Leading up to the 2019 NFL Draft, we will preview prospects who could be a fit for the Detroit Lions.

Height: 6 feet 6 inches

Weight: 260 pounds

Projected round: 1

40-yard dash time: 4.41 seconds (1st among EDGE)

Bench press: 21 reps (11th among EDGE)

Vertical jump: 36 inches (6th among EDGE)

Broad jump: 125 inches (4th among EDGE)

3-cone drill: 7 seconds (4th among EDGE)

20-yard shuttle: 4.29 seconds (5th among EDGE)

Key stats: Posted double-digit tackles for loss and sacks in 2017 and 2018, a total of 30 tackles for loss and 22.5 sacks in that time. First-Team All-Southeastern Conference in 2017 and 2018. Second-Team All-American in 2018. Played all 26 games his final two seasons and then participated in the Senior Bowl.

Quotable: “I believe in the development of football. I believe football is a grown man sport. You have to play with real grown men. So you have to build up to that.”

Observations: Montez Sweat had the size and production in an elite conference to be on radars entering yet another draft where teams are desperate for playmakers on the edge. But after two straight All-Southeastern Conference seasons, he dominated the Senior Bowl week and then set a record with his 40-yard dash at the combine, and his momentum was suddenly off the charts.

But any time a player runs a drill that jarring, that’s when you go back to the tape and see if it shows up there. That’s where Sweat gets a little complicated.

You see his length on display all the time, from his ability to press out a defender to peek into the backfield to how he finishes moves against tackles to how he can reach out and catch a mobile quarterback on the edge. It’s easy to see bits of Ezekiel Ansah in these moments, and it’s understandable why Sweat has become the mock draft favorite to a Lions team that just sent Ansah out the door.

But the speed and burst are not always there, or at least always visible. His play speed can be inconsistent. He gets caught up on blocks, where he doesn’t have the hands or the plan to break free quickly. He can be a little slow to transition from one leg of the pass rush to the next, delaying the process. He plays too high and seems to be thinking more than executing a plan.

But it certainly comes out, such as when teams have to throw to come back against him. He seems to feed off his own momentum in the course of a game, where one whip around the edge to slam a quarterback has him fist pumping and suddenly becoming a force on every down, as if the thinking has gone away.

Sweat is an All-American who played in the best conference in college football, and yet his biggest knock is that his strength isn’t ready to go. That’s generally encouraging for a few reasons. One is that strength is the trait prospects improve the most as rookies, where their job every day is to develop their bodies. It also appears like Sweat has improved on that over the past year, from stepping up in SEC games to dominating 1-on-1 drills at the Senior Bowl to weighing in at 260 in Indianapolis. That added bulk obviously didn’t interfere with his speed either, as he ran the fastest 40 for a player his size in history.

It’s Sweat’s lower-body strength that seems to need the most work. He could use a bull rush badly when facing technically sound tackles, as he will see in the NFL. He gets moved off the point of attack in the run game too easily. Perhaps he’s simply a better fit standing up and rushing from a 3-4 look, which wasn’t the plan at Mississippi State.

Sweat fits the Lions schematically as a stand-up rusher and he brings the profile Bob Quinn often looks for in the first round, with multiple years of production in a major conference. Detroit did just invest in Trey Flowers while re-signing Romeo Okwara, and it has also placed a premium on character lately. Sweat has some explaining to do after he left Michigan State following a suspension. Double transfers who played five years often do.

Like Danielle Hunter or Leonard Floyd, Sweat should be a good player if he stays on the right track and develops physically before landing a simplified role. I don’t think he’s ready enough to be a top-10 pick or the best edge rusher expected to be available at No. 8. He’ll go somewhere in the top half of the first, but I doubt he’ll be the best available player for the Lions.

Previous prospect previews:

Hakeem Butler, WR, Iowa State (Rounds 1-2)

DK Metcalf, WR, Mississippi (Round 1)

N’Keal Harry, WR, Arizona State (Round 1-2)