Detroit Lions Expected to Hire Bob Quinn as General Manager
By Zac Snyder
According to reports, the Detroit Lions are expected to hire Bob Quinn as their new general manager.
It may have seemed as if the Detroit Lions weren’t acting with a sense of urgency in their search to find a new general manager. While most expected it would be next week at the earliest before any announcement was made, reports have broken this evening that the Lions are set to hire Bob Quinn to the post.
As he does so often, ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the news on twitter.
Detroit Lions are expected to hire Patriots director of pro scouting Bob Quinn as their general manager, league sources told ESPN.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 8, 2016
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport adds that all that remains to be completed is the final details on the contract.
Bob Quinn and #Lions are working out final details of his contract now. The #Patriots executive had Bill Belichick's support. That helped
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 8, 2016
Quinn’s Patriots pedigree will be the first things most notice about his resume but the Boston Herald has a good summary of his responsibilities within the organization.
"Quinn has been with the Patriots since Bill Belichick arrived in 2000 and worked his way up the scouting ranks before taking over his most recent role in 2012. Quinn, a native of Norwood, Mass., took over for Jason Licht when he departed for the Cardinals.The pro scouting department’s responsibilities include the analysis of every player in the league in case they become available in free agency, on the waiver wire or through trade discussions. Some of that involves the yearly tracking of players whom the Patriots particularly liked in the draft as a way to compare the scouting department’s pre-draft projections with the player’s actual progress in the NFL. They also provide advanced looks at the Patriots’ opponents."
Assuming all goes off without a hitch and Quinn is indeed named the team’s new general manager, he is just the first domino to fall in a series of decisions to be made.
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Will Sheldon White be retained in the role in the Lions front office that at least earned him the interim general manager title following Martin Mayhew‘s dismissal?
Will Jim Caldwell return as head coach or will Quinn seek to replace him with someone else, perhaps someone from the Patriots coaching staff?
If Caldwell is fired, will the assistant coaches be released as well? Matthew Stafford is well on record with his view that he and offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter see the game the same way and there is no denying the second half of the 2015 season as the best football Stafford has ever played.
I can't see a GM candidate leaving the Patriots for the Lions without certainty that he will decide Caldwell's future, but that's just me.
— Zac Snyder (@ZacSnyder) January 8, 2016
And what will become of the future of players currently on the roster, notably Calvin Johnson who has admitted to mulling over retirement?
Getting a general manager in place was a key development for the Lions’ offseason and even now that that appears to be falling into place, it is just the first event in what figures to be an active offseason.