Lions G.M. Bob Quinn self-reflective in Thursday’s press conference.
A little over a year ago, the Detroit Lions hired former New England Patriots Director of College Scouting, Bob Quinn, to be their General Manager. He spoke with the Detroit media in a 24-minute presser on Thursday, getting into the details of his first year on the job — a year that most are considering a success.
Quinn did what he set out to do in his first year, improve in the short and long term, and build the trenches. He admitted he made mistakes when it came to his zero tolerance policy. But overall, the Quinn I watched speak was confident, calm, and extremely well-prepared. The jury is still out on Quinn, but if his first season is either a pass or a fail, passed with flying colors.
He spoke with a newfound confidence that he hasn’t quite shown since taking over last January. Laughing frequently as he easily navigated through a barrage of questions on every topic you can think of from Detroit’s media “dungeon of doom” as coach Caldwell would say. Here are the highlights from Bob Quinn’s presser.
Quinn’s overall thoughts on year one as Lions G.M.:
“I thought we had a really productive year of building a team. Building a culture,” Quinn stated. “Nine wins is a good season. It’s not nearly good enough for what we want. we have one goal. Our goal is to win a lot more games in the regular season. It’s my job to build this roster for the 2017 Lions. And that process is off the ground and running.”
On the running backs:
“I’m always looking to upgrade and I think the players understand that. Do I believe in Ameer (Abdullah) and Theo (Riddick) and Zach (Zenner) and Dwayne Washington and Mike James? I do.”
On Offensive Line:
“We tried to improve the offensive line, which I think we did to a degree.”
On Riley Reiff and Larry Warford:
“Nothing has been decided on either one of those guys.”
On Head Coach Jim Caldwell:
“He lets his coaches coach. I thnk that’s a really good way to run a football team. I really enjoy the day-to-day interactions between the two of us. I really believe in his approach.”
On QB Matthew Stafford:
“Matthew had a good year. It’s his second season with Coach Cooter as a coordinator. Matthew got better over the first 8-10 weeks,” Quinn said. “I think he had a really good year, happy that he’s our quarterback.”
On Rookie Class:
“We had a lot of contributors from the rookie class. Overall, it was a solid class.”
On Eric Ebron:
“Eric had a productive year.”
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