With The Ninth Pick In The NFL Draft The Detroit Lions Take....

If you are a Detroit Lions fan, don't you have one huge fear for NFL Draft Day 2006? The fear is that when the Lions are on the clock, one of the big three quarterback prospects remains available. If eight picks roll past, and I use the term "roll" very loosely as their is nothing about the NFL Draft that moves quickly (Mel Kiper's mouth being a notable exception), and the Lions find that Matt Leinhart, Vince Young and/or Jay Cutler have slipped down to them, aren't we all going to hold our collective breath?

A week from Saturday, when Commissioner Paul Taglibue steps away from the podium after announcing the Lions' fifteen minutes is underway and Leinhart, Young or Cutler is still around, aren't we all going to have the same set of notions? "They can't take a QB, can they?" "Millen can't take a QB. He can't." "Oh, they'll go in a different direction. They can't invest more money into the quarterback position. It makes no sense." "If they take a QB, I'm not rooting for them anymore." "Holy crap."

For roughly fifteen minutes, as few teams seem to take less than the maximum time allowed, every single Lions fan listening or watching is going to be nervous. Very nervous. No, it doesn't make any salary cap sense to take another signal caller. Yes, the Lions need help all over. Yet, if any of the three big name college QB's are still on the board, we are all going fear that when Taglibue comes back to the microphone he announces that with the ninth pick in the NFL Draft the Detroit Lions have selected..........a quarterback.

After drafting wide receivers in the first round for three straight seasons, would anyone really be shocked that Matt Millen opts to take a college quarterback even though he just signed two veteran free agents to replace the soon-to-be-Dolphin Joey Harrington? As soon as my laughter subsided, probably sometime in the midst of the first game of the year, I wouldn't be surprised at all.

Does anyone have great confidence in Josh McCown or Jon Kitna? The term retread would seem to apply to both. Kitna never took hold of the Seattle job and got bumped, rightly so, by Carson Palmer in Cincinnati. McCown, who to me appears to have more potential, for both success and failure, couldn't keep the signal caller duties in Arizona. Arizona. What does it say for the Lions' plight when they are taking on the Cardinals' failed projects?

Yes, Mike Martz could wave his magic wand and turn either or both into Pro Bowl caliber quarterbacks. (Again, McCown would seem more probable to me.) Couldn't the same be said of Leinhart, Young or Cutler? All of whom, at least so far, haven't failed as NFL throwers elsewhere. All of whom are younger. Any of whom could lead this franchise for a decade something I'm not sure we can say about any of the incoming veteran QB's.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not at all promoting this concept. I'd feel much better if the Lions traded down and got two later first round picks. I totally embrace the idea of trading up and taking a D'Brickshaw Ferguson or A.J. Hawk. I'm fairly comfortable with them staying put at nine and taking someone not a quarterback, as well. Although, if the draft plays out as some have predicted, I'm not overly excited about the Lions' potential choices at that spot.

It just happens that I think the scenario where one of these three elite quarterbacks falls into the Lions lap is possible. I also think it's plain frightening, in a football sense. The Lions can't intelligently justify selecting a quarterback, yet after spending fifty years searching for Bobby Layne's heir, can they be blamed for considering a highly touted college arm no matter who is on the roster currently? Every ounce of common sense tells you there is no reason for the Lions to draft a QB in the first round. Yet, what if a future Hall of Fame signal caller is staring at them when they are on the clock?

If the guy who slips down to the Lions choice turns into the next Dan Marino or Ben Roethlisberger and the Lions go elsewhere, Millen will get blasted for not making a good decision. Take the QB who slides to nine and get hammered for committing too much money in one position, for creating a three-headed QB controversy and, if the QB fails, for revealing your perceived lack of football smarts. Basically, take him and you're an idiot. Don't take him and you're, well, an idiot. Sounds like the proto-typical Lions scenario to me.

Now, all of this can be alleviated if Leinhart, Young and Cutler have found homes before the ninth pick. Then, we can just focus on the players at positions the Lions don't have millions tied into free agents. (That would be all the other positions, but that's a different post entirely.) Our worry can then be limited to the upside of whatever newcomer is chosen, instead of trying to figure out which QB camp we want to be in--Kitna's, McCown's or First Round QB's.

In light of his recent draft day decisions, I have serious doubts that Matt Millen would have the courage to take Leinart, Young or Cutler. For all the reasons I've previously mentioned, I believe Millen has to go in a different direction even if one of the top QB's is available when the Lions pick arises. He has to, right? Of course, isn't that what we thought a year ago when there was no way Millen would draft a wideout three years in a row?