Former Lions head coach Matt Patricia might be a defensive coordinator again

Former Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia spent this past season involved in media with The 33rd Team and with his former boss Bill Belichick on a podcast. He also took an opportunity to praise Dan Campbell during an appearance on NFL Network's "Good Morning Football" back in December.

“Give credit to Dan Campbell and what he was able to do to just get the entire building to follow what he wanted them to do, believe in what they were preaching, go out (and) work hard,” Patricia said. “We all know how it is in the NFL as you’re going through — you get a little bit of success and you get a little bit of that belief."

It's fair to assume Patricia would like to get back into coaching if he he could, and it has been easy to tie him to a spot on Belichick's new staff at the University of North Carolina. But that may not be in the cards, so Patricia is looking elsewhere.

On Tuesday, Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reported Patricia was in Columbus on Monday to meet with Ohio State about its defensive coordinator job and Jim Knowles left for the same job at Penn State. The Silver Bulletin reported Patricia has completed an interview.

Former Lions head coach Matt Patricia may become Ohio State's defensive coordinator

Patricia has of course spent most of his coaching career working under Belichick in New England, initially as assistant offensive line coach (2004-2006) and most notably as defensive coordinator (2012-2017) before the Lions hired him. He spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons back with the Patriots, including inexplicably serving as the offensive play caller in 2022. He was as senior defensive assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023, eventually taking over the defensive play-calling as their season went awry.

Patricia has not worked at the college level since since he was a grad assistant at Syracuse from 2001-2003.

It's tough to separate the disaster of Patricia's tenure as the head coach in Detroit from what he was before that as the Patriots' defensive coordinator. It's also easy to just give Belichick the credit for how good the Patriots' defense was. But they had a top-10 scoring defense in all six of Patricia's season as the defensive coordinator, with a top-10 run defense four times.

Of course there's a solid overlap of Lions and University of Michigan football fans, and those fans would love to see Ohio State hire Patricia and better the chances the Wolverines can keep their winning streak over their chief rival going.

Update, 1:15 p.m. ET: According to ESPN's Pete Thamel, Ohio State and Patricia are finalizing a deal to make him the Buckeyes' new defensive coordinator.