Firing Matt Patricia Prematurely Would Be a Huge Setback for the Lions

Bob Quinn also had this to say at the end of season press conference back in January, via Nate Atkins of MLive.com;

“I know what this team needs,” he said at Friday’s season-ending news conference. Asked to elaborate, he remained intentionally vague but made one point clear: “We need more playmakers on both sides of the ball,” he said.

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I think Quinn was honest, and I don’t think much has changed since. The lack of talent on the Lions defensive front is making it hard to pin the majority of the struggles on Patricia or even evaluate what he can do properly. This would make it hard for me to fire Patricia this early in the rebuild because make no mistakes about it; this is a rebuild.

The most common trait of losing organizations is constant regime change. Bar none. Now you could argue it the chicken or the egg, but you can’t argue this. Here are the top and bottom 10 NFL organizations with the lowest coaching tenures throughout their history, per MSN.com;

Shortest tenured: Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills, Oakland Raiders, St. Louis/L.A. Rams, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, Washington Redskins, Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts

Longest tenured: Baltimore Ravens, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers, Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals, New York Giants

It’s not the whole story, but I believe constant coaching and front office changes are the pitfall for many NFL organizations due to peer pressure more than football logic. Not necessarily for the Lions history to be honest, as they have held on to a lousy coaching staff for too long in the past more often than not, especially under William Clay Ford, but that doesn’t mean you start pulling the plug early now to make up for history.

Matt Patricia should see this through next season on the hot seat barring an end of season collapse. But I’m not so sure his seat should be the hottest one. To be continued, part 1/2.