“Best/Worst Cases for Picks Ahead of Lions at No. 6”

You can have your own draft board in any order you want. But at the end of the day you can only pick who’s available.

If the Lions have Will Anderson at the top of their board and he’s picked ahead of them, well that’s a different kind of SOL. If Jalen Carter is their second ranked player and he’s gone too, that’s super unfortunate.

It’s tricky predicting what will happen ahead of Detroit because not every team in front of them needs a quarterback. Houston at No. 2 could give Davis Mills another year. Arizona at No. 3 has Kyler Murray and just signed him to a big extension. Just in front of Detroit is Seattle who is in a similar position with Geno Smith.

But, that doesn’t mean a team behind the Lions won’t get frisky and trade up to snag one of the top tier signal callers.

Las Vegas just acquired Jimmy Garoppolo this offseason but he’s already 32 so it’s not too far fetched to think they could use a young QB in the room. Atlanta just drafted Desmond Ridder last year but do they really believe he’s the future?

And there’s always some random team that sneaks up the board for a quarterback that no one was expecting.

So here are the best- and worst-case scenarios for what could happen in front of the Lions.

Best Case

The Lions don’t need a quarterback and won’t likely be looking to take one at No. 6. But there are a few different defensive players that would work.

In the interest of keeping as many of those guys on the board it would help for their to be a couple trades ahead of Detroit.

If both Arizona and Seattle trade back and allow QB needy teams into the top five that would mean there would likely only be one defensive player taken before the Lions.

Out of Anderson, Carter, Tyree Wilson, Devon Witherspoon and Christian Gonzales, imagine four of them being available at six. That would be a huge win for the Lions.

Remember, we have no idea who they have at the top of their draft board. It could be any one of those guys. Brad Holmes has done a solid job drafting in his short career. I’ll trust his board.

The ultimate pipe dream is if five offensive players are selected prior to Detroit but I can’t see that happening. There’s really only four quarterbacks worthy of going that high and there isn’t an offensive lineman rated high enough.

After reading some of your comments from last week though, I’m not sure how teams can pass on Bijan Robinson. Apparently he’s for sure going to be a hall of fame player.

Worst Case

The opposite to that would be the flip side of that equation. No trades are made and those QB needy teams hold onto their picks.

If Arizona and Seattle stay put they are definitely not taking quarterbacks. Now if you add Houston to that list that’s potentially three defensive players going ahead of Detroit.

This played out in Matt Miller’s latest mock draft for ESPN. Anderson went to Houston. Wilson was picked by Arizona. And Carter got drafted by Seattle.

That left the Lions to take Witherspoon who is a good player. But giving the Lions more options is what’s best for the team. Again, we have no idea who they are in love with.

Personally, I think worst case would be for Anderson, Carter and Witherspoon to all be gone prior to Detroit picking. Wilson might pan out to be a good player but he seems a little to raw for me. The Lions are in win-now mode. I don’t want a guy who could take 3-4 years to get good.