If I was drafting Pickett for the Lions, it wouldn’t be as a starter, or even a starter in waiting. Fact is, Blough and Boyle are on one year deals, and I don’t see any reason to bring them back. Now, we can go out and sign an overpriced backup that’s going to take away from the salary cap, not naming any names (Looking at you, Chase Daniel!), or we could draft a mid round prospect on a rookie contract that won’t stink up the field if called on.
Think Kubiak, Cassel, etc. Maybe not the greatest examples off the top of my head, but guys who were drafted to hold a clipboard. If they get on the field and light it up, great, bonus, but I think having a low investment backup wouldn’t be a bad idea.
My question in that regard would be whether fans could handle that approach. Historically, it doesn’t matter if its Mike McMahon, or Bob Gagliano, or let me drift out the back of the end zone on the way to 0-16, the siren call of the youthful, backup QB is irresistible for fans of this beleaguered franchise.
I’m in a weird place on this myself. I can’t wait to see Willis at the Senior Bowl and to see some official weigh-in data. I’d like the top defender and hope one of the QB’s falls to us at 32 or 33, but I don’t know if they have the brass to role the dice on getting a QB outside of 1 overall.
We can’t reach for a QB just because our need is so dire. If there are no worthy QBs, you can’t just take one to take one. That will set us back even further. Personally, I’d wait until next year. Yes, that leaves us with another year of Goff which sucks, but compared to missing out on a real talent at the position, I’m willing to suffer it. And we can improve everywhere else.
I think Pickett may have the kind of mindset and experience that would allow him to start as a rookie…but i would still prefer to have him sit ayear behind Goff as we continue to build an actual NFL talent level roster.
Well, it’s more than need. It’s 5 QBs in 15 picks last year and how that’s a pretty good picture of the NFL. We may have a guy that we think is a good option at the top of the 2nd, but because it’s QB it ends up being top of the 1st.
Still, I hope they have the 'nads to hold tight on their grade. If the Edge guys are better prospects, pick them and let the cards fall where they may.
I agree, don’t reach. That will be a disaster. But, you can find QB’s outside of the 1st round if a GM knows how to evaluate QB’s. Montana, Russel Wilson, Brady, Favre, Drew Brees, none were a 1st round pick. Kurt Warner wasn’t even drafted. All those dudes in the hall of fame or heading there soon.
That’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure I’m missing guys.
You’re spot on. A lot of people talk about different QB classes as being “weak” or “strong” without perspective of what that means, or without thinking about how far swinging and missing sets a franchise back. What if you could go back in time and get the Lions to hold off on drafting Joey Harrington in 2002, take Ed Reed, and wait two years to choose between Eli Manning, Phillip Rivers, or Ben Roethlisberger
QB’s put butts in seats, sell jerseys, and season tickets. How many people rushed out to get an Orlando Pace jersey when he went #1 OA? For a team’s bottom line, even getting it wrong is better financially than getting it right.
While I agree you can find them after the 1st, I don’t think there’s any skill to it. It’s basically luck. The Cowboys were on record as loving Paxton Lynch and trying to trade up for him, but they had to settle on Dak. WTF took Cousins to serve as a backup to the guy they’d taken in the 1st round RGIII. Falling into Kurt Warner was total luck for the Rams. On and on it goes. The Pats scouted and liked Brady, but they still only had him graded as a 3rd rounder and they only took him cause he was their highest-rated player and they stuck to their board. They already had a full compliment of QBs. Brees would have been a 1st rounder today (pick 32). Only Montana was truly targeted as a QB of the future, and that’s cause he was the perfect system QB for the newfangled West Coast offense Walsh was about to set the league on fire with.
And if I started to list off the QBs who weren’t drafted in the 1st round who didn’t succeed, it would be a staggering list and dwarf the ones who did. It’s just a crapshoot. Which is why I don’t think we can rely on it to try and solve our situation. If we want to take a mid-round punt, fine. because it won’t stop us from drafting one next year.
It’s a valid point. There is tons of luck involved for sure. I forgot both Dak and Cousins were both 4th rounders. The 1st round QB bust rate the past 20 years is incredibly high.
Big bold, going out on a limb, wishful thinking. Texans trade Watson to the Jets for the jets picks, then Texans trade with us to move up to 1 for Willis.
One of the great things that has been said, and can’t be said enough, by guys like Bill Parcells is the kind of situation a guy is drafted into. Very seldom do you draft someone to be “the savior”, and it even ends up being mediocre without building a team.
He used David Carr as an example. Is David Carr a bust if he gets drafted by another team? Who knows. You do know he got absolutely ABUSED behind that offensive line. Is Peyton Manning a bust if he gets drafted into that situation? A lot of hypotheticals to be sure.
I’m a believer in building up, before you buy the stud thoroughbred. You make that kind of investment to win the race, not drag a plow.
I do think that the Lions have the right offensive line in place to bring in a guy, right now. However, going back to Manning, they drafted Marvin Harrison the year before. That helped his development tremendously.
I think you can make a lot of valid arguments on every facet of taking a QB out of this class, and I don’t think any of them would be less valid. It’s always been a bit of a chicken and egg issue.
Ok…Pickett is athletic. Not sure where that part came from. But he can run the football well. The only issue I have with him is not just small hands, but teeny tiny hands…smaller than Goffs. As small as any qb in combine. It’s a problem and it should alarm NFL Gms. I personally cant get in board with it unless it is like round 3 or 4.
