ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- David Cutcliffe offered his former quarterback, Anthony Boone, some advice as the NFL draft wound down last weekend.
The Duke football head coach said don’t go where there is a challenge.
“Coach Cut told me the best thing for my situation is not to go somewhere where the quarterback situation is a challenge,” Boone said. “Like, where it’s a competition. To go somewhere where I can learn from a veteran quarterback, learn from an established starter and kind of develop my game as an understudy.
“Then, one day, if I get the shot, take advantage of it.”
Boone found that in Detroit, where the Lions have a locked-in starter in Matthew Stafford and potentially two solidified backups in Dan Orlovsky and Kellen Moore.
Boone had heard from Detroit Lions quarterback coach Jim Bob Cooter toward the end of the draft, and while there might have been other teams interested, Boone said once the Lions expressed interest in him he knew it was where he wanted to go.
Besides, there were a lot of connections between Boone’s people and the Lions anyway. Boone said one of his agent’s coworkers had worked with Joe Lombardi in New Orleans and that Boone would fit well in the offense.
The 6-foot, 231-pound Boone also said Cutcliffe “expressed his strong interest” in his quarterback heading to Detroit and not to worry about other calls. Plus, Cutcliffe has ties with Lions head coach Jim Caldwell due to both working heavily with Peyton Manning.
Cutcliffe was Manning’s quarterbacks coach at Tennessee -- the same school Cooter attended, although Cutcliffe was the head coach at Ole Miss during Cooter’s time with the Volunteers.
The Lions also drafted one of Boone’s primary blockers at Duke, first-round pick Laken Tomlinson.
“That kind of helped a little bit,” Boone said. “Just having a guy like that, that I grew up with, basically, as a player in college. Came in with. Had the same struggles.
“It’s cool. I texted him saying, ‘Hey, I’m coming.’ Before I even told anybody, I texted him that hey, we’re going to be teammates again for a while and he was excited.”
Caldwell, though, said bringing in Boone had nothing to do with Tomlinson -- either as a comfort for the team’s first-round pick or even just the familiarity that could come from having a lineman and quarterback who have played together already for four years.
“He’s a good player,” Caldwell said of Boone. “He’s been productive, been at a winning program, smart, so we’ll see what he can do.”
Boone completed 540 of 923 passes -- a 58.5 percent completion rate -- for 5,789 yards, 38 touchdowns and 24 interceptions at Duke.
The Lions brought in another smart, productive college quarterback a season ago: former Missouri quarterback James Franklin. Franklin saw no snaps in preseason games and very minimal snaps during training camp.
Caldwell said Franklin’s experience last season does not mean Boone will have a similar situation unfold during offseason workouts and training camp this year.
“Every case is different. Every guy is different,” Caldwell said. “They don’t just fall in the same category because maybe they are holding the same slot. They both have different strengths and they both come from different backgrounds.
“So he just has got to do what he does and we’ll see what happens.”
