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The Lions are expected to pick up the fifth-year option on Ezekiel Ansah, perhaps as soon as this week.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

ALLEN PARK -- Ezekiel Ansah's fifth-year options appears to be nothing more than a formality at this point.

And the Detroit Lions seem close to making that formality a done deal.

"I'll have an update on that for you in a few days," general manager Bob Quinn said Saturday night after wrapping up Day 3 at the NFL draft.

Ansah is entering the final year of his rookie deal, and short of working out a long-term deal, will have his fifth-year option picked up by the club. He's improved every year since the Lions took him fifth overall in 2013, and became a Pro Bowler for the first time last season, when he finished third in the league with 14.5 sacks.

Now that Ndamukong Suh is in Miami, and Calvin Johnson is retired, a good case can be made that Ansah is Detroit's best player. Linebacker DeAndre Levy and possibly Darius Slay are in that discussion as well.

Detroit won't let Ansah get away, and even if a long-term deal can't be arranged, the club could always use the franchise tag on him in 2017 as well.

Shakeup coming?

It's common for new general managers to initially keep many of the holdovers in the scouting department, because so much groundwork has already been laid for the draft, but then make more moves once the draft is over. Quinn was evasive about his plans after the draft, saying only, "we're still in the evaluation process, so I really have no updates on that."