NFL Executives Blast Lions

NFL execs blast Lions in piece from The Athletic's Mike Sando

The early consensus on the Lions' offseason so far: Rather disappointing.

In case you missed it, I gave Detroit general manager Bob Quinn a modest grade of "B" for his work in the early portion of free agency.

Other pundits haven't been as kind with their evaluation of the moves made by Quinn in his fifth offseason as the Lions' front-office head honcho.

NFL executives weren't too impressed with Quinn's work, either, as portrayed in a recent piece from The Athletic's Mike Sando.

According to Sando, one anonymous executive believes that the Lions can't keep trading away all of their disgruntled players -- specifically the high-impact ones, like veteran cornerback Darius Slay.

"'There are not enough good players to go around to get rid of them,' the exec said. 'Who has time? Who has five years to wait? Detroit has gotten rid of several guys. There was the receiver midseason which killed their (2018) season, Golden Tate. There have been a few guys over the years, like (Quandre) Diggs.'"

Another anonymous exec expressed that Detroit head man Matt Patricia needs to distinguish himself from his former boss and longtime New England Patriots head man Bill Belichick on the defensive side of the ball.

“'Patricia has to put his stamp on that defense. He can’t put Belichick’s stamp on it. They had (defensive coordinator) Paul Pasqualoni last year. He stepped down. It is going to be on Patricia. The Fords do a nice job of giving whoever they have given the keys to the opportunity to grow and develop, but at some point you gotta show what this investment is all about.'"

2020 will be a pivotal year for both Patricia and Quinn.

Detroit may have to qualify for the playoffs in order for the two to save their jobs.

And Quinn's offseason duties aren't done quite yet.

He has the NFL Draft coming up April 23-25, with the Lions on the clock for the first time at No. 3 overall.

What he does with the pick and throughout the entirety of the draft will go a long way toward determining how competitive Detroit is this upcoming season and beyond.

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