Detroit Lions: Will Matt Patricia reach new heights with defense?
By Dan Salem
The Detroit Lions are coming off back to back winning seasons, yet now have a new head coach on the sidelines. Will Matt Patricia reach new heights with defense and Matthew Stafford?
No matter how poor or successful a team’s season was, there are always major offseason questions on the front burner. The NFL turns over too much for even the best teams to advance a calendar year unscathed. Let’s continue the team-by-team overview with the Detroit Lions.
It feels rare to see a middle-of-the-road franchise with no question about its quarterback position, yet upheaval on the sidelines nonetheless. Matthew Stafford offers consistency and competency, which may be more than we can say about new head coach Matt Patricia. Will he spark the team and the defense to new heights in 2018?
Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the Detroit Lions in today’s NFL Sports Debate.
Todd Salem:
Obviously it is too soon to make any judgement on Matt Patricia’s head coaching acumen, but call me dubious. There are a number of factors playing against him. For one, the success rate of Bill Belichick coordinators becoming head coaches is not good. The best one ever is probably…Bill O’Brien? He of the 31-33 career record. Second, everyone credits Belichick with being the mastermind behind New England’s defense throughout this entire run. So then, what did Patricia do exactly? Hiring a former Pats coordinator is worrisome; hiring its defensive coordinator seems like a death sentence.
If that wasn’t bad enough, during the hiring process, word came out that Patricia’s camp didn’t want him to coach in New York because he might not be up to his first coaching gig being such high-profile.
Maybe Patricia will be great anyway. His real issue is the roster around Stafford. Despite going 9-7 last season, the Lions are coming out of a deep hole. They need a lot of work on both sides of the ball. The offense has no tight end; its best back is a third-down back; arguably its top wide receiver is a jitterbug 5-10. On defense, no one outside of Ziggy Ansah can rush the passer. These are all major issues to place at the feet of Patricia.
If the Giants had hired him as their next head coach, I would have talked myself into him. But viewing the Detroit situation from the outside, Patricia seems like he is doomed to fail in 2018. I don’t see any easy fix to even get the Lions back to another 9-7 season next year.
Dan Salem:
The Detroit Lions may take a step back next season, but it won’t be because of Matt Patricia. I was a Detroit doubter prior to the 2017 season. I believed the team would regress from their winning record of a season prior, when they finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs. Yet the Lions once again finished the year with a winning record, this time making the postseason. No matter how lacking the roster appears, Detroit keeps “over achieving” in no small part due to Stafford. He is still the Lions quarterback, so what makes 2018 different?
In eight seasons as the Lions’ quarterback, over nine years, Stafford has finished with a winning record four times and made the playoffs three times. He missed one year due to injury. More importantly, in three of the last four years his teams won more games than they lost. All four of those season were under Jim Caldwell, who got fired. The point is that Stafford has kept Detroit near the top of the NFC with offense. The team felt coaching was not adding anything to the equation and brought in Patricia to spark the defense and elevate the Lions higher still.
Detroit was in the top ten of points scored on offense last season, yet near the very bottom in points allowed on defense. The message being sent by hiring Patricia is obvious. Fix our defense. Consider me cautiously optimistic, because a Belichick coordinator is going to succeed eventually. He is too good of a coach for all of his coordinators to fail as head coaches. Patricia’s influence in New England is unknown, but we do know he learned form the very best. Success in Detroit will be determined by two other factors well within his control.
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The staff which Patricia has assembled will make or break his rookie coaching season. He can’t do much about the players currently on the roster, but his ability to draft players who can make an immediate impact on the team will also make or break his first season as coach. Both of those things are under Patricia’s control. Since we have no evidence to the contrary, I am willing to afford him the benefit of the doubt. Coaching in New York is not for everyone. The media scrutiny is relentless. He will receive some time to grow in Detroit, because he’s lucky enough to begin his coaching career with a franchise quarterback.