2016 NFL Draft: QB Rankings and the Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions made significant changes to their front office and new general manager Bob Quinn will make his first selections for the Detroit Lions in the 2016 NFL draft. With the new blood in the front office, there’s likely to be a change in the attitude the Lions bring to the draft and how they go about the business of composing their roster.

The Lions have not drafted a quarterback since they selected Matthew Stafford in 2009, opting to go the way of free agency or bringing in a veteran presence through free agency. They just haven’t brought anybody in to challenge Stafford on any level and have been fortunate that Stafford is a very durable quarterback that hasn’t missed time.

There’s no guarantee that we’ll see a change in philosophy with how Quinn approaches the quarterback position, but it is fair to make the assumption that we’ll see backup quarterback Dan Orlovsky challenged to make the roster this fall. That player will be a player that the Lions target in the mid-to-late part of the draft or as a priority free agent signed immediately after the draft.

Through the draft, I’d expect players Mississippi State signal caller Dak Prescott and Stanford’s Kevin Hogan to be targeted, but the reality is that quarterbacks simply aren’t developed at the NFL level any longer. It makes it tough to use an important pick on a quarterback because there aren’t enough snaps throughout a season to fully develop a quarterback that is drafted late.

For that reason, it will be very telling if the Lions use a “middle of the draft” type of pick on a quarterback. If the Lions do select a quarterback in this area of the draft, it will tell us that the Lions really like that player and view upgrading the backup quarterback position as a priority.

Teams start making calls late in the draft to gauge interest in players that will go undrafted, and in that scenario I’d see them targeting Michigan’s Jake Rudock or Blake Frohnapfel from Massachusetts. In Rudock’s case, there’s a lot to be said for a quarterback that shows significant improvement throughout a season and he absolutely did that.

In the Lions case, the backup quarterback is simply a clipboard holder and only under a very bad scenario will that player see playing time. That doesn’t mean that the Lions should simply ignore the position though, but there are a few different ways they can go about upgrading the position.