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Lions general manager Bob Quinn says the club is already talking about potential draft-day trades.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

ALLEN PARK -- There's been a flurry of trade activity leading up to next week's NFL draft, including Tennessee and Cleveland dealing the top two overall picks.

The Lions haven't made any deals themselves, and sitting at No. 16 overall, they likely won't until they're ready to trade up for a pick that's on the clock, or they're on the clock themselves.

But it seems there could already be a market developing for that pick.

General manager Bob Quinn conducted his pre-draft news conference Thursday in Allen Park, and revealed in his opening statement that the club has already begun fielding calls about potential first-round deals.

"This time of year is when you're starting to field calls about moving around in the draft," Quinn said. "We've definitely had plenty of those here the last few days.

"We have 10 picks today. We may (end up with) more, we may have less. We'll see how that goes."

The Lions made plenty of draft-day deals under former GM Martin Mayhew, including dealing last year's first-round pick (23rd overall) to move back five spots, draft Duke guard Laken Tomlinson and acquire reserve offensive lineman Manny Ramirez.

But Quinn hails from a Patriots organization that is widely known for its volume of aggressive moves on draft day, often moving down to pick up extra selections.

Some of the moves that have already went down will affect him this year. Tennessee could use another offensive tackle, for example, and so do the Lions. And now the Titans hold the 15th overall pick -- one ahead of Detroit -- thanks to their blockbuster deal with the Rams.

"One of my good friends is right in front of me now," Quinn said of Titans GM Jon Robinson, who worked with him in New England. "Maybe he'll give me a hint who they're taking."

On the bright side, though, those moves happened early enough that Detroit has a chance to prepare for what could happen before it's on the clock.

"Sitting where we are at 16, I think it really gives us some time to kind of look at the 15 picks before us, and see what those teams are really aiming for," he said. "So that happens draft morning, you're kind of in more scramble mode, like, 'OK, now it's changed.' We kind of know what teams are looking for, but the order's changed.

"So having this a week before the draft -- 10 days before the draft -- that gives teams like us more time to look at the scope of the first, say, 15 picks and what might happen."

Quinn said the Lions' pro personnel department has prepared an analysis of every team's biggest needs heading into the draft, and he'll use it to try to anticipate where the Lions risk losing a player they love.

In such a case, they could try to make a move up the board.

"We hear Team X is trading up, I'll ask our pro guys, 'All right, well, who are they coming up to take?'" Quinn said. "They look at the needs book and say, 'Well, their top needs are running back and wide receiver.' We look at our board and are like, 'All right, well, they're probably looking at one of these three guys.' So it's a thing that you prepare for, but it's also something you really talk about at length while you're sitting there in the draft room when it's all happening.

"It's really an interesting part of the process, to determine the draft strategy. Will that (move) affect you? Will that affect my next pick? Because maybe a player I like is now gone. So it's really an interesting part for me."

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