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The New England Patriots are expected to travel to Detroit for its dress rehearsal next season.

(AP Photo)

ALLEN PARK -- It appears the Detroit Lions' dress rehearsal will come against a team Bob Quinn knows fairly well.

Detroit is expected to host the defending world champion New England Patriots in that all-important third preseason game, according to ESPN. That's when starters typically play the most in the exhibition slate, which means fans -- and the Lions defense -- could get a long look at Tom Brady.

Quinn spent the first 16 years of his NFL career working his way through that organization's scouting department, eventually taking over as the director of pro scouting before landing the Lions' general manager job last year.

"I like Bob a lot," Brady said at the Super Bowl. "Bob and I always had a lot of conversations. He's in Detroit now and got a great opportunity and there's a few other guys from our team have gone there. We've always kept in touch and I obviously wish them the very best.

"They had a great season (last) year and they have some very talented people there that I was very fortunate to know when they were with the Patriots that are now at Detroit. Hopefully they can keep building."

While the full schedule won't be released for another few days, expect the Lions to open the exhibition slate on the road, per the request of team president Rod Wood. That will give them an extra week to wrap up more than $100 million in offseason renovations at Ford Field.

"Hopefully we're done (with the project) by the first week of August, and then we have our first preseason game hopefully the second week," Wood said. "I've asked for a one-week reprieve -- to be on the road the first week -- so that we have a little bit of time to deal with any things that are running behind schedule. But the plan is to be ready for the first preseason game."

Wood also asked the league for a more friendly schedule to open the regular season. Detroit was on the road for three of its first four games each of the last two seasons, and in four of the last 10.

It hasn't hosted three out of four to open a season since 1990.