Few mock drafts, if any, have the Lions taking a quarterback with the No. 2 pick. Several have them doing so with the No. 32 pick.
In a quarterback class that's low on top-tier talent, several signal callers are expected to go in the back half of the first round. Both Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay of ESPN have recently mocked UNC's Sam Howell to the Lions at No. 32. Pitt's Kenny Pickett, Ole Miss' Matt Corrall and Liberty's Malik Willis could be among those in play as well.
NFL Network draft analyst and former scout Daniel Jeremiah would only take a chance on one of them, the dude who threw for 47 touchdowns and rushed for 27 more over his final two college seasons: Willis.
"There's risk involved with any of these quarterbacks, but he provides the upside that warrants taking that risk," Jeremiah said Friday ahead of next week's combine. "If you're going to take a flier on a quarterback at the bottom of the first round, I sure as heck would like to have a big payoff, at least as a possibility. He's that guy. When you look at the quarterbacks in this draft, he's the one with all that upside."
The Lions have a proven, if unspectacular, NFL quarterback under contract through 2024 in Jared Goff. To Jeremiah, Goff represents the ceiling for all the quarterbacks not named Willis being discussed as first-round picks. While any one of them would obviously cost less than Goff over the next few seasons, a reminder that Goff has a career passer rating of 91.5. That's not a QB worth building around, at any price.
"If your comp or your ultimate upside for the player is Jared Goff, you've already got him," said Jeremiah. "So don't waste a pick. That's why I think Malik Willis could potentially give you a little something different, and if it all works together and comes together, he could give you a little bit more. That, to me, is the one that I would keep an eye on."
Willis' stock is on the rise thanks to a strong performance at the Senior Bowl. The Lions spent four days coaching him and getting to know him and had to like what they saw. And this was after he put up video game numbers over the last two seasons, albeit against weaker competition at Liberty: 5,107 passing yards, 1,822 rushing yards.
"You could look at some of the other guys and say, ‘OK, they have a chance to be starters,' but I don't know that anybody is saying they have a chance to be high-end starters. I think Malik Willis, while there's obviously plenty of risk and that's why he could be there at the end of the first round, there's also the potential of a big payoff," said Jeremiah. "That would be the one I would target if he was there."