Firing Matt Patricia Prematurely Would Be a Huge Setback for the Lions
By Jon Poole
Bob Quinn’s infamous line ‘9-7 isn’t good enough’
…something I’m sure he wishes he could take back and it was probably only used to make the head coaching transition smoother. Though correct in philosophy, he was setting an unrealistic expectation for his first coaching hire to win immediately. Especially knowing they were going to have to rebuild an already sub-par roster to make Patricia’s 3-3-5 defense work.
The Lions are now two offseasons into meticulously picking off Caldwell’s system players and picking up Patricia’s system players to replace them. They’ve spent tremendous resources in doing so as well, like in last year’s second-round pick Jahlani Tavai and big money contracts like Harrison, Flowers, etc. All Patricia system players.
It’s rare to be a winning football organization while in such a transition in both roster and culture changes. So to sell out so hard to this ‘Patriot Way’ with GM and HC now… only to pull out after only one and half seasons with mixed results would be premature and an amateur move by the Lions. A move that would feel triggered by more peer pressure than a calculated necessary regime change.
Football games and season momentum are a fickle B, and the Lions have been on the wrong side of a few of those games this year. And even with how bad the defense is statistically, Detroit still doesn’t look like Miami or Cincinnati. Matt Patricia has been on my hot seat since the Arizona meltdown in week one, but I’ve seen enough positive with the lack of talent since that I’m not ready to do another organizational pivot just yet.
Most of those positives come from the offense, which should be contributed to the hiring of Darrell Bevell. But Matt Patricia deserves credit for going out and hiring Bevell, who was out of football and seemed to be a perfect match for Matthew Stafford. If we’re going to put all the bad from all three phases on the head coaches’ shoulders, you have to put all the good from all three phases on his shoulders too.