One of the biggest questions surrounding the upcoming NFL draft is what the Detroit Lions will do with the No. 1 overall pick.

The Lions have stated many things and have many options to choose from as the draft gets closer and closer. Rumors are abundant that the Lions plan on picking Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford, but the Lions have not confirmed this. Everyone knows that the Lions need a franchise quarterback, but also have needs on the offensive line, which has people speculating that the Lions should pick offensive lineman Jason Smith out of Baylor.

Outside of these two players, there also has been speculation that Detroit should in fact trade the No. 1 pick in order to get an established and proven veteran at a position the Lions need; the quarterback spot.

Detroit did in fact try to make this scenario a reality by trying to get quarterback Jay Cutler from Denver, but subsequently lost out to one of their division foes, the Chicago Bears.

The Lions have come out and said that they want to have a deal in place with whomever they will be picking with the first overall selection. This means they want to make sure they can get the player in camp and to all the workouts and meetings on time without any holdouts. This has been done before by other teams and it is legal as the Houston Texans signed Mario Williams to his contract before draft day.

If the Lions get to the point where this isn’t a possibility, they can employ a tactic that many teams may start implement a lot more, especially in a year where there isn’t a clear cut consensus on who should be chosen as the top pick.

The strategy would have the Lions repeat what the Minnesota Vikings did by mistake in the 2003 NFL Draft. The Vikings had the No. 7 pick and were trying to swing a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars who had the No. 8 pick and the Baltimore Ravens at No. 10. While trying to negotiate this trade, the clock struck zero and the Vikings had failed to submit their pick. The Jaguars then went on the clock, and picked quarterback Byron Leftwich. The Vikings had still not submitted their pick when the Carolina Panthers selected tackle Jordan Gross.

Eventually the Vikings selected defensive tackle Kevin Williams with the No. 9 pick even though it didn’t come at the No. 9 spot. In essence, what happened is the Vikings were simply skipped over because they didn’t get their pick to the podium in time. Instead of losing the pick, the Vikings simply passed and still got to pick when they got their card to the podium.

If the Lions were to use this same scenario as a strategy, it could help them to make a better decision and more importantly, save them almost $4 million; that was the difference between the No.1 and No. 4 overall picks last year in guaranteed money.

By letting someone else make the actual first pick in the draft, the Lions would be able to try and avoid paying the player they pick the money that comes with drafting a top pick and would let the player that was actually selected argue for No. 1 pick money, since they would technically be the first pick in the draft. This move could save the Lions at least a few million dollars and allow them to still pick a top player that was already on their radar.

To say the least, this would make for a very interesting draft day and could possible open the flood gates for teams to pass in the future.

Passing the pick is entirely within the rules the NFL has and the league has already said that the Lions can pass the pick if they choose to. Should it come out that it was done on purpose, the league may look to alter the rules to eliminate this in the future.

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