Dave Birkett

Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Lions stayed away from most big-ticket items in free agency, and general manager Bob Quinn said at the team’s Member Summit for season-ticket holders Thursday that’s likely to be his philosophy in the future.

“I think the best way to build a football team is through the draft, and you can supplement through free agency when you have some real serious needs,” Quinn said. “That’s my philosophy.”

The Lions signed just one major free agent this off-season, filling their void at wide receiver by inking Marvin Jones to a five-year, $40-million deal.

Beyond Jones, they re-signed a handful of their own players on defense and added depth at positions like cornerback, safety and the offensive line.

Lions president Rod Wood said this off-season that upgrading the offensive line was a priority, but Quinn said there wasn’t enough value in the free agents available for the Lions to be major players at the position.

They signed veteran guard Geoff Schwartz to a one-year deal this week and missed out on adding left tackle Russell Okung.

“It’s a position I studied at length in free agency, and for this crowd here, it’s a position where I didn’t see the value in the players that were getting signed to the contracts that they were getting from other teams, so I backed off,” Quinn said. “That’s the way I want to build this team. I want to build the right way, and it’s still a position that we’re looking for and looking to upgrade along with basically every other position on the team.”

Despite the lack of big names in the Lions’ free-agent haul so far, Quinn said he’s pleased with what the team was able to accomplish restocking its roster.

“I think the players that we brought in in free agency, whether it’s Marvin or Johnson Bademosi, Stefan Charles, maybe some of these guys aren’t huge names for a lot of these fans,” Quinn said. “I think it’s really important to not get into the hype of free agency and seeing these other teams go crazy because over the long haul, that doesn’t work. Not in my opinion. So I want to build this thing the right way and build for the long term.”

Jersey chaser: Wood addressed a couple popular topics at Thursday’s summit.

Wood said the Lions will wear Color Rush jerseys this year, either on Thanksgiving or if they’re given a Thursday night game when the schedule comes out this month. The NFL plans to release the jerseys around the scheduling announcement.

“All teams that play on Thursday this year will wear a Color Rush uniform,” Wood said. “I’m hoping we have another Thursday night game in addition to Thanksgiving. And we will wear a uniform that I can’t describe yet because the NFL won’t allow me to. It will be all one color and we’ll wear it on Thursday night.”

Wood said the Lions could wear a different Color Rush uniform in 2017, when they hope to make minor changes to their regular uniform and bring back their throwback jerseys.

This and that: Lions coach Jim Caldwell said he likes having the “participation” banners hanging from the Ford Field rafters commemorating the team’s playoff appearances. Wood said he’s “taking strong consideration” to adding cheerleaders. And Wood hinted that more ticket price increases are on their way.

The Lions increased tickets an average of 7.8% this year coming off a disappointing 7-9 season. Wood said that increase has helped fund things like a new weight room, an expanded coaching staff and the addition of dietitian Sarah Snyder.

“I chose to recommend the ticket price increase that we put through,” Wood said. “It still keeps us as only the 24th most expensive average ticket price in the NFL. I would like to get to the point where we’re at least average, because unless we’re average we’re going to be struggling to compete nationally with other teams that have more resources from investing in things that help the football team.”

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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