Notes: Detroit Lions among ‘most likely’ teams to draft a QB early in 2020

If there’s one thing national sports media loves to do, it’s constantly speculate on when the Lions are going to replace 31-year-old Matthew Stafford. Even when Bob Quinn didn’t definitively say the Lions wouldn’t take a quarterback in the first round, everyone lost their collective minds, forgot how contracts and dead money work, and wrote their articles about how the Lions were moving on in April.

Obviously that never happened. It probably won’t happen for some time. But that didn’t stop Yahoo from beginning their speculation for next April. They wrote up a piece on which teams they think could draft quarterbacks early in 2020.

The reasoning is obvious. Stafford had a rough year in 2019—the myriad number of other reasons are ignored, though. They then make the required connection to the Patriots and talk about how Belichick had to replace Drew Bledsoe with Tom Brady. It’s just another rehash of the same topic that will get rehashed again next year.

• Bleacher Report took a very interesting path in their article today that lists every team’s best offseason move. Was it signing one of the best defensive ends in the league in Trey Flowers? No. Was it signing Justin Coleman or drafting TJ Hockenson? No. It was signing C.J. Anderson. Here’s a little of what they had to say.

“As a thumper on early downs, Anderson’s carries should play a huge role in balancing the Lions offense—his physical nature could force the safety to step into the box. As a result, the wide receivers may see less traffic in the passing lanes.”

C.J. was a great signing. There’s no doubt about that. But surely the Lions did bigger things than that.

• Remember that time Josh McCown played slot receiver for the Lions? Yeah, I didn’t either. But it happened in 2006 and Josh actually looked pretty damn good.

• The Detroit Lions Academy, an alternative program designed to help over age students get back on path before high school, graduated 26 students today.

• Jason Moore of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast wants to start a petition to get the Lions to let Theo Riddick go...

... which brings up a good question. With Kerryon Johnson and C.J. Anderson heading the charge, and Zach Zenner and Ty Johnson on the roster too, where does Theo Riddick fit in right now? I still say the Lions should look into a trade. Maybe Jason will get his wish before he files the paperwork with Change.org.

• The Lions entire rookie class helped out The Empowerment Plan in Detroit this week. The guys helped sew coats and water resistant sleeping bags for the homeless in Detroit.