ESPN: Lions' Best Offseason Acquisition Isn't A Player
By Dan Jenkins
@DanTJenkins
The Detroit Lions have undergone a pretty serious makeover since the end of the disappointing 2015 season.
The loss of a Hall of Fame wide receiver in Calvin Johnson and a complete front office overhaul has new vibes coming from Allen Park.
Even though the Lions have a bevy of new players following free agency and the draft, ESPN NFL Nation reporter Michael Rothstein says the team's biggest offseason acquisition wasn't a player at all. He writes that wrangling general manager Bob Quinn away from the New England Patriots is a more significant move.
"This is a little unorthodox, but it's Quinn. Even though it happened very, very early in Detroit's offseason, bringing in Quinn signified a massive change for the woebegone Lions. It's the first time in the modern era the club hired someone directly from another team to be general manager, and he already has implemented a bunch of changes in the front office and helped the team handle free agency and the draft. It's too early to see if his approach will bring success where so many others have failed, but it was a much-needed change from the previous few regimes."
Rothstein has a point -- the Lions could have added several All-Pro players to their roster and it would have done nothing to change the franchise's toxic chemistry from top to bottom.
Though there's a fresh sense of optimism surrounding the team, some fans believe Quinn is just another puppet for the Ford family after the decision was made to retain coach Jim Caldwell, but that's still a premature assumption.
Quinn is a rookie GM and will need time to get his feet wet, but fans and critics will be expecting nearly immediate positive results.
After 50-odd years of ineptitude, can you blame them?
