If the Detroit Lions want Chase Young, they need a strategy

If the Detroit Lions truly want the best options with their number three pick, they need to be serious about taking a quarterback.

The Detroit Lions spend this Super Bowl week no closer to achieving a title, as another year has come and gone with little progress towards building a championship team. The 2019 season was a failure by any measure with just three (and a half) wins to show for their effort. And ending the season on a nine-game losing streak.

But the saving grace for this team is that their playoff failure resulted in a high draft pick – number three to be exact. Had starting quarterback Matthew Stafford stayed healthy for the entire season, the Detroit Lions probably would have still missed the playoffs, but been choosing somewhere in the middle of the draft.

Stafford’s injury this year coupled with awful play by back-up quarterbacks Jeff Driskel and David Blough should put the team in the mindset of drafting a quarterback with their high pick. The quarterback position can yield the biggest returns for a team, but this franchise doesn’t think in those terms.

The shame of it is that the rookie salary cap allows failure with first-round quarterbacks to not cripple a franchise, ala Joey Harrington, who was chosen number three by Detroit in the 2002 NFL Draft. A pick that set the franchise on the path towards a winless season in 2008, and eventually choosing Stafford number one in the 2009 draft.

Stafford has been a solid player for the franchise. He has not been able to get the team to a playoff victory, but he has elevated the franchise to a level of mediocrity – which almost feels like winning for an organization that has failed so many times in the past, especially at the quarterback position.