2024 NFL Draft winners: Detroit Lions got the biggest ‘steal’ of Day 1

Analytically speaking, the Detroit Lions got the biggest steal of Round 1 with their selection of Terrion Arnold

Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes couldn’t believe that Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold was still on the board at pick 24 in the 2024 NFL Draft.

“I didn’t think he was going to be there,” Holmes said after the draft. “Really, didn’t think he was going to be there calling (into the) late teens.”

At that point, Holmes couldn’t help himself and traded up five spots to get, what he deemed, was the best cornerback in this year’s class. By his measure, it was clearly a steal.

But it was also a steal by an entire consensus of media members. Every year, our friend Arif Hasan creates a “Consensus Big Board,” which is formed by averaging the individual draft big boards of around 100 different draft analysts.

At the end of Round 1 of the draft, Twitter user Anthony Reinhard took every first-round pick, and compared their draft spot to where they were on Hasan’s Big Board. And by that measure, the Lions had the biggest Day 1 steal—taking Arnold 12 spots after he was projected to go by Hasan’s board:

Of course, this is simply comparing the media perception of a draft prospect to reality of how things played out. This is the same “media” that believed last year, the Lions reached by taking Jahmyr Gibbs 13 spots too early, Jack Campbell 26 spots too early, and Sam LaPorta 17 spots too early. So, obviously, take this with a grain of salt.

That said, with the crazy run on offensive players, and Holmes’ clear shock that Arnold was still on the board that late, it’s safe to say that not only there are people well beyond the media who believe Detroit got a steal with Arnold.