In a good sign for Lions fans that Detroit got good value from third-round draft pick Larry Warford, it turns out that Warford was viewed as a player worthy of a first-round pick by at least one other team.
Peter King of Sports Illustrated was inside the Rams’ draft room, and he reported (as pointed out by ESPN.com) that when the Rams moved down from the 22nd pick to the 30th pick in the first round, Warford was one of the three players they were hoping would still be on the board at No. 30.
When the Rams decided to trade down, they were hoping to draft either Warford, UCLA defensive lineman Datone Jones (who went 26th to the Packers) or Georgia linebacker Alec Ogletree. As it turned out, both Ogletree and Warford were still available at No. 30, and the Rams decided to go with Ogletree.
The Rams didn’t have a second-round pick, so they didn’t get another shot at Warford before the Lions took him early in the third round, at No. 65 overall. Warford is expected to start at right guard for the Lions as a rookie, and the word out of Detroit is that the Lions think they got a steal in the third round.
The Rams would have to agree.