Why Tua Tagovailoa could give the Detroit Lions unlimited options in 2020 NFL draft

Dave Birkett | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Our Santas hand out Christmas gifts to the Detroit Lions Dave Birkett and Carlos Monarrez hand out "gifts" to the Detroit Lions, who definitely need them.

If you’ve been an avid reader of DraftWatch these past six weeks, you know we’ve been staunch advocates of the Detroit Lions doing everything in their power to land Ohio State defensive end Chase Young.

Young is the premier prospect in the 2020 draft, a game-changing edge rusher who could transform the Lions' defense for years to come.

More on Windsor: Lions won't think NFL draft yet, but they know the Chase Young sweepstakes loom

In our second installment of this column in November, we encouraged the Lions to #PlayLikeDungForYoung. And as honored as we are that they took our advice and lost their past five games (to four sub-.500 teams) by an average of 10.2 points, it appears we might have been slightly off in our trajectory.

The Lions currently sit at No. 3 in the draft order, with the Cincinnati Bengals having locked up the No. 1 spot and Washington at No. 2 with one game to play.

Jeff Blake’s one big season and a couple of early flashes from Carson Palmer aside, the Bengals haven’t had a quarterback since Boomer Esiason and seem likely to take LSU’s Joe Burrow with the first pick. Burrow had a phenomenal season at LSU. He won the Heisman Trophy, he has his team in the College Football Playoff, and he’s an Ohio kid.

It’s a storybook marriage.

Assuming Burrow goes No. 1, Young will be waiting for whomever holds the No. 2 pick, and that very well could be the Lions.

They need to lose their season finale this week against the Green Bay Packers (a virtual lock) and have Washington win at Dallas (not nearly as sure a thing) to move up in the draft order. If Washington loses or ties, the Lions will remain at No. 3. If the Lions win, they could slide all the way to No. 5.

The preference here at Draft Watch headquarters, naturally, is for the Lions to secure the No. 2 pick in the draft. It’s in the best interests of the organization at this point, and it’ll make us look like geniuses on something no one thought would happen.

But the reality is, we here at Draft Watch goofed. We started our #RaceForChase campaign after rejecting the more popular — and perhaps more profitable — #TankForTua slogan.

Young would be nice. But having the opportunity to draft Tua Tagovailoa — or better yet, trade out of the spot where another team can — is the real money play for Bob Quinn and Co.

Tagovailoa, of course, is the Alabama quarterback who dislocated his hip earlier this season. He was considered the favorite to go No. 1 overall entering the season, and injuries are the only thing that has knocked him down a peg. (Aside from the hip injury that could limit his throwing into the spring, Tagovailoa has had surgery on both ankles.)

The Lions don’t seem like a candidate to draft Tagovailoa, not after owner Martha Ford essentially put a playoffs-or-bust mandate on the 2020 season. But they’ll certainly feign serious interest (as they did with all of the top quarterbacks in 2019), and there’s a big enough pile of quarterback-needy teams behind them in the draft to think the Lions might be in prime position to reshape their franchise with a trade down.

Using numbers crunched by Tankathon.com, the Lions are followed in the draft order by the New York Giants, the Miami Dolphins, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Los Angeles Chargers and the Carolina Panthers.

The Dolphins, the original #TankForTua proprietors – blame Brian Flores for that not happening — Jaguars, Chargers and Panthers all desperately need a young, franchise-type quarterback, and after Burrow (and unless someone falls in love with Oregon’s Justin Herbert), Tagovailoa is the only one to be had.

With four months till the draft, that smells like quite the bidding war to me, and with one week left in the regular season, that seems like a good reason to #TankForTua, too.

Now, Washington certainly could auction off the No. 2 pick for the same king’s ransom (or more) that the Lions could get for No. 3. But passing on Young is harder than passing on Jeff Okudah, Derrick Brown or Jerry Jeudy, especially when you know that player still may be there at, say, No. 4. And if Washington does trade down, well, that leaves Young as a nice consolation prize for the Lions.

So there you have it. Whether it’s #TankForTua or #PlayLikeDungForYoung, the Lions are in quite the spot heading into Week 17. The Giants and Dolphins have frittered away draft positioning in recent weeks, and the Lions are amazingly ready to capitalize on this disaster of a season.

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter.