Kaaya has long road ahead of him

Ex-Canes QB will have to slowly make his way up Lions’ depth chart.

Want an idea of what it’s going to take for Brad Kaaya to make the Detroit Lions roster? Take a look at the quarterback they drafted at about the same spot last year.

Jake Rudock of Michigan and Fort Lauderdale’s St. Thomas Aquinas High School went to Detroit in the sixth round of the 2016 NFL draft, 191st overall. Kaaya, Miami’s all-time leader in passing yards, joins Rudock as the Lions’ sixth-round draft choice in 2017, the 215th overall.

Rudock spent most of his rookie season on Detroit’s practice squad. Though pro- Dave George

moted to the active roster in late November, he never played in a regular-season game and never rose higher than No. 3 on the depth chart, behind starter Matthew Stafford and Dan Orlovsky.

It’s unlikely that Kaaya will advance any more quickly, providing he convinces Lions coach Jim Caldwell to give him an extended look in the first place.

The only reason Rudock has moved up on the food chain is that Detroit decided in February to move on from former backup Orlovsky, a former fifth-round draft pick who has bounced around the league since 2005 without ever gaining much traction.

The long-term goal for Kaaya is to get a second contract and thus to gain some stability in the league.

If he has a rookie season like Brandon Doughty did with the Dolphins last year, that would be fine. Doughty was a seventh-round pick.

If you want another picture of the challenge before Kaaya now, do you remember Kheeston Randall?

The Dolphins took him 215th overall, the same as Kaaya’s slot, in the 2012 NFL draft. He was a defensive tackle from Texas who made the roster as a rookie and made six tackles in 12 games.

Miami released him prior to the 2013 season. Cincinnati carried him on the active roster for a couple of weeks that year and the Vikings took a look at Randall in training camp in 2014 before releasing him.

Different position, different situation, but the problem is the same. From the sixth round on down, it’s a battle for survival.

Kaaya will have to win that before anybody starts thinking about him as Stafford’s longterm backup.