Detroit Lions’ head coaching search is over, per report
By Zac Snyder
The Detroit Lions’ head coaching search has reportedly reached it’s conclusion with the process moving toward the hiring of Matt Patricia.
Matt Patricia emerged as an early favorite in the Detroit Lions‘ head coaching search and the expectation has only grown over the last two weeks that he would land the job. According to a new report Sunday night, that process is moving from expectation to sure thing.
The news comes via The MMQB’s Albert Breer, who tweeted this evening that the Lions are informing other candidates that they have been eliminated from consideration, paving the way for the hiring of Matt Patricia.
Per sources, Lions have informed other candidates they’ve been eliminated from the search, moving forward with the expectation Matt Patricia will be their head coach when the Patriots season ends. So that job is officially off the board.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 15, 2018
The hiring can’t really be official until after the New England Patriots’ season ends. That being said, long playoff runs led to poorly kept secrets of head coaching jobs for Dan Quinn and Kyle Shanahan before their hirings were officially announced by their new teams.
With their head coach reportedly in tow the focus will shift to rounding out the coaching staff. Patricia’s first big decisions will be who he will entrust as his coordinators, although there has been much speculation that Jim Bob Cooter would be retained on offense. A big hire will be a new offensive line coach after Ron Prince was fired along with head coach Jim Caldwell after the regular season.
The defensive coaches have all been retained aside from Teryl Austin making the move to the Cincinnati Bengals to take over as their defensive coordinator. Further staff changes could be in store as Patricia settles in after his run with the Patriots comes to an end.
After a week of interviews and another week of speculation, it looks like Bob Quinn has landed his guy.