4 Key Quotes from General Manager Bob Quinn Ahead of 2020 NFL Draft
Lions general manager Bob Quinn spoke for nearly 50 minutes Friday addressing a wide array of topics ahead of next week's NFL Draft.
Topics included his setup at home, the importance of taking an impactful player with the No. 3 overall pick and how he feels about Detroit head coach Matt Patricia's relationship with his players.
Here are four key quotes from Friday's media session:
On trading the third pick in the 2020 NFL Draft
“It’s something we’re consistently talking about. What kind of player can we get at seven? Eight? Nine? Ten? Five? You kind of have the list of the players you like, right? And you work backwards," Quinn said. "So, if you like six guys and you feel like you can move back and they’re all similarly graded, then, you try to do that. If there’s a great variance in those six players and you only feel great about three or four of them, then, you can’t go back as far."
He added, “It’s a constant conversation and a good question and something we’ve been having over the last, I’d say, two weeks. We’ll talk more about it over the weekend and into next week about those opportunities. You can’t just say, hey, I’m going to trade. You need a trade partner. So you need somebody that wants to come up, and those conversations are happening. And we’ll see how they turn out next week."
On his virtual setup at home
"I'm not going to give you a picture of my setup here because I really don't have that capability right now. But, basically, I'm at my house in front of a virtual Lions-themed background. I have a home office that I use occasionally during the season and occasionally during the offseason -- not very much. But, I'm staring at a TV to my right," Quinn said. "I have three monitors to my left, I have two laptops, I have a huge, what we call our draft phone, I have my home phone, I have two cell phones and I have a printer. That's kind of my setup that I'm looking at right now."
On if there will be an NFL season in 2020
“I do think there will be a season, but I haven’t been told that. I’m like you guys. I’m hoping that this pandemic gets cleared up as soon as possible and we can get back to life as normal -- that’s including our home lives and our family lives, as well as our professional lives," Quinn said. "So, if I had to guess, yes. But, I don’t know. I don’t know. That’s something we’ll wait for the league to tell us about as we get further down the road.”
On the opinion of players on Patricia
“You can go ask anyone in the locker room right now what they think of coach or how he runs the team, and they’re 100 percent behind him. You can’t make everybody happy in this business in terms of how you do certain things," Quinn said.
He added, “I can just say from the guys we signed in free agency, the guys that wanted to be here -- a number of guys in our free-agent class reached out to us. Obviously, we liked them as players. But, in the weeks leading up to free agency, those guys had their agents call me and say, ‘Hey, my guy wants to be there and play for coach.’
I’ve never seen a player more excited to be traded -- and we’ve done a lot of trades since I’ve been here -- than Duron Harmon. He was like literally jumping out of my FaceTime, wanting to come out here immediately.”
