Detroit Lions: Bob Quinn deserves praise for Damon Harrison trade

Bob Quinn hasn’t been one to be aggressive with trades since becoming the Detroit Lions general manager but he swung a big one in acquiring Damon Harrison.

There has been a lot of good in the Bob Quinn’s early tenure as the general manager of the Detroit Lions. He has put an emphasis on building the offensive line, made some shrewd free agent additions like wide receiver Marvin Jones and has found useful pieces in the drafts second and third days.

While Quinn has made in impact in adding talent through the draft and free agency, he hasn’t shown a penchant for doing the same via trade. Quinn has chosen to be relatively inactive in trades, starting with his initial draft class that saw him stand pat with each of his 10 picks in the 2016 NFL Draft.

It can be argued Quinn had not made a trade of any significance until the 2018 NFL Draft when he made two separate deals with the New England Patriots that netted him running back Kerryon Johnson and defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand. Even then, it might have been some cause for concern that he had only pulled off meaningful trades with his former employer.

That narrative shifts sharply with the trade with the New York Giants to acquire defensive tackle Damon “Snacks” Harrison. In trading just a 2019 fifth-round pick, of which the Lions had two, for Harrison, Quinn can now claim a signature trade on his resume.

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It’s hard to see any way this trade is anything but a home run for the Lions. The cost is low and Harrison’s strength, his ability as a run stopper, fits perfectly with the defense’s biggest weakness. And it’s not like Harrison has shown signs of being a player in decline as he approaches 30 years of age.

He has been one of the league’s best run-stuffers and has remained just that through the early part of 2018, per Pro Football Focus on Twitter:

The Giants have clearly come to the realization that they are a team in need of a full rebuild. That kind of decision makes a player like Harrison expendable and Quinn deserves credit for swooping in to get the deal done. In doing so he not only improved his team for the rest of this season but took a team need off the table, or at least bumped it down the priority list, heading into next season.

Dealing a fifth-round pick for just one year of Harrison may have been palatable for a team looking to make a push but he is under contract through the 2020 season. The Lions take on a cap hit of about $4.6 million for the rest of this season, $7 million for next season and $9.25 million for 2020. Even if Snacks isn’t the same player by the time 2020 rolls around, the Lions can move on without any dead money being left behind.

A low-cost trade for a productive player who fills a need for the short- and medium-term? I just don’t see any downside here.

Maybe Quinn’s lackluster trade record prior to the Harrison deal was just a result of bad luck or a simple mismatch of what he was looking for and what his team needed rather than an inability to pull off a deal. Regardless of the reason, Quinn has now shown he can get the job done in the trade market as well.