Lions Counterpoint: What Should The Team Do With Matt Patricia?
By Jon Poole
The surprising trade of captain Quandre Diggs doesn’t add confidence to the idea that Patricia has a good relationship with his players, either. “There wasn’t one incident that precipitated his trade to the Seattle Seahawks,” Dave Birkett wrote in the Free Press last week, “but former Detroit Lions safety Quandre Diggs said his strong personality is ultimately what led the Lions to ship him out of town.
‘I think it was more of just a control thing,’ he told the Free Press in a phone interview… ‘Them wanting to control the locker room. Control the locker room, control voices in the locker room.’” In the aftermath, Darius Slay, one of the Lions’ leaders and few stars, said, “I don’t give a damn” about whether or not he got traded.
I’ve written many times now how Diggs wasn’t a fit here and was missing tackles all season. Diggs missed tackle rate went from 14.3% in 2018 to 20% this season.
As far as controlling the voices, I would expect nothing else, I don’t know why Colton is surprised Quinn and Patricia wouldn’t carry that philosophy after seeing it work in New England for so long.
For Slay, he’s fine, because he understands what Colton hasn’t, it’s a business so you can’t ‘give a damn’ about being moved before the deadline, which is what he was asked, per Dave Birkett. Which doesn’t matter anyway as he’s probably not in Honolulu Blue next season anyway? Should have traded him…anyway.