The Detroit Lions have the potential to shake up the entire draft board with the No. 2 overall pick. If they choose to take a quarterback, that is.
Detroit is set to host Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Kenny Pickett for a pre-draft visit next week — the team’s only known quarterback visit — per NFL Network. The Lions don’t have to select Pickett at No. 2 overall, as they own three of the top-34 picks in the draft, but there’s an opportunity at No. 2 to land their next franchise quarterback.
Detroit did meet with Malik Willis at the Senior Bowl in January, but didn’t get the opportunity to coach Pickett at the Senior Bowl. (Pickett played for the National Team while Lions assistants coached the American team.) Pickett completed 66.9% of his passes in 2021 for 4,308 yards with 42 touchdowns to seven interceptions for a 116.0 passer rating. His adjusted completion rate of 78.8% was fourth in the nation while his average time to throw was 3.2 seconds — second in the nation.
The Lions have a good offensive line, which would benefit Pickett in translating his game to the next level. Detroit can also groom its long-term replacement for Jared Goff, who will be a free agent after the season. Goff completed a career-high 67.2% of his passes for 3,245 yards with 19 touchdowns to eight interceptions for a 91.5 passer rating. Of the 33 qualified quarterbacks, Goff was 12th in completion percentage, 22nd in touchdown percentage (3.8), 27th in yards per attempt (6.6), and 17th in passer rating.
Detroit could certainly do better than Goff, but the Lions can also do much worse. They’ll use this visit with Pickett to paint a better picture of their quarterback situation beyond 2022.
