The Lions don’t have a need for a starting quarterback, but General Manager Martin Mayhew said that the team was interested in drafting a quarterback to join Dan Orlovsky and Kellen Moore in the backup mix.
That never happened and Mayhew says it’s because any time they would start talking about a quarterback, the player would wind up being selected by another team. Justin Rogers of MLive.com points to Zach Mettenberger, David Fales and Tom Savage as quarterbacks taken shortly before the Lions had a pick on Saturday.
“A number of times we had quarterbacks in the conversation and then we see that they weren’t there,” Mayhew said. “We put some names up, and by the time we got ready to pick, those guys were gone.”
Rogers reports that the Lions have agreed to terms with undrafted free agent James Franklin, who led Missouri’s offense for the last three seasons. Franklin used his legs a lot and used them well at Missouri, but he’ll probably need to show more with his arm to stick with the Lions.
Franklin doesn’t have the kind of upside you’d want in a player to develop behind Matthew Stafford, who will need to have a better season in order for Mayhew to guarantee himself a chance at picking a quarterback next year.