Is the Detroit Lions’ chess game improving under Matt Patricia?

The Lions made the playoffs in Bob Quinn’s first season at the helm. Head coach Jim Caldwell led the team to a 9-7 record and a playoff appearance despite losing their final three games. Then to prove that late-season swoon was for real, they went to Seattle where the Seahawks destroyed the hapless Lions 26-6 to put an exclamation point on a promising season gone bad.

They followed that up with another 9-7 record in 2017 and just missed out on another opportunity to be hammered in the playoffs.

This, of course, led to the dismissal of Jim Caldwell and the hiring of Matt Patricia, because Quinn felt like the Lions had underachieved. Which brings me back to the original point I made, the Lions are always the last dog to the dish.

The common belief is still that Mrs. Ford hired Bob Quinn to turn the team around, but wouldn’t allow him to bring in his own head coach. Which may have some validity to it, but what I can’t help but wonder is; did Quinn keep Caldwell in place because he felt like maybe Patricia needed a little more seasoning before he was ready to become a head coach?

It’s commonplace in all of professional sports for a new general manager to replace the current coaching regime with one of his own preference. So one has to wonder, especially since Quinn only had eyes for Patricia in his coaching search, why he didn’t bring in Patricia immediately.

What if Patricia himself didn’t think he was ready at that time?

One way or another, because the Jim Caldwell regime was allowed to stay in place, that caused the domino effect of Quinn stocking the shelves with players that fit Caldwell’s system instead of starting the process of building the foundation of what might have been the Lions playoff team this year.

Now after a disappointing first season under the direction of Matt Patricia, both the media and many fans alike are starting to wonder whether this regime can change the errant course this franchise has been on for decades.