Detroit Lions: Matt Patricia’s best chance to win is right now
By Robert Jones
Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia has been given the mandate to win now. Despite concerns about his roster, this may also be his best chance.
The Detroit Lions, as well as the rest of the NFL, continue their virtual offseason in hopes that when training camp does open, they will be ready. In the case of the Honolulu Blue and Silver, winning would also mean self-preservation for general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia.
The Lions offseason has been intensely scrutinized by the experts, the media and the fans. The vast majority consider Detroit’s moves to be positive. Some, like ESPN’s Bill Barnwell, think otherwise completely.
At the end of last season’s 3-12-1 debacle, Lions fans were ready for Martha Firestone Ford to toss Quinn and Patricia into the nearest garbage receptacle. Instead, she gave them the mandate to make the playoffs next season.
Actually the mandate was to be competitive and play games that matter in December. But the ideal scenario would be for the Lions to have a huge bounce-back season, win at least one playoff game and establish themselves as a team on the rise.
Therefore what Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia have been able to accomplish this offseason matters a great deal. At the very least in determining whether the Lions will continue on the Matt Patricia path or be changing direction under a new regime next spring.
For long-suffering Lions fans, the only thing that matters is to finally get it right. Finally find the formula that it takes to win. If it’s under Matt Patricia, then great, at least we will be spared another rebuild, but let’s be honest, as much as we detest the thought of another rebuild, we’ll take it if means eventually winning games and becoming a contender.
So next season will be the final exam for Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia. They will either pass and start winning or they will join all of their predecessors who tried and failed to turn around this sad-sack franchise.
As some green dude on a log said a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, ‘there is no try. Do or do not’. In other words, it’s time for Matt Patricia to make the Lions winners or shuffle out of town in disgrace as the standard protocol calls for with all former Lions coaching failures.