Patriots' Quinn, With Scouting And Personnel Background, Will Be Next Lions GM
By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby
The Lions have their new general manager, and he'll be bringing a shiny new Super Bowl ring with him to Detroit.
Bob Quinn, the Patriots' director of pro scouting, won the Super Bowl with New England last season, and has been around success for a while. He's been with the Patriots since 2000, working his way up the ranks via personnel jobs. During that span, the team won four Super Bowls, in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2014.
The Lions officially confirmed that they had agreed in principle with Quinn on Friday.
Quinn has been in his current role as pro scouting director since May 2012, and has been involved with both pro and college scouting in New England. Lions fans have been clamoring for a new general manager who can give the franchise more consistent, talent-soaked draft classes. The biggest criticism leveled against former GM Martin Mayhew was that he couldn't consistently draft crops of quality players.
ESPN reported this week that Quinn was allowed in the Patriots' draft room, which is a reflection of how much head coach Bill Belichick respected him.
Nearly all of Quinn's professional career has been with New England, although he also served as a graduate assistant in the athletics department at UConn, where he also earned his master's in sports management. According to UConn's athletics website, Quinn scouted the northeast portion of the country, including in Connecticut, for the Patriots before his promotion to pro personnel director in 2012.
The NFL Network reported that Quinn had earned the support of Belichick, who is known as one of the better football minds in the game today.
Belichick told reporters earlier this week that Quinn had done a "real solid job" with multiple duties during his time in New England.
Pro personnel directors, as Quinn has been for the past four seasons, are often responsible for knowing every potential player in the league who could become available, and what he could do for the team. They're also responsible for bringing in players for workouts when they might be temporarily out of the league. Making sure that the entire roster – including backups and the practice squad – is competitive is the main concern of a pro personnel director. When injuries happen throughout the season, they also play a crucial role in determining which veteran players could conceivably come in and help the team.
The quick turnaround on the GM search could cast a shadow over head coach Jim Caldwell's future with the team. Seven NFL head coaching jobs are currently open, and several teams have already gotten a jump on the market for replacements. The Lions could make up some ground in that department, if they do in fact want to fire Caldwell after a 7-9 season, and suddenly find themselves with a GM who can make that decision quicker than expected.
Lions president Rod Wood had previously said that the new GM would determine Caldwell's future, although players have come out strongly against him being fired.
