| Detroit Free Press
Do Detroit Lions have any good reason to start Matthew Stafford again?
Dave Birkett and Carlos Monarrez debate if the Detroit Lions should start Matthew Stafford again this year. Filmed Dec. 17, 2020.
Dave Birkett and Carlos Monarrez, Detroit Free Press
Barring an upset of the Minnesota Vikings in their season finale, the Detroit Lions will have a top-eight pick in the NFL draft for the third straight year.
The Lions moved up four sports to No. 7 in the draft order Sunday, and there is an outside chance they could go as high as No. 3 next week.
The Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets are locked into the top spots in the draft, but the other four teams ahead of the Lions in the draft order all have four wins – the Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans (whose pick is owned by the Miami Dolphins), Cincinnati Bengals and Philadelphia Eagles.
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The Falcons nearly scored a huge upset of the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, but missed the potential game-tying field goal in the final minute of regulation. They play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who drilled the Lions, 47-7, on Saturday, in next week’s season finale.
If the Falcons win, and the Texans (against the Tennessee Titans), Bengals (against the Baltimore Ravens) and Eagles (against Washington) all pull Week 17 upsets, the Lions should have back-to-back top-three picks for the first time since 2009-10, when they took Matthew Stafford and Ndamukong Suh at Nos. 1 and 2 overall, respectively.
Suh earned three first-team All-Pro selections in five seasons with the Lions before leaving for the Dolphins in free agency, and Stafford has been one of the best quarterbacks in franchise history, though the Lions could look to draft his replacement in April.
The Jaguars, Jets and Falcons also could be in the market for quarterbacks, though only Jacksonville is guaranteed to use a pick on the position.
Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence is the presumptive No. 1 overall pick, and Ohio State’s Justin Fields, BYU’s Zach Wilson and North Dakota State’s Trey Lance are other potential top-10 quarterbacks.
The Lions moved up in the draft order Sunday thanks to an upset by another quarterback-needy team, the Carolina Panthers, who beat Washington, 20-13.
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Carolina, which had the fourth pick entering the week, now sits ninth in the draft order.
The Lions, Panthers, New York Giants and Denver Broncos all enter the final week of the regular season with 5-10 records, but the Lions have the weakest strength of schedule, and thus own the draft tiebreaker.
The Lions also benefited from wins by the Cowboys (over the Eagles) and Los Angeles Chargers (over the Broncos) on Sunday, and moved ahead of the Giants based on strength of schedule (.502 to .506), according to Tankathon.
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.