Detroit Lions, Matt Patricia must hire an innovative offensive coordinator

The Detroit Lions are in the market for a new offensive coordinator, but unless Matt Patricia hires a candidate with imagination it will all be for naught.

With another disappointing season of Detroit Lions football tucked away in the books, the focus is on next year and what general manager Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia need to do to improve this team. Some cities spend each postseason cheering on their team in the playoffs, we spend ours counting down the days until the draft.

For anyone who has watched the train wreck that we call the Detroit Lions this season, you understand that this is not some simple fixer-upper. It’s a team that has needs on almost every level of its offense and defense. It’s the re-build that no one expected after Bob Quinn’s assessment of the team last January. A team he said underachieved.

Now the Lions have gone from underachieving to downright disappointing. Yet if we paid attention over the course of the offseason and especially during training camp and the final roster moves, it should have been pretty easy to see that the rebuild was underway.

The vast majority of the defensive front seven, especially the defensive line, from 2017 were sent packing and replaced by almost anyone off the streets the Lions could get, like Romeo Okwara who was cut by the New York Giants and free agent Ricky Jean-Francoise.

Yet despite the drastic purging of the defensive personnel, they eventually gained some traction and made great improvements over the course of the season. The acquisition of nose-tackle Damon ‘Snacks’ Harrison in a trade with the Giants was the biggest piece of the puzzle (literally and figuratively) that helped bolster the upswing.

But they still need much more help before this defense will be playing like the final product that Matt Patricia visualizes.

Meanwhile, the Lions discovered a ground game and a blossoming new star in rookie running back Kerryon Johnson. As a matter of fact, even when Johnson went down to injury, the Lions still were able to produce a respectable rushing attack that averaged over 100 yards a game for the season. However, the passing game went from explosive in 2017 to moribund this year.

Fix one hole and another one pops up. But of all the work Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia have to do, finding the right offensive coordinator may be the most important.

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