3 places Matt Patricia could coach in 2021
By John Buhler
Matt Patricia will find work ahead of the 2021 football season.
After being fired by the Detroit Lions, Matt Patricia will land on his feet elsewhere in 2021.
Patricia’s first stint as an NFL head coach did not go well. He went 13-29-1 over three seasons leading the Lions. The former New England Patriots defensive coordinator was a weird fit in Detroit from the start, as he struggled to find his own identity that was not strictly built on the principles he learned from his mentor Bill Belichick. No wonder it did not work out for him there.
The good news for Patricia is he will have plenty of suitors for where he can go coach on the defensive side of the ball and rehabilitate his image. By getting back to his roots, he might be able to learn from all that went wrong in a highly dysfunctional situation in Detroit. He will have more jobs he could land besides this, but these are the three that would be the most intriguing for sure.
3 potential coaching destinations for Matt Patricia in 2021
Scouting Report. 829. Pick Analysis. Defensive Analyst. (Nick Saban). Alabama Crimson Tide. 3. player
There is no better way to rehab your image than with a Nick Saban ass chewing
If Patricia is willing to check his ego at the door and give it the old college try once again, Nick Saban will surely have a use for the former Lions head coach’s trusty No. 2 pencil. Yes, I am suggesting The Saban Method of Coaching Rehabilitation as a reasonable solution for Patricia at this time. Because Saban and Belichick have a strong relationship, here is why this could work.
Is Patricia a future college head coach? Probably not, but he has not been on a college staff since the early 2000s with Syracuse. He may find that working with young people might be something he really enjoys. What he may enjoy more is being part of a winning organization once again, as the Alabama Crimson Tide are expected to contend for the College Football Playoff in perpetuity.
Of course, joining Saban’s staff as a grossly overqualified quality control coach on the defensive side of the ball is far beneath what a coach of Patricia’s caliber should be doing, but he does need to have his coaching reputation restored. If a handful of patented Saban ass chewings allowed Lane Kiffin to become a college coach again and gave Steve Sarkisian new shine, it may work here.
Every offseason, Saban will lose an assistant or two to a better job. The Saban coaching tree has been incredibly fruitful in the college game over the last five years. It may be a multi-year thing for Saban to completely rehabilitate Patricia’s reputation, but it might make him a tremendous Power 5 or even an NFL head-coaching candidate again by 2024. Patricia may be Saban’s biggest project.