Bob Quinn ranked as NFL’s worst general manager

Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia is certainly entering the 2020 season on the hot seat. After taking a 9-7 team and going 6-10 and 3-12-1, time is just about up on the culture change Patricia was brought in to enact.

But Patricia is far from the only one on the hot seat. General manager Bob Quinn has held his position since 2016, and it’s hard to see how he’s improved the talent on this roster over five drafts and five free agency periods. While Quinn only has one really, really bad bust to his name (Teez Tabor), the list of his success stories is about the same length.

As a result, Bob Quinn was named the NFL’s worst general manager by Rotoworld’s Patrick Daugherty. Daugherty ranked all NFL general managers from 1 to 30, and Quinn came in last. The other two NFL GMs, Washington’s Ron Rivera and the Browns’ Andrew Berry, are first-time GMs and were not included in his rankings.

Pretty much Daugherty’s entire argument for placing Quinn last is the Lions general manager’s insistence on adding former Patriots to the team.

“To a comical degree — Trey Flowers, Duron Harmon, Justin Coleman, Danny Shelton, Danny Amendola and literally eight others — Quinn only seems interested in ex-Patriots on the trade and free agent markets,” Daugherty wrote. “How about instead of co-opting someone else’s identity, you create your own?”

It’s a common complaint, but at this point in his tenure, it’s a fair one. That blueprint of simply trying to recreate the Patriots in another city has never worked for any other team, and it’s off to a rough start in Detroit. And while there are decent reasons for Quinn to do this—especially when the Lions are running an identical defense to New England, and in a shortened offseason, adding experienced players makes a lot of sense—it’s hard to trust this process with so little evidence of success.

Daugherty also mentions a few other criticisms, like Detroit’s lack of impact players (fair—Kenny Golladay aside) and their overinvestment in the running game (again, fair).

Under Quinn, the Lions have posted a 27-36-1 record, good for just 22nd over that span. If the Lions don’t turn things around and prove doubters like Daugherty wrong in 2020, there’s a good chance a brand new GM will take over in Detroit next season.