The Lions came insanely close to having a drastically different 2024 NFL Draft experience per an NFL insider

It's already been reported the Lions may have stolen 24th pick Terron Arnold out from under the Green Bay Packers, but they nearly didn't have a chance to do that. There was another team that had a chance to take him before the Lions and they nearly did it. That's the Jacksonville Jaguars per ESPN NFL insider Jeremy Fowler. 

"Alabama cornerback Terrion Arnold also was a strong consideration as the choice. But Jacksonville wanted a receiver with dominant traits to replace Calvin Ridley and figured it could get corner help elsewhere in the draft."

If the Jaguars would have taken Arnold, that would have drastically changed the course of draft for the Lions. They would have either stayed at 29 and had a chance to maybe take Ennis Rakestraw earlier than they initially did or they would have possibly traded up for Darius Robinson. 

Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer reported that the Lions were planning to trade up for another player if they didn't get Arnold. He believed that player to be Darius Robinson.

Detroit had actually laid groundwork for a trade up—I believe Missouri DE Darius Robinson was the target—which made it easy to pivot and get aggressive in going up from No. 29 to No. 24 to land a falling Arnold."

If the Lions didn't do that, who knows what would have happened later in the draft. Would they have kept their third-round pick? Would they have traded up later in the draft? Would they have traded down from their third-round spot? There's a million questions about what they could have done. 

Luckily when the Jags got to the 23rd pick, they took LSU receiver Brian Thomas and the Lions made their move up and drafted the guy that was at the top of their board in Terrion Arnold. Everything worked out, but it almost didn't.