Detroit Lions: Is Matt Patricia’s cone of silence really a benefit?

Now having pointed out the path that Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn have chosen to go, we should also point out that Patricia is clearly headed on this journey as his own man. Many of the facets of how he will perform his head coaching duties may be based in the Bill Belichick school of thought, but Patricia will go about them his own way.

Consider this; while Patricia will occasionally do the Belichick ‘pass’ on a question and flat out not answer it, he most often gives detailed answers to other, less pertinent, questions.

When asked about game situations and coaching players, Patricia lights up and will give detailed answers that would please even the most adamant MIT professors on an exam.

Try getting answers like that from Belichick.

He is also brutally honest about accessing his team performance. The look of disgust that accompanied his speeches after the first two exhibition games about how he and his staff have to do better says much more than any of his answers did.

So while there has been much said and written about his unwillingness to reveal anything ‘juicy’ that the press could gobble up and even the conjecturing that his players are under ‘gag orders’ about what they are and aren’t allowed to say to the media, it really only seems to be a distraction to… the media.

Remember that a magician never gives away his secrets and good coaches, regardless of the sport, will only reveal so much themselves.

And some less than others.

But unless it is a distraction in the locker room, then it’s not an issue. As I pointed out before, part of being a head coach is finding and using every advantage you can get within the rules.

That includes information about philosophy, injuries, and tendencies.

With NFL scouting being as advanced as it is, there is very little that teams don’t know about their opponents. Under those circumstances, it probably doesn’t hurt at all not to reveal anything beyond what opponents already know.