Quinn hasn’t gone more than 10 months without making a trade with his former employer since coming to Detroit in January of 2016
My phone alerted me to an email a little after 4 p.m. on Sunday. I only saw a snippet of the subject in the preview.
“Lions trade CB Michael Jackson”
I didn’t see the rest of the subject or the body, but I knew instantly where Jackson was heading. Recent history dictates that if the Lions are going to make a trade, it’s with the New England Patriots. It’s what they do.
Prior to the Jackson trade, which brings back an undisclosed 2022 draft pick for a player the Lions were cutting, the last trade Detroit made was also with New England. That trade back in March brought safety Duron Harmon and the draft pick that became DL Jashon Cornell to Detroit, in exchange for a draft pick that wound up being traded back to Detroit by the Raiders in a package that became OG Logan Stenberg and RB Jason Huntley.
In June of last year, the Lions dealt TE Michael Roberts to the Patriots. That deal fell through when Roberts couldn’t pass a physical.
While Bob Quinn has made trades with other teams as well in his tenure as the team’s GM since 2016, he definitely has a thing for working deals with his former employer in New England.
May 2016 – The Lions sent a conditional 2017 seventh-round draft pick to New England for LB Jon Bostic. Bostic never played for the Lions so the pick remained with Detroit.
October 2016 – Detroit dealt LB Kyle Van Noy to New England along with a 2017 seventh-round pick in return for a 2017 sixth-round pick. The Lions used that pick on QB Brad Kaaya. New England traded the seventh-round pick in a swap of three picks that produced players who were all out of the league by the end of 2018.
April 2017 – A draft-day trade resulted in the Lions sending their third-round pick to the Patriots for a third-rounder and a fourth-rounder. Detroit’s acquired third-round pick became WR Kenny Golladay. The fourth-rounder was used to select LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin. The Patriots traded up to draft OT Antonio Garcia, who never made an NFL roster, not even as a third-round rookie.
Interestingly enough, the Patriots had acquired the pick Detroit used on Golladay from the Browns in a trade for … now-Lions LB Jamie Collins.
September 2017 – The Lions traded CB Johnson Bademosi to New England for a 2019 sixth-round pick. That pick got packaged by the Lions as part of a deal (with Minnesota) to move up in the 2019 draft and select S Will Harris in the third round. Talk about delayed gratification…
April 2018 – During the draft, the Lions dealt a second-round and fourth-round pick to New England to move up and select RB Kerryon Johnson earlier in the second round. New England traded away both the acquired picks, one to Chicago (WR Anthony Miller) and the other to Tampa Bay (S Jordan Whitehead). The Patriots have also since traded the player they draft with the pick they acquired from Tampa Bay, CB Duke Dawson.
April 2018 – Another draft-day deal saw the Lions send a 2019 third-round pick to New England for the Patriots’ fourth-round pick in 2018. The Lions drafted DE Da’Shawn Hand. As is their custom, the Patriots traded away the acquired pick for three other picks, of which they traded two and selected RB Damien Harris with the third.
That’s eight total trades between Quinn and the Patriots since March of 2016. Interestingly enough the Lions have come out net winners on all but one of them.
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