2019 NFL Draft: Detroit Lions 7-round 2019 mock draft 1.0

Bob Quinn is on record as believing it to be “good business” to draft a quarterback with some regularity but that hasn’t paid dividends yet. Jake Rudock and Brad Kaaya, the two quarterbacks the Lions have drafted under Quinn, turned out to be little more than wasted draft picks as neither was able to secure a regular roster spot, let alone role, with the team.

I understand the premise of Quinn’s belief and tend to agree with it, with the caveat being the team needs to show more of a commitment to any young quarterback they bring in. I’m all for adding a quarterback with one of the team’s extra late-round picks, like Gardner Minshew here, but the Lions should look to do so to make it a battle between the rookie and Connor Cook for a roster spot rather than handing backup quarterback duties to someone like Matt Cassel.

Any late round pick is going to have some warts so it’s a matter of deciding what you can live with, what should be ignored and what the positives can do for a team. Washington linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven is undersized but he’s a very good athlete and has a demeanor fitting of the linebacker position.

Even if things don’t work out as a piece of the defense there is plenty of reason to believe Burr-Kirven could become a solid special teams player. Adding a player like Zack Follett (with a little less crazy) could help improve the bottom of the roster, even if he can’t carve out a role on defense.

He just seems like the kind of guy the Patriots could turn into something and, so maybe the Patricia-led Lions should give a look late in the draft.