Detroit Lions Bob Quinn talks NFL draft: Risk-reward and character concerns

Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn talks to the media in his pre-draft press conference on April 21 at the Lions practice facility in Allen Park, Mich. (Oakland Press photo by Paula Pasche)

By Paula Pasche | The Oakland Press

PUBLISHED: April 21, 2016 at 3:55 p.m. | UPDATED: June 17, 2021 at 6:56 a.m.

Bob Quinn is not going to name names when it comes to the Detroit Lions draft board.

Yet the general manager did admit at Thursday’s pre-draft press conference that Ole Miss defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche is a red flag player for the Lions which means there are concerns about his character.

Quinn and Jim Caldwell have made it clear for months, that drafting or signing players with good character is a priority.

Best to toss out the bad apples now before they have a chance to stink up the locker room.

So while Quinn won’t share much detail about the preparation for the three-day NFL draft which starts on April 28, he was willing to talk character.

This has been a part of the process since he took over as general manager in January.

“My strength on draft day is taking all the information and having a plan prior to the draft and then executing that plan. I’m not going to be caught off guard by who is left on the board or who is not on the board. We’re going to have the plan set in place and hopefully there should be no surprises Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” Quinn said.

In the final home stretch to the draft, Quinn said they are now going through the process of identifying players with “red flags” or even “pink flags.”

“That’s really one of the last things that we do in our process is eliminating guys from the board for those off-the-field concerns,” Quinn said on Thursday. “So, we’re actually having meetings about that in the next couple days, so I don’t have an exact number right now. There will be a fair number of guys that we will not consider for character concerns and off-the-field reasons, but I don’t have a firm number right now.”

Nkemdiche’s character issues could outweigh his talent. For starters, in December he fell out of a hotel room window while drunk, was charged for pot possession and suspended from the Sugar Bowl. His showing on the field at the NFL combine was unimpressive and at the combine podium he admitted to being “lazy” on some plays. Originally he was projected as a first-round prospect but his value has dropped.

He might be easier to tag with a red flag than others whose transgressions have not been so public.

“You’ve got to evaluate, you’ve got to listen to what your scouts have found from the school, you’ve got to interview the prospect, you’ve got to talk to multiple people about their background and the incidents that may have happened that we all know about and kind of do your own research. So, that’s part of my job and that’s part of the job of the personnel department, is finding those answers,” Quinn said.

That evaluation process has evolved over the years and now includes social media.

“I mean, it’s not a secret that personnel staffs and scouting staffs, they track social media. Some of these kids don’t know that. So, it’s one of those things where everything these kids do on and off the field is really at your fingertips, so you can really find out the bigger stories. Then you’re able to delve into the specifics and when you do the interviews and do your background checks on each prospect,” Quinn said.

With all of that said, Quinn said there is a chance a player with character concerns will be drafted by the Lions.

“If you have a red flag, and that’s not what we use on our draft card, that’s just a generic term that we spoke about, I think it was at the combine, right? That’s just things that we have to consider – the value of the player compared to the risk involved in taking him,” Quinn said. “So, it’s not like these guys are off the board, you’ve just got to manage the risk and the reward of taking a guy like that.”