One of the NFL’s least successful franchises is hoping to get a boost by hiring someone from one of the NFL’s most successful franchises.
The Lions plan to hire Patriots director of pro scouting Bob Quinn as their new General Manager, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.
Detroit has been in need of a new G.M. since firing Martin Mayhew halfway through the 2015 season, after a disastrous 1-7 start. The Lions ended up going 6-2 the rest of the way, suggesting that the roster Mayhew had assembled was perhaps not quite so bad, and Quinn may not have quite as big a rebuilding effort as it initially looked.
But it will be a rebuilding effort for a team that hasn’t won a playoff game since 1991. Quinn has spent his entire NFL career in New England, getting promoted from player personnel assistant to pro scout to regional scout to national scout to assistant director of pro personnel to director of pro scouting, so the Patriots’ front office clearly thinks highly of his work.
Now he’ll take on a tough job in Detroit.