“Trust the process,” the mantra of former Philadelphia 76ers GM Sam Hinkie, is a refrain that has been co-opted by the fan bases of losing teams, particularly ones that are tanking. It can be hard to follow teams that are in full-fledged rebuilding mode, as Lions fans well know, but there’s a solace to be found in organizational best practices and a clear vision for the future.

The problem is that Detroit isn’t tanking. They’re in purgatory. The historically abysmal franchise graduated from the basement sometime around the turn of the decade and has been floating aimlessly for years. It’s why they fired Jim Caldwell, who was maligned for his perceived inability to get the team to play to its talent. Jim Bob Cooter was similarly seen as a handicap and was ousted this past January. And perhaps now we’re slowly realizing that the problem has been not just the coaches of yesteryear, but the roster as well.

We’re approaching Bob Quinn’s fifth offseason as the general manager of the Lions, and confidence in him and his direction of the team is at an all-time low. And we’ve arrived at this point primarily because of a fixation on the least important element of the game and players who either only serve that function or were taken because of their conduciveness to it. The process has been questionable to this point, and Quinn is running out of people to scapegoat.

It’s easy to point fingers and play the blame game when a team is losing, so you could be forgiven if you believe I’m taking out my frustrations on the highest level. The record will show, however, that I’ve been critical of Quinn almost every step of the way. But the standings and the scoreboard – which shows a streaky drafting record at positions of secondary and even tertiary importance – aren’t the principle issues maligned herein. It’s the fixation on running the ball and stopping the run.

You would have to go back about a decade to find a year in which the league collectively ran more than it passed on second down. Two-down players –a euphemism for players who are liabilities against the pass – are really one-down players. Teams pass more than they run, and passing has proven to generally be more efficient than rushing. So why, then, has Quinn consistently framed his construction of the team within the context of running the ball and stopping the run? And why has it informed so many of his selections at the top of drafts?

In 2016, he selected Taylor Decker and A’Shawn Robinson in the first two rounds. There were pre-draft concerns about Decker’s ability to match speed and agility as a pass protector on the edge. Robinson was a noted run-first interior defensive lineman whose questionable pass-rushing production was likely what caused him to fall out of the first round. Fast forward three-and-a-half years, and Decker doesn’t appear to be the blindside protector of the future, while Robinson is a rotational piece on the interior, albeit a solid one.

The next draft cycle wasn’t much better. Jarrad Davis was lauded as a rangy, throwback thumper and has only lived up to that billing in the most generous sense. But what’s worse is that off-ball linebackers do not represent a great value in the first round unless they can play sticky man coverage against backs and tight ends, and match crossers and routes up the seam in zone coverage. The ability to run and hit is all well and good, but that’s become more of a prerequisite than a trump card in today’s game. The team’s second-round pick, Teez Tabor, was a corner who ran a 4.6-second 40 and is now a practice squad player that the league has passed by, both literally and figuratively.

The following year, 2018, was particularly bad. The team was unable to consistently generate pass rush during the 2017 season and Quinn’s solution was to franchise-tag a glass cannon in Ziggy Ansah. Ansah spent more time with the medical staff than he spent on the field, but, hey – he compiled 12 sacks against Caleb Benenoch, C.J. Uzomah, Tyler Kroft, Clint Boling, Ereck Flowers, Corey Linsley, Lucas Patrick, Lane Taylor, Justin McCray and Riley Reiff to earn the easiest $17 million anybody’s ever made. He would play just seven games for the Lions in 2018, and once again passing-game impact took a back seat to the run game.

Consider this quote from Quinn’s postseason presser following the 2017 campaign:

“I think when I look back at our team last year, all those critical situations, like it’s goal line, we can’t run the ball like half a yard. That bothered me.”

Yeah, not being able to get half a yard is a problem, but the manner in which he addressed it was overkill and his motives betrayed a curious roster-building perspective. He drafted Frank Ragnow in the first round and traded up for Kerryon Johnson in the second, both of whom have undoubtedly been good pros thus far. But, after nabbing Ragnow with the 20th overall pick, a reporter asked Quinn why the offensive line had been such a priority for him, and he answered that he believed in building through “the middle of the team.”

Other teams are building outside in, though, looking to add talent at edge rusher and tackle on the lines, and corner and receiver on the perimeter. And don’t even get me started on the principle of trading up for a running back, which is arguably the deepest and cheapest position group in football.

To make matters worse, he let go of Eric Ebron for nothing – NOTHING!

And why? Because he couldn’t handle defensive ends in gap schemes? Grow up, it’s 2019. Zach Ertz and Travis Kelce hid for years in split zone because their ability to catch passes and move around the formation made them valuable in the modern NFL. Even if you don’t really believe Ebron improved in 2018 and was just used differently, he still proved his passing game utility. Quinn either missed that or didn’t care.

His subsequent attempts to address the position were to try to mortgage future assets for a rental of Rob Gronkowski and the duct tape to hold him together when he likely couldn’t even pass a physical and, when that didn’t work, to forgo a pass rusher in the top 10 so that he could draft a tight end who can help the team average two yards per carry on power runs. Kirk Cousins had time to enjoy a Fresca and smoke a cigarette like he was Len Dawson in Super Bowl I, but at least T.J. Hockenson is so much better at blocking defensive ends than Ebron was that they have Jesse James handle those duties instead. Ugh.

This brings me to the 2019 offseason. Another year has gone by, another season mired by a complete and utter inability to affect opposing passers. But at least they were a better run-defending team, according to Quinn:

“I think we’re a more physical team, I think we have a much better and sound fundamentally defense, especially run defense. I think we play a physical brand of football. I didn’t think that was the case my first year or two.”

They went 6-10, but opponents felt it a little more when they enjoyed their postgame victory cigars, and that’s what counts to Quinn.

Anyway, Quinn used a big contract to lure Trey Flowers away from the Patriots. Finally, a victory for the ailing pass rush and the glorified fan fictionist bloggers who drone ad nauseam about “the Patriot Way” and otherwise peddle miscellaneous tripe. But there was still work to be done. Fortunately for the Lions, they held the eighth overall pick in a draft with lots of pass-rushing firepower. If they played their cards right, they’d come away with a formidable bookend to Flowers. So, naturally, they took a tight end and another 250-pound off-ball linebacker, and effectively asked Flowers to be a one-man army against opposing quarterbacks.

Hockenson is a fine, young player, but he’s not a pass rusher, which means he’s not what the Lions needed most. The explosive and bendy Brian Burns was available at that spot but may have been deemed unfit to play in Detroit because he’s only 245 pounds and was seen as a liability against the run. And yet, Quinn used a first-round pick on Davis, who weighs about that much and who has been such a liability outside of blitzing that some fans have clamored for him to transition to make the full-time switch to edge. I don’t know if that’s more of an indictment of Davis or the pass rush, but it’s definitely an indictment of Quinn, who spent a first-round pick on an undersized sub rusher playing off-ball linebacker yet thinks someone like Burns is either less important than a tight end or doesn’t represent a good value in the top 10 because he’s an undersized edge rusher.

This is not to say that Quinn has failed in everything he’s done. As I said earlier, Ragnow, Hockenson, Johnson and Flowers are good players.

Marvin Jones Jr. was an excellent free-agent signing.

Kenny Golladay has developed nicely and was a surplus value in the third round.

Damon Harrison has been predictably stout in the middle after being acquired for pennies.

And Justin Coleman has been a boon in coverage when he hasn’t been asked to survive for eight seconds in a scramble drill behind an anemic three-man rush.

But you can’t hang your hat on a few free-agent signings, hitting on a Day 2 height-weight-speed receiver, and taking advantage of Dave Gettleman, who, in his old age, wasted the No. 2 overall pick on a running back (Saquon Barkley) and used the sixth overall pick on Daniel Jones, an RPO Pez dispenser from a basketball school. You also can’t tough-guy virtue signal about establishing the run and spend two first-round picks, a third-round pick, and $78 million in free agency to wind up ranking 26th in yards per carry while making a conscientious life decision to give Kenny Wiggins playing time.

The results haven’t been there, but the process hasn’t, either. It’s admittedly easy to play the role of armchair GM and poke holes in the tireless, unending work Quinn and his front office have slaved over, but the top picks from his first two drafts have failed to consistently and positively impact the most important aspect of football – the passing game – whereas the first two picks from his last two drafts have reflected an antiquated philosophy of what wins games in the NFL. Firing Quinn won’t save the season and it won’t change the past, but he also can’t live in football’s past and must become more forward-thinking … lest he becomes part of it himself.