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Isaiah Johnson (43) and Rafael Bush (31) are two players Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn highlighted in the four-man race for a starting safety job.

(Mike Mulholland | MLive.com)

The Detroit Lions have a number of unsettled roster spots and a handful of starting jobs that will be contested during training camp, but general manager Bob Quinn is particularly intrigued by one.

"At the safety position, we obviously have Glover Quin and he's going to be a starter on side, and I think the battle to play next to Glover is a really intriguing one," Quinn said in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio on Tuesday. "Each one of a few guys really stepped up during the course of OTAs and minicamp. Isaiah Johnson, Tavon Wilson, Rafael Bush, Miles Killebrew, that's four guys right there that have taken reps with the ones over the past couple weeks of OTAs and minicamp. That's kind of an under-the-radar battle that myself and the coaching staff are really looking to see how that unfolds."

Johnson is the only player from that group who returns from last year's squad. An undrafted rookie out of Georgia Tech, he spent most of the year on the practice squad before a late-season promotion to the main roster. Still, he only recorded three defensive snaps in 2015.

Killebrew, a fourth-round draft pick this offseason, is expected to develop into the long-term solution at the position. The 6-foot-2, 217-pounder out of Southern Utah will likely have some rough patches as he adjusts to the level of competition, but as Quinn notes, the hard-hitting rookie is impressing.

Wilson and Bush were free agent additions. Bush, given his experience and practice reps the past month, is the presumed front runner. Regardless, both players are examples of the depth Quinn aimed to add this offseason. The rookie GM believes depth is the foundation of a better on-field product.

"The more competition, the better players you have at each level of your roster," Quinn said. "It's easy to examine your top 10 players, your top 15 players, but for me, from the time I spent in New England, we created a lot of competition from roster spots 30 to 53, and really, the 10 guys on the practice squad, so roster spots 30 to 63.

"That's really how you create the depth on your team and creating those battles in training camp, so hopefully you really have a lot of hard decisions to make come cut down day."

Here are some additional quotes from Quinn from Tuesday's interview:

On upgrading the offensive line:

"Offensive line was a big topic in our initial set of meetings. I just felt in our first wave of free agency, into the second wave, there wasn't a lot of value in the offensive line and what those guys, in my mind, what they were worth. So we kind of passed on a lot of the offensive linemen in free agency, but really concentrated in the draft on beefing up the line a little bit. We were able to acquire three guys with our first six picks to upgrade the offensive line in Taylor Decker, Graham Glasgow and Joe Dahl."

On the decision to retain coach Jim Caldwell:

"Looking back, that was the easiest and best decision I made. I really have a great working relationship with Jim. All the sets of meetings we've had, whether it was when I first got there figuring out our team, leading into free agency, leading into the draft meetings, really felt comfortable with Jim and his staff and their ability to take a player who has a certain skill set and make that fit into the schemes they are running."

On learning to evaluate a different type of defensive lineman:

"Offensive scheme, offense is offense in my opinion, but defensive scheme, you have to have good fits. In New England, we liked big linebackers, big linemen who could play a two-gap style of defense. But here in Detroit, I'm really learning how to evaluate the one-gap players. It's really exciting. It's something I'm listening a lot to our personnel guys, our scouts and our coaches about what they see and was able to put that into the decision-making process for the draft and free agency. "

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