Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia is certainly entering the 2020 season in the hot seat. After taking a team of 9-7 and leaving 6-10 and 3-12-1, it is time for the culture change Patricia brought to enact.
But Patricia is far from the only one in the hot seat. General manager Bob Quinn has held her position since 2016, and it’s hard to see how talent on this list has improved in five drafts and five free agency periods. While Quinn only has a very, very bad bust to his name (Teez Tabor), the list of his success stories is roughly the same length.
As a result, Bob Quinn was named the worst NFL general manager by Patrick Daugherty of Rotoworld. Daugherty ranked all NFL general managers from 1 to 30, with Quinn coming in last. The other two NFL general managers, Ron Rivera of Washington and Andrew Berry of the Browns, are first-time general managers and were not included in their rankings.
Almost all of Daugherty’s argument for putting Quinn in last place 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 former Patriots in the trade and free-agent markets,” Daugherty wrote. “What if instead of co-opting someone else’s identity, you create yours?”
It is a common complaint, but at this point in its mandate, it is fair. That plan of simply trying to recreate the Patriots in another city has never worked for any other team, and it’s off to a rocky 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 difficult to trust this process with so little evidence of success. .
Daugherty also mentions a few other criticisms, such as Detroit players’ lack of impact (fair, aside from Kenny Golladay) and his overinvestment in the running game (again, fair).
Under Quinn, the Lions have posted a 27-36-1 record, good for just 22 in that span. If the Lions don’t turn things around and prove skeptics like Daugherty are wrong in 2020, there is a good chance that a new general manager will take over Detroit next season.
