How interest in Tua Tagovailoa helps the Detroit Lions draft
QB-needy teams, Tua could help Lions
A big x-factor in every draft is the quarterback-needy teams. In this case, quite a few teams will likely have an interest in moving up, although it isn’t a given that they will. It can be expensive to move up in a draft to find a quarterback, especially if your team has to get into the top few picks where the Detroit Lions now sit.
Additional teams may enter the market for a quarterback depending on what a new head coach or general manager might have to say. Five teams changed head coaches this offseason, so it remains to be seen which might want a new direction for their quarterback room.
It is unlikely that the New York Giants, Washington Redskins, Cleveland Browns, or Dallas Cowboys will elect to move on from their young signal-callers going into 2020 but you never know.
The situation with the Carolina Panthers has new quarterback written all over it but that wouldn’t necessarily preclude former starter Cam Newton from returning for a time if he’s healthy. Washington is not sold on Dwayne Haskins as their starter but after investing a first-round pick in Haskins, you would imagine there’s some pressure on new coach Ron Rivera to give him time to be evaluated and to improve.
Teams that have an assumed need at quarterback include the Cincinnati Bengals, Miami Dolphins, Indianapolis Colts, and Carolina Panthers. However, circumstances may also push some other teams into the fray, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and even possibly the Tennessee Titans are at a crossroads with their field generals. Other teams are dealing with aging stars like the New England Patriots and New Orleans Saints, too.
Few teams have the luxury of an heir apparent sitting behind their current starter. In that way, the Detroit Lions are no exception. Regardless of how you would rate Jeff Driskel, David Blough, or Kyle Sloter no one thinks that any of the three men would be an adequate replacement for Matthew Stafford.
The minimum number of teams looking to fill their quarterback need is probably in the range of four to five that may spend high draft picks; the likelihood that the Lions would have to use their number three overall pick to obtain Tua Tagovailoa is very high given the premium on good quarterback play, too.
Some draft websites have Tagovailoa as the third quarterback to be drafted behind Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow while others speculate that the Miami Dolphins have planned to select Tagovailoa the whole time and are motivated to move if they need to.
The almost non-existent possibility of the Detroit Lions taking Tagovailoa should be considered purely to make the possibility exist in the head of Chris Grier, the general manager of the Miami Dolphins. He needs to think that the Lions might take him but that they would consider not doing so for the right price. Bob Quinn, the Lions vice president-general manager, cannot oversell his interest in the former Crimson Tide trigger-man.
It would not sit well with most of the fan base but having Tagovailoa would give the Detroit Lions not only a short-term backup but a future starter for the first time in any era that we’ve been watching. The biggest problem is that the Lions have continually stated that they are in win-now mode and expect to compete for playoff berths and possibly a Lombardi Trophy. Choosing Tua would force the front office to admit that they’re rebuilding and that doesn’t seem like a trick in their bag.
Stafford looked like an All-Pro through the first half of 2019 and it stands to reason that since he says that he’ll be ready that he has a chance to return to that form in 2020. It would be fun to have surprise depth there but it is too large of a cost at the moment and honestly, the defense needs the attention and priority.