Detroit Lions mailbag: Can the Brad Holmes afford to pass on a quarterback if one falls?

Ever since the San Francisco 49ers traded up to the number three spot in the draft, many have assumed that the Detroit Lions won’t have one of this year’s top quarterback prospects available to them with the seventh overall pick. With the top three picks almost certain to be quarterbacks, Detroit would have to be lucky to even have a shot at the fourth-best quarterback in this year’s class.

But hope springs eternal, and this week that hope is in the form of Alabama quarterback Mac Jones. While most have Jones as the fifth—at best—quarterback prospect in this year’s draft, there is some serious smoke that he may be the 49ers’ guy. With Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson the presumed one and two pick, that could potentially leave Trey Lance and/or Justin Fields on the board by the Lions are on the clock.

Which brings us to an interesting conundrum. The Lions have Jared Goff locked down for likely the next two seasons after restructuring his most recent deal. But it’s not every draft when you get the opportunity to select a top-tier quarterback prospect without even having to trade up to get him.

This is the exact scenario our own Erik Schlitt had to deal with in our Community Mock Draft, and it’s one major topic of this week’s Locker Room Q&A session. With a quarterback on the board, many would plead the Lions to trade down with a team more needy of a quarterback and accumulate picks. But is there a prospect good enough to skip that and just grab the quarterback of the future for yourself?

We answer that question and a lot more on this week’s Locker Room Q&A. Remember, if you want to be a part of our live show, download the Locker Room app, add @PrideOfDetroit as a friend, and make sure you’ve added the Detroit Lions as your team. We typically record live at 10:30 a.m. ET every Saturday, so fire up the app around then.

As always, catch every episode of the PODcast on your favorite podcasting platform: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or iHeartRadio.