Lions: “Way too early” to start auctioning the third pick

[Who Dey]

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The Lions could be sitting in the fabled catbird seat when the 2020 NFL Draft gets here, but coach Matt Patricia wasn’t ready to get into that while he’s coaching the Senior Bowl.

With the Bengals having their hearts set on LSU quarterback Joe Burrow (unless they don’t), and with conventional wisdom suggesting that Washington coach Ron Rivera would begin his rebuild with Ohio State pass-rusher Chase Young, the third spot which belongs to the Lions would seemingly be the trigger point in the draft.

But via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Lions coach Matt Patricia dismissed that notion, saying it was “way too early” to declare themselves open for business.

“It’s January,” Patricia said, accurately.

If those first two picks all as many expect, the Lions would hold the keys if anyone wanted to trade for another quarterback such as Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, or any other player.

While you could make a cost-value argument about their own interest in a quarterback, they seem happy with paying all that money to Matthew Stafford after the way he played last year before back problems ended his season.

“I mean, honestly, we’ve talked about the injury for Matthew last year, just really was a thing last year where we felt it wasn’t safe for him to play through the rest of the year,” Patricia said. “Moving forward, next year, I anticipate him being fine, ready to go from that standpoint. So nothing really with the injury will affect that at all.”

Of course, as Patricia correctly diagnosed, it’s January, which leaves plenty of time for them to advertise their intentions, one way or another.