you couldn’t get up. It takes two to trade."

Ok, so there's the proof that the Lions attempted to trade up for one. Why do we think it was Stewart? It's all based on the top-30 visits. The Lions really seem to love picking the guys they have in for those visits. Isaac TeSlaa and Tyleik Williams are more proof of that. We'll probably find Tate Ratledge and Miles Frazier came in too at some point. 

The Lions had just three edge rushers in for 30 visits, and only one of them was a first-round guy. That was Stewart. He wound up going 17th to the Bengals. 

We don't know what teams they called to move up, but no team traded their first-round pick after the Browns and Jaguars did their deal in the top five. The Texans moved their pick to the Giants, and the Falcons and Rams did a deal. But that was after Stewart was taken. 

Stewart was also the only edge taken between the 12th pick and the Lions' pick at 28. There was James Pearce at 26, but that was never going to happen for Detroit, and I don't believe they ever looked at him.

So there it is. I say again, this is not a rumor. This is not anything that we heard or anything like that. Purely a hunch.