Former Lions head coach Matt Patricia appears to be a trusted personnel man now

Matt Patricia’s duties back with the New England Patriots are broad-based, apparently now including involvement in trades.

In 2018 Matt Patricia parlayed a run as New England Patriots defensive coordinator, and shared New England roots with then-general manager Bob Quinn, into the Detroit Lions head coaching job. He lasted less than three seasons before he, and Quinn, were fired. With time seeming to pass in dog years during his tenure, 43 games with Patricia as head coach surely felt like 403 to Lions fans.

Patricia landed back under the wing of Bill Belichick in New England last year, as a senior football advisor. This year, with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels leaving for the Las Vegas Raiders head coaching job, there have been indications Patricia will be part of the collaboration to coordinate the Patriots’ offense.

Lions fans surely laugh at the idea Patricia, who took the defense to new and all-time lows in Detroit, will now have some focus on the side of the ball he has basically never coached before. To be fair, he was an offensive assistant for the Patriots in 2004 and then assistant offensive line coach in 2005 before moving to the defensive side.

But involvement in the offense is not the limit to the former Lions’ head coach’s duties.

Former Lions head coach Matt Patricia is a trusted personnel guy now?

As noted by Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk, Patricia was possibly the only non-head coach NFL coach in attendance at the NFL owner’s meetings in March. Belichick has said the former Lions’ head coach’s duties are “broad”, and Patricia will help “in a lot of ways.” But a particular new duty is interesting.

The Patriots acquired wide receiver DeVante Parker from the division rival Miami Dolphins. Matt Groh, New England’s new director of player personnel, credited Patricia as a key driver of the trade after Miami acquired Tyreek Hill.

Via Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic (subscription required, credit to Pro Football Talk for the quotes).

"(The Dolphins) weren’t just going to be able to keep everybody, and when a player became available, I would say Matt Patricia did a great job of being on that early and kind of getting the information to us as quickly as he could,”. “And we were in on that early, and it really came together well for us, and we’re really excited about having DeVante here.”"

It doesn’t take any special savvy to suggest trading for someone. But Patricia was apparently proactive to gather information on Parker when it became clear he was available, and got it up the chain quickly. So credit is deserved there. Still, it’s interesting (and laughable? for Lions fans) that Patricia seems to be a trusted piece of the personnel department in New England.