Tag: bob quinn

Eye-opening video shows major shift in Lions draft war room from 2019

Eye-opening video shows a major shift in Lions draft war room from 2019 and the new regime of Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell

Two years ago, there was a video posted by Tristin McKinstry on YouTube and it shows the Detroit Lions War Room for the 2019 NFL Draft compared to the Lions’ draft war room from the 2021 NFL Draft.

The differences aren’t just eye-opening; they’re night and day.

Looking back at the video from 2019, everything felt uncomfortable. The conversations between General Manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia felt odd or forced. Additionally, when they spoke to T.J. Hockenson before the selection, it was just awkward. Neither conversation with Hockenson felt genuine or personable. Lastly, the reaction from other people in the war room makes it feel like part of the room wasn’t on board with the Lions’ selection of the Iowa tight end.

Fast forward to 2021 and the energy from head coach Dan Campbell and General Manager Brad Holmes just feels different. They’re amped up about the selection of Penei Sewell and they just give off this genuine vibe that they really want this player in Detroit. Nothing feels divided or forced and most importantly, everyone seems aligned with the direction Campbell and Holmes are taking the team.

You can watch the video below and tell us if you can spot the differences between the war rooms.

Taylor Decker expresses interest in finishing career in Detroit

Decker is hitting the final year of his contract and he wants to keep rolling in Detroit

The 2016 NFL Draft was the first under a new regime in Bob Quinn. While his tenure with the team is deemed forgettable, he does have some memories to leave behind for Lions fans and the team. One of the lasting pieces he has on this team is Taylor Decker who has proven to be a top-tier left tackle but has a contract that is set to expire next year.

When speaking with MLive, Taylor Decker made his intentions clear. “I definitely want to end my career here, I would say ultimately, for me, this is where I want to be.”

His age and cost make for an interesting decision for Brad Holmes this offseason and into the new season. He will be 31 this August and Spottrac is projecting a boastful contract extension for an aging tackle. The projection for Decker is to be worth $42.3 million on a 3-year extension. That would give him an average annual salary of $14.1 million which would make him in the bottom third of tackle salaries.

Decker may ask for more and for a team about to pay out extensions to several key players over the next year or two like Amon-Ra St. Brown and Penei Sewell. Every dollar is going to count for this team and they have shown they can manage the salary cap well.

“Of course you want money, but for me, I like being here. I love being here, ultimately, do I want to be here forever? One-hundred percent. So, we’ll see.”

Whether this happens is up to Deckers, his agent, and Holmes.

Former Lions GM Bob Quinn promoted inside the Browns organization

Former Lions GM Bob Quinn has been promoted inside the Cleveland Browns front office

File this under “keeping tabs on former Lions”…

Former Detroit GM Bob Quinn is one of many internal promotions the Cleveland Browns announced on Thursday in their front office. Quinn is the Browns new senior personnel/coaching assistant for the Browns under GM Andrew Berry after serving as a vaguely-defined special assistant in the 2021 season. His new role will focus more specifically on the coaching staff.

Quinn was the Lions GM from 2016 through 2020, when he was fired with five games remaining and the team spiraling into darkness. The Lions went 32-47-1 under Quinn, a tenure that included a 9-7 record in each of the first two seasons.

[listicle id=55294]

Browns make several new hires and promotions in the front office and scouting staff

The Cleveland Browns make several hires and promotions in the front office and scouting staff

Throw out your old Cleveland Browns front office org chart. Thursday saw several changes to the management and scouting staff under GM Andrew Berry.

The Browns hired seven new people into the football operations staff and also promoted or added new titles to 13 returning members, most of them on the scouting staff.

Among the new hires are a couple of expected names. Catherine Raiche is the new Assistant GM and Vice President of Football Operations. She comes from the Philadelphia Eagles and is the highest-ranking female in any NFL front office. Another ex-Eagles staffer, Shawn Heinlein, comes with Raiche to Cleveland. Heinlein is the new Southwest area scout for the Browns, a capacity he’s held with other teams for over 20 years.

The other new hires:

Hajriz Aliu – Scouting assistant

Chris Buford – National scout

Ryan Conway – Scouting assistant

Jimmy Raye – Senior Executive advisor

Cyrus Wolford – Scouting assistant

You might recognize Raye’s name. He has over 20 years of front office experience, including a stint as the Assistant GM of the Houston Texans when they drafted Deshaun Watson in 2017.

The shuffle of the existing employees includes promotions for seven members of the scouting department. In their new capacities:

Adam Al-Khayyal – Director of pro scouting

Zack Ayers – National scout

Josh Cox – West Coast area scout

Sam DeLuca – Assistant director of pro scouting

Matt Donahoe – Southeast area scout

Joe Dever – Mid-Atlantic scout

Max Paulus – Director of college scouting

Former Lions GM Bob Quinn moves from senior assistant to senior personnel/coaching executive, while Joy Tapajcik moves into the role of player personnel and football operations process manager. Shane Normandeau moves from scouting assistant to Football Operations coordinator.

Tyler Hamblin takes over as the director of Football Operations, moving up from the role inherited by Normandeau. Glenn Cook added Assistant GM to his title of VP of Player Personnel, while Callum Mahoney jumps into the role of salary cap and contract analyst.

Lions 1 year after firing Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia: Still waiting for the sun to come out

The Detroit Lions offered hope when they fired Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia one year ago, but the sun has yet to rise for the franchise

Last year at this time, the Detroit Lions had just fired GM Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia after a humiliating loss on Thanksgiving. Everyone was wondering where the Lions and new owner Sheila Ford Hamp would go, but the overall tone was one of relief, of the sun beginning to rise after a very dark time.

“The sun will come out tomorrow”

One year later, the Lions are the NFL’s worst team. In a season with some really bad rosters around the league, no one has been worse than Detroit. Between the meager talent in too many spots on the roster and the foibles and growing pains of a rookie head coach, the Lions remain winless. They haven’t won a game in almost a full calendar year, with the last win coming in interim head coach Darrell Bevell’s debut in Week 13 a year ago. It’s now Week 13 again and the Lions are going to need a lot of breaks to pull off an upset home win over the Vikings on Sunday.

“Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there will be sun”

So far, the sun has not risen. It hasn’t gotten any darker, but the new dawn everyone wanted has yet to crack the sky. Lions fans keep looking to the east with increasingly anxious eyes, but it’s becoming harder by the week to invest in sunglasses that might never be required.

“So you gotta hang on ’til tomorrow, come what may”

Optimism is in short supply, but it is something that many Lions fans desperately cling to. Avoiding the 0-17 darkness was a thin ray of light. Earning the No. 1 overall pick and holding another, improving-by-the-week first round selection in what is shaping up to be a very good draft class, is enough to raise the sunken spirits.

The last year has not gone as well as hoped. While most everyone understood and expected that the rebuild wouldn’t happen overnight, few thought it would take so long to see any positive results. Fans and media are (rightly) tired of moral victories, of covering the spread but straight-up not having a good time.

“I love ya tomorrow, you’re always a day away”

Bob Quinn: What the Browns are getting in the ex-Lions GM

Our Jeff Risdon covered Quinn’s entire tenure with the Lions and has some thoughts on the new Browns front office consultant

Bob Quinn is the newest member of the Cleveland Browns front office. The Browns hired Quinn as a senior consultant for GM Andrew Berry.

Quinn spent the last five years as the general manager of the Detroit Lions before being fired after another humiliating loss in November of 2020. I covered every minute of his tenure in Detroit in my capacity with Lions Wire and ESPN Radio in Grand Rapids. I was at his introductory press conference in 2016, just as I was for John Dorsey in Cleveland in December of 2017. As such, I have a pretty strong opinion and experience with Quinn.

I’ll be blunt: I don’t get it for Cleveland. The Browns already have an ex-GM as a sounding board for Berry in Ryan Grigson. That’s the role Berry laid out for Quinn in talking about the hire in his press conference. Unless Grigson is going away, Quinn seems superfluous.

That’s not to say Quinn doesn’t add some value. Despite his ultimate failure in Detroit, the 45-year-old did have some successes. He proved quite capable of identifying offensive line talent. He’s a hyper-organized man, one savvy with the salary cap and pro-level scouting. Quinn isn’t afraid to make tough decisions, even if they prove both unpopular and eventually the wrong ones. Stripped away from his handpicked head coach, Matt Patricia, Quinn’s time in Detroit looks considerably better.

Bob Quinn’s 10 worst decisions as the Lions GM

It’s obviously a career reclamation project from Quinn’s standpoint. He joins a front office that is the apple of the NFL eye with Berry, Paul DePodesta, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Grigson and others. Quinn jumps in after the key decisions for this year are already completed, meaning he’ll share in credit for being on the staff but shoulder no real blame if something goes awry. He’s positioning himself for another GM job down the line and cherry-picked a great tree to splice upon. Quinn’s a smart guy, after all…

Some have worried about Quinn having eyes at usurping Berry. That’s not Quinn, his style or his mentality. It’s also something Berry is smart enough to guard against; Quinn wouldn’t be in Cleveland if Berry — or anyone else in the Browns organization — didn’t trust his intentions or his football work.

This move is a much bigger deal in Detroit for fans and the media. Quinn did not leave on good terms and built one of the most boring, unlikable football teams possible. Ironically, he’s now filling the same role in Cleveland that ex-Browns GM John Dorsey serves for the Lions. Here’s hoping the Browns coax out the positives in Quinn and he helps build the team even stronger. Just don’t ask anyone who has dealt with Quinn in his Lions tenure to think this is a good idea for Cleveland. That wound is still festering.

Browns hire former Lions GM Bob Quinn as Senior Consultant

Andrew Berry and the Browns bring in a former GM and a former Patriots front office guy.

As the Cleveland Browns embark on the 2021 season, Andrew Berry and company are always on the look out for adding talent to the organization. Today comes news that former Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn was brought on board.

Quinn was the Lions’ top front office guy for almost five seasons. During that time, Detroit finished with a 31 – 43 – 1 record. Among Quinn’s biggest moves were at head coach where he fired Jim Caldwell after a 9 – 7 season and hired Matt Patricia to replace him.

Quinn’s history with Patricia back to their days together with the New England Patriots played a big role in his hire. With the Patriots, Quinn made a name for himself as a scout and pro personnel guy. After spending 16 seasons in New England, Quinn was hired by Detroit in 2016.

Like many ex-Patriot employees, Quinn failed outside of that organization when given more responsibilities. Outside of the Caldwell firing and Patricia hiring, many of his moves were questionable and led to his firing.

In Cleveland, he won’t be in charge of any decisions:

 

Berry will continue to run things but has a former general manager to help guide him. Quinn’s success in New England in a lesser role should bode well for him in his role in Cleveland. Tapping into Quinn’s knowledge from his almost two decades in Foxboro should be helpful to the Browns organization.

Former Lions GM Bob Quinn hired by Browns front office

Quinn was fired by the Lions in November with a 32-47-1 record as GM

Friday morning’s Detroit Lions training camp practice became secondary news. Just as the payers began drills on the practice fields, news broke that former Lions Gm Bob Quinn has been hired by the Cleveland Browns.

Per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, Quinn will serve as a Senior Consultant in the Browns’ football operations department under GM Andrew Berry.

Quinn, along with handpicked head coach Matt Patricia, was fired last November after four-plus seasons in charge of making all the decisions for the Lions. The team went 32-47-1 under his reign.

The Browns already have a vast front office assembled by chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta and Berry, who is in his second season as the team’s GM. Berry’s predecessor, John Dorsey, now works for the Lions in the same capacity that Quinn will serve in Cleveland.

Lions have been top-5 in NFL in drafting WRs and OL but brutal at RB and LB, study finds

The PFF study leans on higher-round picks and sustained success

The Detroit Lions have consistently drafted offensive linemen better than just about any NFL team, but they’ve been among the worst at running back and linebacker. That’s among the findings from a draft value success study from Pro Football Focus.

The study encompasses the past 10 draft classes, from 2011-2020. That era goes through the heart of the Martin Mayhew tenure as GM and also includes the entire Bob Quinn reign.

First, the offensive line draft success. As PFF notes in the explanation, higher picks are weighted heavier in the equation than late-round selections.

Hitting on Frank Ragnow, Taylor Decker and Larry Warford help spike the Lions up to the top. Only the Patriots and Cowboys have done a better job at drafting linemen.

Detroit was also very good at wide receiver dating back to 2011. This is heavily propped up by the success of 2017 third-round pick Kenny Golladay.

The team was squarely in the middle on the defensive line and at defensive end in the heat maps. Then came linebacker. Look down. Way down…

The relative misses on Jarrad Davis, Jahlani Tavai, Kyle Van Noy and Ronnell Williams really hurt the Lions here. The PFF valuation goes over the entire NFL career of the players, not just their time in Detroit.

The Lions also didn’t fare well at tight end. Detroit finished seventh from the bottom there, though T.J. Hockenson’s upward arc can push the Lions up fairly quickly if he continues to improve.

Running back was also poor return on investment. Just five teams got less value from running back draft picks from 2011-2020 than the Lions. As with Hockenson at TE, 2020 second-rounder D’Andre Swift does give Detroit some upward mobility here. There wasn’t enough sample to make it at quarterback, where the Lions have only made two picks (Jake Rudock and Brad Kaaya) since 2009.

[lawrence-related id=60672]

Where are they now? A look at Bob Quinn’s 2016 draft class

First in a series tracking the recent Detroit Lions draft picks

The year is 2016. Martin Mayhew had just been fired several months prior, and Bob Quinn has been brought in to be the new general manager of the Detroit Lions.

Quinn had a tough task ahead of him. Mayhew had some disappointing drafts over his tenure in Detroit and Quinn had to prove that he could turn things around and use his scouting expertise to make the most of his nine draft picks.

Now, sights are set on the 2021 season and Quinn is out of a job. In this series, ‘Where are they now?’, we’ll explore each and every draft pick that Bob Quinn has made and determine just how successful he was on draft day.

Of course, we’ll start at the beginning with the 2016 NFL draft.