Lions GM dismisses marijuana use as concern in evaluation process

Detroit Lions general manager Bob Quinn doesn't view marijuana to be as much of a red flag as most of the NFL community.

Minutes before the draft, a video surfaced of Laremy Tunsil taking a bong hit, causing rampant speculation about his stock dropping. Tunsil was eventually selected 13th overall by Miami Dolphins.

Quinn offered a pragmatic view of how he evaluates prospects.

"I think you have to take everything into consideration," Quinn said to ESPN's Michael Rothstein. "If we took players off the board because they smoked pot in college or marijuana, like half the board would be gone. Realistically, that's the day and age we live in, and you have to evaluate the risk and the rewards of the player."

The GM appeared to put a far greater emphasis on the team's interviews with potential selections.

"If you have a red flag, and that's not what we use on our draft card, that's just a generic term that we spoke about, I think it was at the combine, right," Quinn said. "That's just things that we have to consider, the value of the player compared to the risk involved in taking him.

"So, it's not like these guys are off the board; you've just got to manage the risk and the reward of taking a guy like that."

Detroit selected offensive tackle Taylor Decker out of Ohio State with the 16th overall pick.