ALLEN PARK -- Martin Mayhew's draft philosophy, particularly in the first round, was simple.

Best player available. Every time.

But new Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn says things aren't always so black and white.

"Everyone says, 'Is it best available, or is it need?'" Quinn said Monday during his introductory news conference. "To me, it's a mesh, OK? You can't just say, 'I'm going to take the best player available,' because if you have a starting-level running back, why would you take a running back in the first round?

"I think you definitely have to establish a good mesh of need and best available, and that's how we set up a draft board."

Mayhew was famous -- or infamous, to many fans -- for his subscription to the best player available approach. Sometimes, like with Ndamukong Suh, it paid off. Suh went on to become one of the most dominant defensive forces in the game during his half-decade in Detroit.

Other times, though, it didn't work out nearly as well. Consider the case of Eric Ebron, who was drafted even though Detroit had just sunk $16 million into extending Brandon Pettigrew for another four years at the same position.

Ebron has achieved mixed results in his two years with the club. Meanwhile, Aaron Donald -- who played a position of need in that 2014 draft -- has gone on to become the best defensive tackle in the game.

Hindsight is 20/20, of course, and every organization misses once in a while. The key is to minimize the misses -- to achieve consistency, a word that Quinn used over and over when talking about the keys to building a successful franchise.

Detroit wasn't able to achieve that under Mayhew, with high-profile misses such as receiver Ryan Broyles, receiver Titus Young, tailback Mikel Leshoure and, it seems, linebacker Kyle Van Noy. (Though to be fair, Van Noy remains with the club and still has a chance to turn into a player.)

So how does a club go about achieving more consistent results in the draft? It seems to boil down to collaboration for Quinn.

"There is, I'd say, at least 10 people that go into the evaluation and the selection process," he said. "I might be one of those 10, here or in New England. I'm never going to take credit for one player. It'll be the player the Detroit Lions pick."

Will Quin use a similar structure here in his draft room?

"Absolutely," he said. "Listen, in New England, (Bill) Belichick took the cards off the board when we selected 'em. Here, I'm going to be taking the cards off the board. But it's going to be a group decision, and it's going to be the best decision for the Detroit Lions."

Quinn rose through the ranks in New England's scouting department, eventually getting promoted to the head of pro scouting. That means he was responsible for scouting the league and advising Belichick of which players to acquire.

But he also spent five years as a college scout, and by the end of his run in New England, was invited to join the small cadre of people in Belichick's draft room.

So Quinn has a lot of ideas of what he wants the draft process to look like, and anticipates making some changes in Detroit, though he's reticent to reveal them publicly until he has a chance to fully assess the policies and personnel already in place.

"(I'm going to) surround myself with good people," Quinn said. "Trust my eyes. Trust what I see."

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