Lions president Rod Wood takes shot at Green Bay draft attendance: 'They'll finish third like they did last year'

The 2024 NFL Draft was held in Detroit, home of the Lions. Over 775,000 fans attended the three-day event, breaking the previous record set in 2019.

This year, the draft heads slightly northwest to Green Bay, home of the Packers. Lions president Rod Wood doubts Green Bay will top what Detroit accomplished.

“Trying to get the NFL to consider bringing it back [to Detroit] because I don’t think they’ll ever top it,” Wood said at the annual NFL draft luncheon hosted at the Detroit Economic Club, via Marlowe Alter of the Detroit Free Press.

Wood didn’t stop there. He transitioned to a little bit of trash talk towards the Lions’ NFC North division rival.

“There’s no way Green Bay will come close,” Wood continued. “They’ll finish second or as I said to Brad [Galli], they’ll finish third like they did last year.”

Lions president begins 2025 trash talk against Packers

Ouch. The Packers did finish third in the division, albeit with an 11-6 record. Green Bay made the playoffs as a wild card, but its record would have been enough to win the NFC South and NFC West. The Lions, meanwhile, claimed the division crown with a 15-2 mark.

Both the Packers and Lions won the same amount of playoff games. That would be zero; Green Bay went home in the NFC Wild Card Round to the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, while the Lions were bounced in the Divisional Round by the Washington Commanders. Of course, the Packers can always say they have four Lombardi trophies. The Lions haven’t ever been to the Super Bowl.

The Lions will pick No. 28 in Thursday’s Round 1. The Packers own pick No. 23. Discover Green Bay, the city’s tourism information center, estimates around 250,000 people will attend the draft across its three days, per Matt Schneidman of The Athletic.

Green Bay is the smallest NFL city and though there have been concerns about hotel capacity and roadway infrastructure among other things, NFL senior VP and global head of major events Jon Barker believes the city is ready to host the draft.

“Lambeau and Green Bay and the Packers and the organizing committee, they all had all of those components,” Barker told Schneidman. “For us, the draft is really an experience for fans to come together and if there’s an opportunity to match that with also bringing them to a place like Green Bay, the conversation was the opposite of concern.

“I do think that Green Bay is ready for this.”