Detroit Lions: Preseason trades show Bob Quinn’s brilliance

Detroit Lions GM Bob Quinn and the rest of the NFL had a field day of trades in the preseason. But I believe that Quinn is still one step ahead.

The NFL is probably at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to trades. They mainly happen in the offseason, specifically on draft day, and other than that are a rarity. Midseason trades have almost always led to underwhelming performances, and thus don’t usually happen. But this new trend of end of preseason trading is an interesting one that the Detroit Lions took advantage of.

As the Lions made cuts to reach their 53 players needed for the regular season they made some trades shipping off players on the bubble. Specifically, Laken Tomlinson and Johnson Bademosi, who were traded for a fifth round and sixth round pick in 2019. 

These players were both falling out of favor.  Both had underwhelming seasons last year, along with not showing anything extraordinary in the preseason. And since the NFL changed the roster cut deadline, it gave plenty of players a fourth preseason game to show what they got.

Lions GM Bob Quinn, along with other teams, took advantage of that rule change. Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com reported that 45 trades had occurred since the end of last season. And anybody following NFL Twitter on Saturday was bombarded with plenty of trades littered amongst roster cuts.

I still think Quinn was ahead of the curve with his approach. The Lions were buyers of draft picks rather than players. I’ll be stunned if in 2019 either of the players traded were still with their teams, let alone in the league. And I can almost guarantee that Lions fans will be happier with the potential of the players drafted than they would have been with the contributions of the players traded away.

I know it’s impossible to win if you keep building for the future. However, I don’t think Detroit did that. Instead, they are building for the future by moving pieces that were never really pieces in the plan. On draft day anything can happen, and having more chances to make a move for a player then makes sense. These trades didn’t make the Lions any worse today, but did make them better for the future.

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As a top-notch Madden GM (self-anointed), I love the idea of trading. I think next preseason more and more teams will follow Detroit’s lead and that excites me. But what are your thoughts? Do you think Detroit won these trades? Would you like to see the NFL start trading like other leagues do?