Sometime after the new league year begins on March 17, the Detroit Lions will officially announce that they have traded Matthew Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams for Jared Goff and a trio of draft picks, including two future first-round picks.
Goff also happens to be a former first-round pick as he was selected by the Rams with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
But could the Lions also land another former top 3 NFL draft pick to join their quarterbacks’ room?
Well, unless something crazy happens, Goff will be the Lions starter when the 2021 season kicks off but who will be his backup?
As we sit now, the Lions have Chase Daniel and David Blough as the backups to Goff but that is likely to change soon as there has been speculation that Daniel will be a cap casualty, leaving Blough as the default backup.
Since joining the Lions in 2019, Blough has played in six games (5 starts), completing an abysmal 54.3% of his passes for 1,033 yards and four touchdowns to go along with seven interceptions. Blough has looked much more like a third-string quarterback rather than a backup and the stats seem to agree.
So, if the Lions do decide to move on from Daniel (they absolutely should), they will have to add another QB to the mix and one option is Blake Bortles, who was the No. 3 overall selection in the 2014 NFL Draft.
Bortles, who is now 28 (will be 29 by the time the 2021 seasons kicks off), just so happened to backup Goff with the Los Angeles Rams in 2020, the same team that new Lions GM Brad Holmes also worked for.
During his career, Bortles has played in 78 games (73 starts), completing 59.3% of his passes for 17,649 yards and 103 touchdowns to go along with 75 interceptions.
Is Bortles a great NFL quarterback? Of course not. But is he a better option to backup Goff than David Blough or Chase Daniel? Absolutely.
Â
Â
