Lions Counterpoint: What Should The Team Do With Matt Patricia?

If we take a step back and look at the team’s performance on the whole, in the Lions’ last two 32 games under Caldwell, the team went 18-14. After only 25 games under Patricia, the team has already surpassed that number of losses (15), not including an embarrassing tie with the Cardinals in week one. Even in his *first* two seasons, when he had to establish his system just like Patricia has, Caldwell only lost 14 games.

The Caldwell Lions were also a finished product, yes every team is looking to improve, but they were capped out in bad financials and weren’t in the same transition of philosophies the way the Patricia Lions are now. The fact that it’s this close actually favors my argument, I would believe?

Colton goes on to say, “Even in his *first* two seasons when he had to establish his system just like Patricia has, Caldwell only lost 14 games,”  but he knows that’s apples and oranges.

The switch from Schwartz’s 4-3 to Teryl Austin’s 4-3 was flawless from a personnel standpoint. Suh, Fairly, and Levy were all 4-3 players. But the Lions offense, Caldwell’s wheel box, went from ranked 13th in 2013 under Schwartz/Linehan to 22nd and 18th in Caldwell’s first two seasons. Sure there was a learning curve for the new Caldwell offense, but the personnel turnover wasn’t necessary as it was going from a Teryl Austin defense to 4-3 to Patricia 3-3-5 defense.

An overriding point on Caldwell, though it’s an easy win for me in these debates, the Caldwell era should have very little in how the Lions move forward. It wasn’t a big part of my original piece beyond the opening section, as this is more about Matt Patricia. Nothing about the Caldwell era was a success, zero divisional titles; zero playoff wins, zero big game wins down the stretch.

Colton begins his Patricia argument exactly where a smart young man would. The defensive rankings;