ESPN draft analysts Mel Kiper and Todd McShay had an interesting debate in a podcast on ESPN.com this morning about whether the Lions should take Georgia quarterback Matt Stafford No. 1 overall.

“There's nobody else to take,” Kiper said “You have no face of the organization, you have the No. 1 pick, you need a quarterback, you got to roll the dice.”

McShay said he'd take Baylor left tackle Jason Smith at No. 1, and said general manager Martin Mayhew is in a “no-win situation” in his first draft.

“History tells you if you are forced to take a quarterback in the draft, you don't love them, and you don't have enough around that quarterback position, you're going to fail and you set your organization up to fail,” McShay said. “Listen, I don't want to be running the Detroit organization right now. I don't want to be in charge of that war room because you have a no-win situation. I'm getting booed out of Detroit if I take Jason Smith with that first overall pick. I recognize that, and that's why it's a nightmare situation.”

I'd say fans are pretty evenly split between Stafford, a tackle (Smith or Virginia's Eugene Monroe) and linebacker Aaron Curry, with Curry a slight favorite right now. Regardless, McShay said Stafford is “not ready mentally” to start as a rookie and he'd try and build like the Cleveland Browns did two years ago, when they took Joe Thomas with the third pick then traded up to draft quarterback Brady Quinn at No. 22. The Lions also pick 20th in the first round.

“Last year I felt great about Matt Ryan prior to the draft. I said it 100 times ... I felt great about building my franchise around Matt Ryan,” McShay said. “I think Matt Stafford is in every single physical category better than Matt Ryan, but I don't feel great about building my organization around him and there are at least 10 teams here that I've talked to a representative from that have the same exact mindset that say, you know what, thank God I am not running war room in Detroit because I don't want to have to make that decision.”