The Detroit Lions are ramping up their pre-draft visits, and they continue to do their due diligence with the top prospects in the 2023 NFL Draft. The latest interesting name to come across the list of their top-30 visits: Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud. According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Lions will be hosting Stroud on a pre-draft visit later this week.

Stroud is arguably the top quarterback prospect in this year’s draft class. As a two-year starter at Ohio State, Stroud threw 85 touchdowns to just 12 interceptions, completing an impressive 69.3 percent of his passes along the way. He’s one of the most consistently accurate passers in this year’s class, and brings enough mobility to act as a dual-threat quarterback, even if he didn’t use his legs as much as he should have in college.

The Lions’ interest in Stroud could be read a few different ways. For one, they could simply be studying the quarterback class to help try to identify how the top of the draft will play out. As Lions general manager Brad Holmes said in 2021 when the team had the seventh overall pick, it’s always smart to evaluate the top quarterbacks in the draft when picking that high.