Detroit Lions: Maybe Cory Undlin will succeed, if Matt Patricia will let him
By Robert Jones
Not quite the same as hiring Pasqualoni
This past Monday it was announced that Matt Patricia had hired former Philadelphia Eagles secondary coach, Cory Undlin, to be the Detroit Lions new defensive coordinator. Undlin’s first year in the NFL was 2004 with New England, just like Matt Patricia’s. However, unlike Patricia, he would only spend that one season with the Patriots before leaving.
Undlin followed Romeo Crennel to Cleveland, where he stayed from 2005-2008 working his way up to becoming the Browns defensive backs coach in his final season there. He then moved onto the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2009-2011, until he joined the Denver Broncos in 2012 thru 2014. In 2015 he migrated to Philadelphia where he stayed until Monday.
While he did hold other titles at all of his stops before Philly, he primarily spent his journey around the NFL as a defensive backs coach. Yet he apparently never forgot working with Matt Patricia in New England and was happy to join his good friend here in Detroit for his first opportunity as an NFL coordinator.
The long and short of it is that Patricia did hire an old friend. Most head coaches make hires based on former relationships. Often it is someone they worked with before, in some cases, it might be someone recommended by an old friend or trusted source in the league.
So this hire isn’t drastically different from the Paul Pasqualoni hiring two years ago when Patricia was named the Lions head coach except for one big area. Pasqualoni was considered Patricia’s mentor and the two were known to talk to each other constantly, especially about defensive philosophies.
Patricia pointed out that Pasqualoni and he were on the same page defensively, making the hire an easy one since they both came to Detroit knowing what they wanted to do with the Lions defense.
For Cory Undlin, the path was a little different. While he was a good friend of Patricia’s and it is said that he took the Lions defensive coordinator position because of his belief in Patricia as a head coach in the NFL, his influence was more varied than Matt Patricia’s. Which means he brings a slightly different point of view with him.