Interview: Dave Birkett breaks down the Detroit Lions’ quarterback conundrum

The Detroit Lions are in a tricky spot with the quarterback position. As our own Ryan Mathews pointed out in a well-written article earlier this week, this would be the perfect year for Detroit to grab one in the draft. They have the No. 2 overall pick, the team with the first overall pick grabbed their franchise quarterback a year ago, and the Lions currently have a quarterback in place that can hold the starting position down while the rookie gets acclimated to the league.

But it can never be that easy for the Detroit Lions.

This just so happens to be a year in which there is no consensus top quarterback in the class, and the general opinion is that there isn’t one worthy of a top-five pick—maybe not even a top-10 pick.

The Lions could also kick the can down the road to 2023, as they still have two first-round picks next year. However, given the strides this team made at the end of the 2021 season, there is an expectation that the Lions won’t be picking in the top 10 next year, and therefore there is no guarantee they’ll get a shot at the quarterback they want next week.

So... what do they do?

We chatted with Lions beat writer Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press to give his thoughts on what the Lions should do. Birkett has in favor of the Lions drafting a quarterback for the past couple of seasons, but with the team now in rebuild mode and a potentially weak quarterback class, can the Lions afford to wait?

Dave gives us his thoughts on this year’s quarterback class, Jared Goff, and alternate options to getting a franchise quarterback.

After that, we discuss Lions free agent. Which players will likely be coming back? What positions should the Lions target on the market? And how aggressive should they be?

And we finish the podcast with the Topic of the Week. As a Hall of Fame voter, we wanted to know what Birkett thinks Matthew Stafford needs to do to make his way into Canton.

Check out the entire episode here:

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