Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The Lions will have a new process of evaluating and ranking players under new general manager Bob Quinn, one that most assume will be similar to what Quinn learned during his 16 seasons with the New England Patriots.

Current Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio said Quinn learned “a pretty intricate grading scale” during his time in New England, one that emphasizes “the player’s role specific to our team (and is) not so much round-based.”

“There’s a multitude of layers that go into that,” Caserio said. “As it relates to the draft, you start with that player in August, September, through their season, into the off-season, training camp, so you’re accumulating a lot of information and you’re creating a profile, and in the end, you’re trying to identify, ‘OK, how does that player fit our system, our culture, on a multitude of levels?’

Caserio said the draft evaluation operation is very process-oriented. One of the most important questions that must be answered? Defining a specific role for the player on your team.

“Knowing your team is the foundation, and then being able to extrapolate that and apply it to a projection you’re making on somebody else that you’re trying to bring into your system,” Caserio said.

Quinn, in his introductory news conference last week, acknowledged some of those principles, saying, “The most important evaluation of a football team is knowing your own team.”

Caserio said the Patriots’ grading scale combines ranking players positionally, horizontally — by position across where in the draft they’re expected to go — “and then you look at the relative value of the player, relative to supply and demand, relative to your team. And it’s short term, and it’s also long term.”

“Each position there are certain criteria that you’re evaluating as it relates to that specific position, and there are position skills,” Caserio said. “And then you assign a value or a numerical grade based on how you see that player. Backup. Starter. Role backup. Third corner. So it’s a very specific, like, ‘OK, here are the player’s strengths. Here are his weak points.’ And then in the end, this is ... from a scout’s perspective, they’re encouraged to (say), ‘This is how I see this player fitting. He’s a third corner, and he has some position flexibility.’ Or, ‘He’s a backup player.’ And then you always go back to relative to a player on your team.

“So you’re watching somebody, looking at your team, and you’re trying to say, ‘OK, is he better than what we have? Well, he maybe. But if we have him, here’s the role, and regardless of who we have on the team.’ ”

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett . Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!

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