Sione Vaki, a fourth-round pick by the Detroit Lions in the 2024 NFL Draft, was one of the team’s more intriguing selections. As a four-phase special team player, he is a versatile player who will most likely make an immediate impact. However, he also possesses the experience and ability set to be an offensive or defensive player.
As we continue our “5 things to know…” series on the Lions’ 2024 draft class, let’s get to know Vaki a little better:
Did you know he plays safety and running back yet?
At the risk of already turning this into a Matthew Stafford and Clayton Kershaw thing, it’s still pretty darn important to point out that Vaki was predominantly a safety at Utah. But when the injury bug hit the running backs room, Vaki was moved over to an offensive role in addition to his defensive role.
This w asn’t just a hair-brained idea from the Utah coaching staff. Vaki earned plenty of experience on offense in high school, including sharing the backfield with Najee Harris before transferring to another high school. In his senior year, he caught 70 passes for 1,394 yards and 20 touchdowns, earning the league MVP.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes knows he can play safety, but it sure sounds like he’s more interested in his untapped potential at running back:
“We know he can play safety. We know he can do that, but the vision is we’re so intrigued by the running back stuff, especially because he hadn’t been majoring in it,” Holmes said. “So it’s like how far can this thing go if he’s actually majoring in this thing in one room? So that’s going to be the vision.”
I dug a little deeper on Vaki to see what his preference was, and I thought he gave a very interesting answer in this pre-draft interview with “Inside The Birds”:
Leave a Reply