At pre-draft press conferences across the league, every General Manager is considering all his options, plans to take the best player available, and is open for business.
Lions G.M. Bob Quinn, in particular, is ready to sell.
As a result of having a league-low six picks, Quinn said he was interested in trading down somewhere in the process in hopes of acquiring more picks.
“I think we’re going to kind of take it as it comes in the first round and see what’s there in the teens and evaluate what our options are,” Quinn said, via Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press. “I’m always in the business of getting more draft picks, if I can. … I think that’s just good for business. The more you get, the more you hit on.
“So if we can acquire more picks, that would be something I look forward to. If there’s a player I really like at [No. 20 overall], I’m going to have to go ahead and take the pick.”
In his first two drafts with the Lions, Quinn has only traded down once. That was last year in a deal with his old employer the Patriots, in which he picked up a fourth-rounder by moving down 11 spots in the third round.
In addition to the 20th overall pick, the Lions have a pick in each round besides the sixth. They threw that one away in a deal with the Rams for left tackle Greg Robinson, who couldn’t win a job and finished the year on IR.
“No, there’s no desperation,” Quinn said. “Would I like to have a sixth-round pick? Absolutely. But we don’t, so we deal with what we have. If we acquire more, great. If not, what we’ll do is get ourselves organized for the seventh round and post-draft.”
The end of this week and the first half of next is when teams actively go through possible trade scenarios, so putting out word that he’s willing to move, Quinn may speed up the process of doing a deal.