Jalen Hurts signed a five-year, $255 million contract recently, making the Philadelphia Eagles’ star the highest paid quarterback in the league. The Eagles took him with the 53rd overall pick in the 2020 NFL draft’s second round, but almost didn’t.
They were coming off an NFC East title the season before and, at that point, Carson Wentz had played well. There was a safety available, and reports later suggested many in the draft room wanted Jeremy Chinn.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman stepped in and decided on Hurts, or so the story goes. However the Eagles got there, they got there. What matters is that they took a chance. Three seasons later, Hurts led Philadelphia to the Super Bowl.
There may or may not be a future Jalen Hurts lurking in the second round, or even late in the first round, in next week’s NFL draft. The math suggests it’s unlikely. Heck, the Eagles — along with the rest of the NFL — had no idea Hurts would be so good so quickly.
WHAT HE SAID: Brad Holmes on Jalen Carter, Lions ‘unique’ opportunity, more in pre-draft NFL talk
Or he wouldn’t have fallen to Pick 53.
But then some GMs — and their staffs — are better at spotting late-round gems than others. Brad Holmes has shown he may be one of those GMs, at least if we’re evaluating his first two drafts as the top man running the Detroit Lions.
There are similarities between the way Roseman built the Eagles and the way Holmes is building the Lions, especially in the interior, where the Eagles boasted the best offensive line in the NFL last season and the Lions ranked among the top 10.
Philly also had a great defensive line, and while the Lions did not, they have several young pieces that show promise. And if Holmes keeps on this track, he’s likely to use the team’s No. 6 pick on another defensive lineman.
Will the Lions take a flier on a quarterback somewhere else? Like the Eagles did with Hurts?
Maybe.
The Lions already brought in Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud for a pre-draft visit and when asked if a quarterback was in play on draft night, Holmes said:
“Yeah, I mean, of course. It’s a position on the football field that you’ve got to have. And I’m not trying to be a smart ass about that but yeah, we’d like to add another one. Now, whether it’s through the draft, whether it’s after the draft … that’s always a possibility. But we won’t be pinched, we won’t be forced to do anything that doesn’t line up and doesn’t match. But by training camp, when we get in there, we’ll make sure that we’ll have another quarterback at some point.”
That doesn’t sound like Stroud. Does it sound like Hendon Hooker, the quarterback who tore up the SEC at Tennessee until he tore his ACL?
Someone, at some point next week, will give Hooker a shot. Maybe he hits, maybe he doesn’t. Despite him being 25, he is projected to go in the top 100, which means probably late in the second round or sometime in the third.
NEEDING A FRESH START: Brad Holmes: Okudah trade to Atlanta Falcons will be ‘good for Jeff’
The Lions happen to have two second-round picks, including one at 55. They’ve also got the 81st pick, in Round 3. Then again, they’ve got two first-round picks, and if they dig, say, Anthony Richardson, the big-armed QB out of Florida, they’ll have a chance to grab him.
Holmes has draft capital. If his team is as good as he and Dan Campbell hope it can be this fall, he won’t have draft capital like this again for a while. So, if they truly believe in a quarterback, now’s the time to get one.
Or at least take a chance on one after the first round.
Yes, there are differences between Philadelphia’s decision to use its second-round pick on Hurts and what it would mean if Holmes did something similar in Detroit. For one, as promising as Wentz looked early, he got concussed the season before the Hurts’ pick.
For another, Roseman wasn’t thinking that Hurts was necessarily the future. He wanted insurance. And if Holmes made a deal to get Stroud or Richardson that would be going after more than insurance.
Here’s another difference: Jared Goff is better than Wentz; he’s held up better, too. He’s also played in the Super Bowl, as much as some seem to forget, or ignore, because the Rams, it turns out, had a pretty good all-around team in 2018.
CARLOS MONARREZ: Lions must embrace being NFC North favorites or risk being blindsided
In other words, it would be hard to use the No. 6 pick — or the No. 18 pick — on a quarterback when the team looks primed to compete for the NFC North title and any or all non-quarterback difference makers might mean the difference in getting to the playoffs.
The youngsters Holmes drafted last year just showed that in the second half of last season.
But is it worth using a second- or third-round pick on a potential future starter if the Lions think one is out there?
Perhaps it’s helpful to go back and consider some of the reaction of Eagles’ fans — and even local analysts — when the team drafted Hurts:
“The Eagles stunningly, bizarrely, maddeningly drafted a … theoretical utility player.”
Hey, everyone gets the draft wrong at some point, even the football minds in charge of teams (no one around Detroit needs reminding of that). Yet the Eagles got to the Super Bowl because they got Hurts right.
Yeah, they got lucky. No doubt they’d tell you that.
The Super Bowl also rewards the bold, though. And Holmes has the draft capital to be bold.
“We brought some quarterbacks in and (did) our due justice on them,” Holmes said Thursday. “When you’re picking in the top 10, you just want to make sure that you’re pretty thorough on the quarterback market. And I believe that we have done that.”
He’s got choices. His trading and general maneuvering have set him up for that.
Next week, he is positioned to keep building with Goff as the starter and to take a chance with a quarterback who could eventually do more than wear a baseball cap on the sideline.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.
Feeling a draft?
What: 2023 NFL draft.
When/where: April 27-29; Kansas City, Missouri.
TV: ABC, ESPN, NFL Network.
Lions’ picks (with overall picks in parentheses): Round 1 — No. 6 (6), No. 18 (18); Round 2 — No. 17 (48), No. 24 (55); Round 3 — No. 18 (81); Round 5 — No. 16 (152), No. 23 (159); Round 6 — No. 6 (183), No. 17 (194).