ALLEN PARK, Mich -- The Detroit Lions won't take a quarterback with the 13th overall pick in the NFL draft.
Other than that, not even the Lions' brain trust is certain what the team will do next week.
"It's always interesting to me and funny when I read that somebody said that we're not going to take an offensive player or we're not going to take a certain player," general manager Martin Mayhew said Thursday. "I don't even know who we're going to take right now. I'm not sure how somebody else could know."
Detroit's biggest voids seem to be at cornerback, linebacker and offensive tackle after closing last season with four wins and a 6-10 record two years after becoming the first NFL team to go 0-16.
"We have a lot more needs than people realize," Mayhew said, entering his third draft in charge of football operations after assisting fired GM Matt Millen. "There are a lot of places we can get better and there are a lot of good players in this draft.
"Our philosophy has been to take the best player. I don't think that's going to change."
Mayhew, though, acknowledged common sense will prevail if the best player on the Lions' draft board is a quarterback when it is their turn to pick in the first round.
"In the first round, we're not taking a quarterback," he said. "You can put that on the record."
Detroit is very comfortable with its trio of quarterbacks: Matthew Stafford, Shaun Hill and Drew Stanton.
After they've made the 13th selection Thursday night, the Lions will have one pick each in the second and third rounds Friday and slots in the fourth, fifth and seventh rounds Saturday.
Detroit got its seventh-round pick back from the league after appealing a ruling that the franchise had to give up that selection and switch fifth-round slots with the Kansas City Chiefs for violating the league's tampering policy.
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"That's very important," Mayhew said. "That's why we aggressively went after that pick."
Detroit's chances of having success next season, assuming the NFL lockout ends and there is a season, may hinge on Stafford's ability to play an entire year for the first time as a pro. That could lead Detroit to draft at least one offensive lineman.
Stafford was healthy enough to play just three games last year and 10 games after being the No. 1 pick in 2009 because of shoulder and knee injuries.
"We need to keep him on the field," coach Jim Schwartz said last month in New Orleans at the NFL Annual Meeting.
If the Lions can help Stafford enough to at least approach 16 starts, they might have a shot at completing their quest to finish ahead of the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers, conference runner-up Chicago and Minnesota in the NFC North. Detroit was the last team to beat Green Bay last season, closed the regular season with a win over Minnesota and lost two tight games to Chicago.
"The goal for this team is to win our division and we showed last year we can match up with the teams in our division," Mayhew said.
The Lions might want to move toward that next step with a standout cornerback.
If Nebraska's Prince Amukamara is not available, they may take a chance on Colorado's Jimmy Smith. He failed at least one drug test and faced two minor-in-possession of alcohol charges in college. Mayhew said the Lions extensively investigate the character of prospects, including Smith.
"We've done a lot of work on Jimmy," he said. "I feel better about him than I did before I met him."
Of course, Mayhew might be publicly praising Smith as a person in the hopes that another team picks him to make an offensive tackle such as USC's Tyron Smith or Boston College's Anthony Castonzo or another targeted player available in the first round.
"There are probably a little bit more than a handful of players who we're talking about," Mayhew said. "We'll continue to talk about those players until we make a final decision."
Mayhew acknowledged the team's first pick may not start right away. That probably would be the case with Smith or Castonzo because either would likely back up Jeff Backus and Gosder Cherilus as a rookie.
"We're not drafting to get ready for the first game of the season," Mayhew said. "We're drafting for the future of the franchise."
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
