The Lions drafting a quarterback high in the 2026 NFL Draft seems more likely every day
This is a very good draft for it
It’s no secret that the Detroit Lions have kept one eye on the road and the other on the quarterback situation in recent NFL Drafts. Just last winter, they met with Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe at the NFL Combine and talked to a few others as well. Now that the Hendon Hooker experiment is over, the Lions will likely be on the lookout even harder come February when the draft process starts.
On Tuesday, we learned that the Lions were considering a big swing at quarterback not too long ago. In the 2024 NFL Draft, to be exact.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell talked about how the Lions were interested in drafting J.J. McCarthy in 2024.
Campbell was asked if the Lions had met with McCarthy ahead of the draft, and he said they did not because they knew they wouldn’t get him because he was going to go early. He did admit the Lions did a lot of “exterior work” on him, which is pretty much code for “we scouted him in college just in case we had a chance.”
That says something about the Lions’ interest in quarterbacks right now. If they were even thinking about a guy like McCarthy in 2024, when they had no shot and they had Hooker, you can’t rule out that they would look to take one high in this year’s draft.
They’ve certainly spent a lot of time around some of the bigger quarterbacks of this draft. They’ve been to Oregon multiple times this year to watch players. Dante Moore has to be one of the guys on the radar there. They’ve watched Fernando Maendoza at Indiana, Jordan Maiava at USC, Cade Klubnik at Clemson, and Ty Simpson at Alabama. Those are just the ones we can confirm at this time.
Some of these guys are likely to be out of reach, but this is a deep quarterback draft, and they could definitely grab someone at the bottom of the first or second round. Keep an eye out to see if the Lions wind up going to South Carolina to look at LaNorris Sellers, Arizona State to watch Sam Leavitt, or Oklahoma for John Mateer.
This does not at all mean the Lions are planning to move on from Jared Goff or anything like that. There is no way that will happen any time soon. But if the Lions can grab a 21-year-old quarterback and sit him under the learning tree for the next few years, it can be wildly advantageous for them in their pursuit of sustained success.
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