And Millen’s gone.
They should pick who they want while they are on the clock. They would look like complete morons if they had 6 months on the clock and still couldn’t make their pick.
Remember, the salary-slotting is unofficial and any agent/player can demand whatever they think they can get, and the teams can pay what they want, limited by the cap.

Strategically, they SHOULD sign whoever they want beforehand— and if they can’t, it may be a pretty good sign they’ll have trouble signing him after the draft.
But if Stafford is the pick, his leverage is limited, since the XFL, AFL and USFL have all folded. The longer he holds out, the less he’ll be able to contribute this year, the less games he’d be paid for, and the more the fans will hate him. Not good for him or the team. He’ll have to either accept a deal or sit out until next draft where he’ll be maybe the 3rd QB in line, and probably slip farther down since teams won’t want to waste a pick on someone they can’t sign and has been out of football for a year.

My guess is if they can’t get something agreed to before draft day, they’ll work something out with Jason Smith. 4 of the top 5 would help them and most would LOVE to be the #1 overall pick. If the Lions run out the clock instead of signing someone beforehand, they really are losers.
It would be very funny if the only one they could agree to terms with is Crabtree….

I keep noticing that every year when the NFL draft rolls around, people want to trade down, regardless of where their team is drafting. The perception is always something like “at draft position X there are really N players that are roughly equal value, therefore, I would like to trade down. I’ll be happy with whoever the other teams don’t pick because I consider them to be roughly equal in value, and I will get the bonus of lower salary and net an additional pick.” The trouble is that you hear this so often from fans. I am just making an insight here, I am not rigorously comparing this draft to another in terms of talent distribution. I think it is important to note though, that decisiveness is one of the most important features of good management, one that we don’t all possess.

Personally, I am reasonably good at offering arguments and analysis about a decision, as I get a lot of practice with this as a research scientist, but don’t have a lot of talent or experience making hard decisions. NFL GM’s get paid the big bucks to look at those N players at draft position X and say “I think player Y is the one for us and I am going to put my stamp on that decision”. There is rarely a draft where any team comes up at any position and there is only one player they can justify taking there. Also, very rarely will there be only one player who is a superior talent at a given position. There are just many, many shades of gray and it is the GM and co.’s job to figure it out.

If the Lions want Stafford they take him at #1. Sometimes it just sucks being the trailblazers.