Thursday open thread: Should the Lions draft Stafford’s replacement in 2020?

Matthew Stafford has had a cloud of uncertainty around him for the last few seasons, dating back to when Bob Quinn took over as the Lions’ general manager.

And now that the Lions have the third overall pick, those rumors are heating up again.

Bob Quinn, however, has done his best to smash any of those rumors. Here’s what Bob Quinn had to say to SiriusXM Radio earlier this week:

“I’m totally comfortable and happy that Matthew Stafford’s our quarterback. He’s gonna be in full health once the offseason program starts it’s course. He’s pretty much a full health right now. I talked to him about ten days ago. He was in the office so he’s feeling great. He’s in good mindset. He’s excited. Obviously he’s a competitor, so for him to miss half of a season it was hard on him, but he did a great job with our backup quarterbacks who went through a couple guys. We had another injury at quarterback a couple weeks after Matthew went down so, just behind the scenes, you know seen him in a different light. You know since I’ve been there he’s been at every practice and every game. So he’s been at every practice and every game but he wasn’t participating second half of the season. But to see him in coach mode is pretty cool to see because he really cares about, not only our team but his teammates, and his leadership in him helping those other young quarterbacks really learn our system on the fly. You know, when he went down. So I feel great about Matthew. He’s gonna come back strong and you know we’re ready to go for next year.“

You can listen to the full audio clip here:

All of that brings me to today’s question:

Should the Lions finally draft Matthew Stafford’s replacement in 2020?

My answer: No (but with a caveat).

I don’t buy any of the hype that the Lions are interested in taking a quarterback with the third overall pick. The only way that makes sense is if Joe Burrow somehow falls down. Otherwise it makes no sense to spend that high of a pick on someone like Tua Tagovailoa.

The only reason the Lions would be looking to move on from Stafford is his injury history. And with Tua coming off a pretty serious hip injury, I think that one is pretty easy to cross off at this stage in the process. So no, I don’t think the Lions should draft a quarterback high to replace Stafford.

But, there is a caveat.

I do think they absolutely should look at taking a quarterback in the early to mid rounds to possibly groom behind Stafford. Someone like Justin Herbert is interesting and I’m sure other names will come up as well.

I think if Bob Quinn is truly looking at the organization in a five-to-10 year mindset, he needs to start looking for a possible replacement for Matthew Stafford sooner rather than later.

What do you think?