Even Matt Patricia doesn’t know why he’s still employed
By John Buhler
Matt Patricia is even perplexed on why he’s still the Detroit Lions coach.
After losing for the third time, Matt Patricia is struggling to answer questions at the podium.
Even though his Detroit Lions are probably better than they were a season ago, that’s not a particularly high bar to clear. The 2019 Lions went 3-12-1 and ended up with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. With a healthy Matthew Stafford back under center, Patricia’s team is 1-3 through the first quarter of the season. Even he doesn’t know why he’s still coaching this team.
Matt Patricia was asked why people should still believe he’s the right coach to turn the Lions around.
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) October 4, 2020
“When I came to Detroit, there was a lot of work to do. That’s what we’re trying to do,” he said. pic.twitter.com/o24DOpATh5
Matt Patricia, when asked about his job security and also whether or not he's still the right person to lead this team, chose to focus on the talking about the the loss to the Saints.
— Michael Rothstein (@mikerothstein) October 4, 2020
Why did the Lions have to fire Jim Caldwell for this nonsense?
When Patricia was asked about his job security, he decided to not answer the question and continued to talk about losing to the New Orleans Saints. The Lions should be 2-2 had rookie D’Andre Swift not dropped Stafford’s game-winning touchdown in the end zone back in Week 1 to the Chicago Bears. They only lost this week by a score to a Saints team we’re not sure is good.
Under Caldwell, the Lions went 38-26 over four years. They made the NFC playoffs twice and only had one losing season of 7-9 in 2015. From 2014 to 2017, the Lions never finished in last place in the NFC North. The basement is where Patricia’s Lions team usually resides. They can only dream to aspire to be Jeff Fisher 7-9 B.S. under his watch. The Lions made a huge mistake back in 2017.
The worst part of this is even if the Lions fire Patricia at the end of the year, they won’t end up with the first or second best head-coaching candidate. Teams like the Atlanta Falcons have better ownership over the Lions. Teams like the New York Jets might have the No. 1 overall pick and the right to win the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes in the 2021 NFL Draft. They are still the Lions.
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Giving Patricia a third year was the right call for the sake of the Lions hopefully positioning themselves to secure a suitable replacement on the 2021 head-coaching market. However, the Lions are still the Lions and will forever remain the Lions. Sadly, Patricia is not the Lions’ biggest problem, but will be their scapegoat if they can’t even approach six wins this season on the field.
Firing Patricia is not a panacea for what ails the Lions, as it’s more of the same losing culture.