Mike Celizic

If what I read is correct — and we all know it always is — I’m supposed to feel sorry for the poor Detroit Lions. They became the only professional football team in history to go 0-16, and now, to add insult to injury, they’re being forced to pick first in the NFL draft.

This, I’m told, amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, like in the Middle Ages when they made people walk barefoot and in chains from London to Jerusalem and back for eating meat on Friday. Apparently, no team in today’s NFL should be forced to pick first in the draft.

What makes it worse is that there are two studly quarterbacks on top of the draft board: USC’s Mark Sanchez and Georgia’s Matthew Stafford. The draftniks keep trying to find reasons to push either or both of them down the board, but they haven’t been very successful. And all Detroit can do is dither and fret and whine about how cursed they are to have to pick first.

This is just wrong. There is nothing more critical to the long-term success of a franchise than finding the next great quarterback. If you have a chance to get one, you have to go for it.

It used to be that if a team got the first pick and a potential franchise quarterback was available, it was reason to do the happy dance. Today, teams hate picking first. And if there’s a great quarterback prospect available, they hate it more. They’d trade down if they could, but nobody wants to have to take the great player at the head of the draft.

This is madness. More than that, it’s cowardice. It’s personnel directors and general managers being so terrified of picking the next Tim Couch instead of the next Peyton Manning that they’d rather not pick at all. Let somebody else make the big mistake is the way they think. Apparently, the idea of maybe picking the next Hall of Fame quarterback doesn’t appeal to them.

Well, it should appeal to the Lions, who need more than a more ferocious-looking lion for their logo to break their long history of incompetence. This is a team that says it’s going to rebuild and it’s going to do it the right way.

If so, that means getting a franchise quarterback. And the only way to do that is to set its sights on Sanchez or Stafford and pull the trigger.

Teams hate high draft picks because of the money these guys cost. Last year, Matt Ryan went third to the Atlanta Falcons, but as the top QB, he and his agent extorted nearly $35 million in guaranteed money over six years and $72 million total. That’s a huge amount in a league with a hard salary cap, but when the Falcons won a bunch of games and went to the playoffs, it didn’t look like such a bad deal at all.

Calling a do-over on the NFL draft Getty Images   Redoing 2006 Dan Pompei thinks Jay Cutler should've been the No. 1 pick, instead of Mario Williams. AP   Redoing 2005 If the Dolphins were smart, they would've drafted Aaron Rodgers, writes Gregg Rosenthal. AP   Redoing 2004 Tom Curran says Ben Roethlisberger was the best choice, not Eli Manning.

Miami picked first that year, and Bill Parcells drafted Jake Long, a left tackle — the only position you should take at the top other than a quarterback. St. Louis took defensive end Chris Long. Both were good picks — Chris Long made the All-Rookie team and Jake Long ended up in the Pro Bowl — who cost substantially less to sign than Ryan.

But Miami still needs a quarterback for the long term, and St. Louis could use one, too. The Falcons have their man, and you’d have to say their long-term future is probably brighter because of Ryan than either the Dolphins’ or the Rams’.

If there were a Jake Long available this year, I’d forgive the Lions for taking a tackle first. I’d even understand a great defensive end or linebacker — if there were one worthy of the No. 1 pick. Unfortunately, there isn’t anyone around who has that much potential. The reality is this is a year for a quarterback, and Stafford and Sanchez both seem to be the kind of players who could be superstars.

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