30 best moves made during the 2019 NFL offseason

11. Detroit Lions sign Trey Flowers

The Detroit Lions are trying to build the New England Patriots Midwest. Matt Patricia joined them as a rookie head coach in 2018 after winning three Super Bowls with New England as an assistant coach. Patricia was with New England from 2004 through 2017 and held several different job titles before becoming the defensive coordinator in 2012.

He then joined the Lions and started to try to do things with the same intensity as Bill Belichick — and has even tried bringing in some of his former players. The biggest name happened to be Trey Flowers, who signed a five-year, $90 million contract.

In the past, other Patriots assistants have struggled to make it in new roles after leaving Foxborough. It has yet to be seen which direction Patricia will go. He was up and down as a rookie, finishing 6-10 on the year.

One of the reasons former Pats fail is their choice to copy exactly what New England does. That’s not easy to do because these teams don’t have the Super Bowl rings to flaunt that brings free agents over. They also like to sign former players, obviously not remembering that Belichick only allows players that he doesn’t want to leave.

That doesn’t mean the Flowers signing won’t work out, though. He’s a well-rounded defensive end who simply played too well to stay in New England. They would have liked to have kept Flowers, but the contract he was able to demand was too rich for the Patriots’ blood.

It could be argued that this makes him overpaid in Detroit, but he does fill a massive need. He can help the entire defense improve by forcing quarterbacks to get rid of the ball a little quicker than they would like.