Is this year’s NFL Draft the time when the Detroit Lions finally start the Matthew Stafford succession plan?
Matthew Stafford will likely go down as the greatest quarterback in franchise history, but is it time for him to become a relic of the past?
The Lions are looking like they’ll enter into a rebuild, with a new head coach coming this offseason and with him a new regime with a new timeline. Stafford is still one of the best quarterbacks in the league, but does the Lions new timeline match up with is and are they still a fit together?
That’s the question the Lions will ask this offseason, especially when it comes to potentially drafting Stafford’s replacement.
It’s no guarantee that the Lions will go this route, but if they do — even if it’s a draft-and-stash — who is the right guy?
Would Zach Wilson or Trey Lance be worth the pick?
Detroit is set to draft 11th right now. Should they lose out, they’ll inch up little by little.
Stafford has two years left on the contract, but who will return to the offense next season. The team could lose go-to target Kenny Golladay should free agency come calling, but with the oft-injured season, perhaps they work out a deal. A new coach will likely cut veterans like Marvin Jones while Danny Amendola and Mohamed Sanu are free agents.
Right now, Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields would be out of the conversation for Detroit sine they’ll almost certainly be off the board when the Lions go on the clock.
Attention should turn to NDSU’s Trey Lance and Zach Wilson and the potential long-term answers under center. But even then, the Lions might have to trade up to get one of those guys which makes the decision of what to do with Stafford carry even more weight.
To move up, the draft value chart believes they would have to offer something along the lines of over 1,000 points. A team like the Dolphins that need a wide receiver and have multiple options could move back, but it would cost Detroit a mid-round pick in the process.
That would only move them up into the No. 6-9 range based on how the Houston Texans end their season.
Who knows what the next general manager of Detroit will do? The team needs a hail mary selection to bring hope back to one of the more struggling franchises in NFL history. Moving up would be a statement that the Lions aren’t messing around to fix the more dire position for their ultimate future.