Brad Holmes and the Lions put the finishing touches on their 2023 draft class Saturday, with William & Mary offensive tackle Colby Sorsdal in the fifth round and North Carolina wide receiver Antoine Green in the seventh.
Sorsdal was a team captain and five-year starter at right tackle for William & Mary, and a first-team FCS All-American as a senior. He's likely ticketed for the interior of the offensive line in the NFL, which could serve the Lions down the road. Left guard Jonah Jackson will be a free agent after this season and right guard is a long-term question mark.
Per NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein, the 6'6, 300-lb. Sorsdal "is athletic with good lateral movement and fits a zone-scheme rushing attack," but "will need to get bigger and stronger" to thwart NFL pass rushers.
Green is a big, fast, field-stretching receiver. He finished ninth in the Power 5 in yards per catch last season and fifth the season before that -- one spot behind his new teammate Jameson Williams. With Williams suspended for the first six games this season, Green should push for a job in the Lions' offense.
Speed and length play in the NFL, and the 6'2 Green, a former sprinter and long-jumper, has enough of both to give defenses problems for Detroit.
"Like most vertical specialists," says Zierlein, "he's not going to shake man coverage on intermediate routes, but he has decent hands and consistently finds himself overtaking deep coverage with his build-up speed."
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