NFL Draft rumors: Detroit Lions ‘open to moving back in the first round’

Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn has not made it a secret this offseason that he would be interested in attaining more draft picks. The Lions have the fewest picks of any team in the 2018 NFL Draft, with just six picks overall. That’s not a great place for this franchise to be, according to Quinn.

“I’m always in the business of getting more draft picks. I think that’s just good for business,” Quinn said last week. “The more you get, the more you’re going to hit on, so if we can acquire more picks, that would be something I’d look forward to.”

While that could certainly be a smokescreen, attempting to prevent teams from jumping them in the draft for a prospect they may be interested in, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the interest in moving down could very well be real:

Acquiring more picks certainly seems like a goal worth pursuing, especially considering Detroit’s many needs and the players expected to be there at 20 overall. However, the fact that there are at least three other teams interested in moving down could make it tougher for Detroit to make that happen. The Ravens (Pick 16) and Seahawks (Pick 18) are ahead of the Lions in the draft, making their pick more valuable, but also more expensive. The Titans (Pick 25) don’t have much room to trade down, unless a team is looking to jump back into the first round from Round 2.

Of course, the desire to move down always seems to be popular before the draft. Pulling off an actual trade is much more difficult than just wishing it to happen, and Quinn has only pulled off one draft day trade in two years. Could this be the year he does it in the first round? We’ll know in a matter of hours.