Detroit Lions: Positives to take from the 2018 season

It’s over

Only one team’s season ends by winning a Super Bowl but that doesn’t mean another team can’t give their fans a fun ride throughout a season. Unfortunately, the 2018 Detroit Lions were not one of those teams. It was misery from the very beginning with an embarrassing loss to the New York Jets in front of a national television audience in the season opener.

They made part of an uphill climb in the weeks that followed but the season peaked with a solid road win over the Dolphins to improve their record to 3-3. It would be mostly downhill from there, however.

It sounds flippant to mark down the season being over as one of its positives but there is a greater practicality that is undoubtedly positive. Matt Patricia will no longer be a first year head coach. The transition from coordinator to head coach comes with a big increase in responsibilities and the hope is that Patricia has learned some lessons in his first year that will serve him well in the future.

Going from year one to year two also means Patricia will not be going into next year with a total roster that he had not worked with before. As I wrote last January after it looked certain Patricia would become the Lions’ next head coach, his style of adapting his scheme and personnel took a month to get results in his last year in New England and would likely take longer as he got used to a completely new roster in Detroit:

"How quickly Patricia can gain the depth of knowledge necessary to put his players in the best possible position to succeed will determine how quickly the Lions defense can start looking more like the Patriots defense. Considering this year’s Patriots took a month before starting to round into form, no one should expect instantaneous results as Patricia takes over the Lions."

All the things that come with the first year in a new job are out of the way and Patricia and Bob Quinn will have a full offseason to work together to refine the roster in hopes of returning more competitive next season.

Was this a totally wasted year or are there some things you are looking at as positives as the Lions move into 2019? Let me know by finding me on Twitter or leave a comment below.