The Detroit Lions hired a new head coach on Monday. On Wednesday, they went about the business of filling out the rest of their coaching staff.
When the great musician Bob Dylan penned the song “The Times They Are a-Changin’” back in 1963, he could have been easily been referring to the offseason in the NFL. And when it comes to the Detroit Lions, Dylan’s classic is a perfect theme for what’s happening this week in the Motor City.
After losing in the Super Bowl, New England Patroits’ defensive coordinator Matt Patricia packed his bags after 15 years with the organization and set his GPS for Detroit. Patricia was officially named the Lions’ head coach on Monday.
But even prior to the official announcement, Patricia had reportedly already started shaping his coaching staff, notifying some of the holdovers from Jim Caldwell’s four-year tenure that they would not be returning.
The biggest position to be filled by Patricia would be at defensive coordinator. Last year’s DC, Teryl Austin, took his talents to Cincinnati to become the Bengals new defensive coordinator. Being a defensive coach himself, Patricia new choice would obviously be someone he could work very closely with as the Pat’s defensive guru will undoubtedly want to put his own stamp on the Detroit “D”.
On Wednesday, the Lions named Paul Pasqualoni as the team’s newest defensive coordinator. The 68-year old has been coaching football since 1972, and was a fixture as the head football coach at Syracuse from 1991-2004. For the past two seasons, Pasqualoni was the defensive line coach at Boston College.
Pasqualoni entered the NFL in 2005 as a tight ends coach for the Dallas Cowboys. Since then he’s been either a defensive line coach or a defensive coordinator for the Cowboys, the Miami Dolphins, the Chicago Bears, the Houston Texans and now, the 2018 Detroit Lions.
These two defensive-minded men know each other well. Patricia was an offensive graduate assistant under Pasqualoni at Syracuse from 2001 to 2003. And now the student has become the teacher, of sorts.
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But the Lions weren’t finished making news on Wednesday, announcing several more coaching moves. According to the Detroit Free Press, those moves include naming Al Golden as their linebackers coach, Brian Stewart as defensive backs coach, George Godsey as quarterbacks coach, Jeff Davidson as offensive line coach, Chris White the tight ends coach and David Corrao as the Lions’ director of football research.
The Times … They Are a-Changin’.