Detroit Lions, Matt Patricia must hire an innovative offensive coordinator

Getting the most out of your roster is an athletic art form. Some people have the ability to find ways to use players to maximize their talents while others simply see them as situational pieces to be used when the time calls for them.

It’s that second school of thought that hurt Jim Bob Cooter as much as anything else. His use of specialized personnel in specific situations made the Lions offense easy to read and ultimately not nearly as effective as it could have been.

More from SideLion Report

• Top 5 revenge games on the Detroit Lions 2023 schedule
• Lions center Frank Ragnow optimistic about continuing to play through toe injury
• Detroit Lions 2023 preseason schedule: Dates, times and opponents
• A new contract extension projection for Lions quarterback Jared Goff
• 4 wide receivers the Detroit Lions could still look to acquire this offseason

Last Monday while I was watching the NCAA title game between Clemson and Alabama with a couple of friends, one of them spoke up following yet another big scoring play by Clemson and said, ‘the Lions never should have traded Golden Tate when they had no way to replace his production’.

While I agreed that hurt the Lions this season, I thought it was Jim Bob’s inability to adjust to the situation that hurt the team more.

Golden Tate was an outstanding receiver and Matthew Stafford‘s security blanket. In desperate times Stafford went to Tate as his go-to receiver and Tate usually paid off. So it wasn’t an easy transition to make, but it was one Cooter could have done a better job with.

Jim Bob had two players that were capable of giving the Lions production in Tate’s place. The first was Theo Riddick who not only played running back at Notre Dame but was also a receiver. Riddick has the ability to not only catch whatever type of pass is thrown to him but to make a play after the catch.

The other was young Brandon Powell, who made several plays against the Green Bay Packers in the season finale when he was finally given an opportunity.

Riddick was used in the slot a few times in the subsequent couple of weeks after the Tate trade, but was never given much of a chance to do what he has done so well out of the backfield; make plays after catching the ball.

Had Jim Bob Cooter been willing to commit to using Riddick and Powell in the slot, it could have certainly made a difference in helping open up the field for Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones before he went down to injury.

Being innovative also means being unafraid to try something different. The conservative play calling of Cooter only contributed to bogging down the offense. While Matt Patricia wants his offense to be able to run the ball, no one should think that doesn’t mean he isn’t interested in complimenting it with an explosive passing game.

This is why I have emphasized that whoever is hired to run the Lions offense will need to be smart enough to employ a system that will not only make it tough for opposing defenses to read it but utilizes whatever assets are on the roster to their fullest.

Matt Patricia will enter his second season on the hot seat and that means the best way of helping his own cause is for the defense to turn that corner from being pretty good, as it was down the final stretch of the season, to being very good or elite.

Which is why the new offensive coordinator has to be an innovator, because while the offense will get help over the offseason, it may not be to the degree that the defense does. But with a smart, innovative mind at the helm of this Lions offense, it shouldn’t matter.