Lions first-round draft pick Terrion Arnold says he could have been a Raider, if the flip of a coin had gone the other way.
Arnold said on the Next Round podcast that someone on the Raiders’ coaching staff told him after the draft that the Raiders were down to Brock Bowers and Arnold and resolved it with a coin toss, which resulted in drafting Bowers with the 13th overall pick.
“The Raiders coach, they called me after the draft, they were actually like, ‘We had a coin toss between you and Brock Bowers and landed on him,’” Arnold said.
Arnold also said that the Lions, who traded up to No. 24 to draft him, were making calls about trading up even higher because of how much they wanted him. Arnold said Lions General Manager Brad Holmes tried to trade up to No. 15 or No. 16 because the Lions thought they needed to move ahead of the Jaguars, who picked at No. 17. In reality the Jaguars passed on Arnold to trade down from No. 17 to No. 23, and then passed on Arnold again at No. 23.
Stories about teams’ decision-making processes on draft day often get exaggerated in the re-tellings and should be taken with a grain of salt, but Arnold believes the first round could have gone very differently.
