Detroit Lions Draft 2017: Bob Quinn Talks Day Two Picks
By Zac Snyder
Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn met with the media following day two of the 2017 NFL Draft. Here’s a look at what he had to say.
Opening statement: “Day two of the draft was a productive one. In the second round (we) had a number of players on the board that we liked. Ended up taking Jalen (Teez) Tabor from Florida, versatile corner. He’s played outside. He’s played inside, two-plus year starter, really good football player. Had a productive meeting with him the same time we went down to see Jarrad (Davis), so it was a very productive visit down to Gainesville back in March. Really fortunate that he was there, think he’s going to come in and compete with the other corners on our team, kind of see where he falls. But really feel happy and fortunate that he was there in the second round. The third round came around and it was kind of a strange round because it started off pretty slow and it was number of guys that we liked, and then all of a sudden there was a run on players.
So we had a couple of trade options, had about three on the board at the time and made the trade to move down to 96 with New England. I thought that was good value, picked up a fourth (round pick), so that was a good move by us and then at that pick we took Kenny Golladay, a wide receiver from Northern Illinois. Big receiver, 6-4, 215, 220, transferred from North Dakota, lightly-recruited kid. I think he grew. I think, what, he told us he grew three or four inches after he went to college. Don’t quote me on that, but I think that’s how I remember the story going. He had a growth spurt. He’s a big receiver, vertical threat, good route runner. Lower level of competition, but he excelled. Spent a lot of time with him. Our wide receivers coach (Robert Prince) went to his pro day, spent time with him before and after. We brought him in here for a visit, so a really thorough evaluation on him from the scouting department up to the coaches. It was really a team effort on that one. Really happy with how we are going into tomorrow with two picks in the fourth, a pick in the fifth, two in the sixth and then one in the seventh. So I feel like we’re in a good spot to take the best players we can or move around the board if we think that’s the best thing for us.”
On the evaluation process in comparing CB Teez Tabor’s workout results and game performance: “The 40 time at the Combine and at the pro day is what it is. I think in Jalen’s case, me personally, I probably watched more film on him than any prospect that I could ever remember watching film on because everyone said, ‘Well, he ran real slow.’ I said, ‘OK, well the games that I watched, I didn’t see him get run by,’ and so we kept going back. ‘Well, let’s watch this game. Let’s watch that game. Let’s go back to 2016. Go back to 2015 when he was a young kid playing.’ I can’t sit here and say I watched every play that he’s ever played at Florida, but I watched a considerable amount of games and reps of him and we had a really good workout with him down at the University of Florida. So time speed is what it is. I take playing speed as a more important gauge than time speed.”
On if the professional success of some current NFL defensive backs despite their Combine results influences the evaluation process for secondary prospects: “I don’t know that it’s changed. I think the things that you evaluate at the corner position is the instinctive. You have to be an instinctive player and we use the term ‘reactionary athleticism.’ When you’re playing defense, you’re reacting to what the offensive player is doing. It’s one of the hardest positions to play in sports. So if you don’t have really good instincts and really good feel, anticipation, it doesn’t matter if you’re 4.2 or 4.9. If you don’t have those anticipations, instincts, awareness, route recognition, all those things, I think I put those higher up than how fast the guy ran at the Combine.”
On how he ranks and compares defensive secondary skills in a prospect: “I would rank instincts very near the top. So when you’re watching a player, it could be offense, defense, any player, you see how they anticipate things. When the quarterback hits that back foot and he’s about to drive the football, is the corner reacting or is he reacting when the ball is three yards after he released it? So you’ve got to really sit there and watch a lot of film on these skill players to really dig in and judge those instincts, that awareness, that anticipation. That’s all film.”
On when he realized he needed to watch more film on Tabor: “After the Combine.”
On if Tabor’s 40-yard dash time at the Combine is what led him to watch more film on him: “Yes, it’s an alert. It’s like, ‘Alright, well, corners are supposed to run this and they’re supposed to run that.’ If he went out and ran a 4.45, we probably would have been pretty much done with the evaluation and felt good with where it was at, but that’s part of why the Combine is when it is and it’s time to kind of, ‘OK, reassess the board, look where it is.’ Our board is really set in February before we go to the Combine. We tweak it and adjust it between February and now, but we’re not changing our board drastically based on how fast guys run.”
On how much time he spent watching Tabor’s film: “I’d probably say I’d probably watch, I’m guessing, 14 games total. That’s a guess. It’s more than 10, for sure.”
On if he calculates the time it takes to watch film by days or weeks: “No, I mean, if you’re watching one guy you can get through a game in half an hour, 45 minutes. So, I mean, you guys do the math.”
On if Tabor could have been available to be drafted with the 53rd pick after his Combine workout: “I’m not sure. That might be a better question for the other teams. We had him graded and I felt really comfortable where he was at. It was getting down where I thought some teams were getting close and there was little bit of a run on corners and then there was really a run after him, actually. They started flying off the board. I don’t want to avoid the question, I just don’t know what other teams were thinking on that. I just kind of knew where I had him and I liked him where he was.”
On if he likes cornerback prospects to have swagger: “Yeah, I mean, I think as a corner you’ve got to be confident. I mean, you’ve got the best athletes in the world running toward you. You’re running backwards. Like, you better have some confidence in your ability to kind of cover those guys, so I think that’s definitely a part that we evaluate. You know, Jalen is that. You’re right, he’s a confident guy, he’s a football-smart guy, he loves the game, he’s a competitor. That defense, we obviously watched a ton of that with Jarrad (Davis) and the other prospects they had, so he kept showing up and making plays.”
On if he had conversations with Tabor about his off-the-field concerns: “Yeah, we talked to him about all those situations, as we talked to all our prospects and those things. He answered all the questions that we had for him and we felt very comfortable at that position to take him. There were no issues there.”
On if WR Chris Godwin going to Tampa was the trigger for his decision to trade down in the third round: “No, he was not. Those trades are talked about many picks before that. ‘Hey, if my guy’s not there at that pick, will you do this trade?’ So some of those trades are kind of worked out contingent on the team that’s on the clock, ‘Hey, is your guy there or not?’ But, you know, that one was kind of done. It was actually more on the other side. We were waiting for them to kind of say yeah I’ll do it or not.”
On if WR Kenny Golladay can play inside and outside: “He’s a versatile player that we think can play outside and inside. He’s going to come in and compete. He’s never played in this offense before, so that’s what the spring is about, that’s what training camp’s about. To kind of use his skillset, to kind of fit him into our offense. He’s a 6-4, 218-pound receiver, so I think primarily we’ll start him off on the outside, but he has some pretty unique route-running skillsets for a big guy that can kind of do some inside things. So we’ll work him in there and, you know, we’ll see how it plays out here in the next couple months.”
On the process for him and his staff over the next 12 hours: “Yeah, I’d say after this we’ll go back up and probably spend 45 minutes or an hour looking at the board and kind of targeting some guys that we’d be interested in taking. And then we’ll kind of sleep on it in a few hours, come back in the morning and kind of reassess of, ‘Ok, where are our picks?’ We’ve got two in the fourth, one in the fifth, two in the sixth, one in the seventh. What player do we really covet? Are there a number of players that we really covet early tomorrow in the fourth round? And then start making some calls around, see if teams are willing to move. That’s kind of what we’ll go through here in the next 12 hours.”
On what he wants to come away with tomorrow in the final rounds of the draft: “Yeah, we want to add depth to our team. We want to get as many playmakers as we can. I think there’s plenty of players on the board that can help our team. It’s just a matter of the cost and the value of where we take them. But the board looks pretty good right now, so we’re excited to get back in there and kind of keep tweaking it a little bit and then, you know, see how the chips fall tomorrow.”
On if there is a common thread among the three players drafted so far: “I think it goes back to what I said before, these guys all love football. Like, we sat across from the tables from all three of these guys, either as a group or individually, and it bleeds that these guys love football and they love to compete. So that would be one thing.”
Next: What to watch for on day three
*All quotes provided by the Detroit Lions.