The Detroit Lions have some, let's say interesting guys as head coaches in this century, and here's our ranking of the group.
When he was hired in 2021, Dan Campbell became the eighth full-time head coach the Detroit Lions have had since the the start of the 2000 season (excluding a few interims). Just three playoff appearances and only six winning records over that stretch has certainly fueled the turnover. The head coaches' ineptitude has certainly been widely matched by bad personnel decisions and bad plans by the front office (see Matt Millen).
The Lions overall record since 2000 is a predictably dismal 131-237-2 (.357 win percentage). But that seems set to be put into the past now, off a winning season in Campell's second season last year and with the Lions being tabbed as the favorites to win the NFC North this year.
Perhaps no era in Lions' history has brought more unique and overall suffering than this century, at least up to now. So with the hope for the future in place, let's rip off the band-aid, talk about the wounds and try to leave it all behind as bad memories.
For better, or very often worse if we're being blunt, here's our ranking of Lions head coaches since the year 2000.
Note: All records noted are regular season records only.
Ranking the Detroit Lions head coaches since 2000
8. Matt Patricia (2018-2020, 13-28-1 record)
It still feels like Patricia was the Lions head coach for longer than less than three mostly miserable seasons. A blowout loss to the Houston Texans on Thanksgiving 2020 was the nail in the coffin for him and general manager Bob Quinn. There was no point in waiting until the Monday after the season ended to inevitably clean house again.
Patricia tried to bring "The Patriot Way" to Detroit, without ever building his own credibility to do so. His interpersonal skills were lacking, as the list of former Lions who played under him and despise him is long. He even critiqued the posture of a media member during a press conference, as if he was any authority on professional presentation--he often looked like he dug to the bottom of the laundry hamper for his outfit.
There were some good candidates for the lowest spot on this list. But Patricia earned it just a little more than the others, with his "smartest guy in the room" personality and the lackluster results on the field.
7. Marty Mornhinweg (2001-2002, 5-27 record)
Mornhinweg was simply overmatched as a first time (and only time) head coach. In his second and final season, he made the controversial decision to defer when the Lions won an overtime coin toss in Chicago.
On the surface it wasn't necessarily ridiculous, with the wind a huge factor in Chicago. But then Mornhinweg accepted a penalty to give the Bears a third down re-do, which they took advantage of to better line up the game-winning field goal. With today's overtime rules, the Lions would had a chance with the ball after that field goal.
Mornhinweg's tenure as Lions head coach was equally brief and awful. That's about all that needs to be said to sum it up.
6. Bobby Ross (2000, 5-4 record before resigning; 27-30 overall as Lions head coach)
The 2000 season was the last of four for Ross as the Lions' head coach, and he resigned before it was over when the team was 5-4. Gary Moeller, the former University of Michigan head coach, finished out a season that actually wound up being a winning one (9-7, but with no playoffs).
The game had surely passed Ross by at the end of his Lions' tenure, and he resigned before he probably would have been fired after the season. But after his departure, a very ugly course for the franchise for quite a while came, as the Lions posted double-digit losses in all but one season from 2001-2010 (7-9 in the lone expection).
5. Rod Marinelli (2006-2008, 10-38 record)
Marinelli made his hay in coaching on the defensive side of the ball, highlighted by a run with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as defensive line coach before landing his head coaching job in Detroit at the age of 56.
Marinelli was simply not cut out to be a head coach, and it consistenly showed over three seasons. The Lions going winless in 2008, the first 0-16 season in NFL history, sealed his fate. But even if the team had won a few games, he was not getting a fourth season as head coach.
4. Steve Mariucci (2003-2005, 15-28 record)
That Mariucci, who came to the Lions (and back to his home state) after a good run as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, lands No. 4 on this list says it all about those who are below him. And the dismal run the Lions have been on for most of the last 20-plus years.
"Mooch" lasted less than three seasons as Lions' head coach, before being fired in November of 2005. Dick Jauron became interim head coach, with a 1-4 record in the remaining five games on the way to a 5-11 overall mark.
What exactly the expectations realistically should have been, or even what they were for Mariucci in Detroit, is hard to remember. But two full double-digit loss seasons, and a third that would have surely also happened had he remained in place, was not anything close to the expected outcome for someone with his previous resume.
3. Jim Schwartz (2009-2013, 29-51 record)
Schwartz led the Lions to an 10-6 record and a playoff berth in his third season, which was notably the Lions' first playoff berth since Ross' last full season in 1999.
But the rest of Schwartz's tenure in Detroit was pretty dismal, with 2-14, 6-10, 4-12 and 7-9 marks surrounding that fine middle season (19-45 in those seasons).
Schwartz gets the title of longest-tenured Lions' head coach since 2000 right now--five seasons. And since the mid-1980s, only Wayne Fontes has had a longer run as Lions' head coach at this point.
A playoff berth lands Schwartz pretty easily at No. 3 here.
2. Dan Campbell (2021-present, 12-21-1 record)
With the aforementioned winning season in 2022, Campbell has already done something few of his predecessors this century have done. He has helped set a unique tone for the team, and surely an altogether different and refreshing tone from the man he replaced (Patricia).
Where Campbell's tenure goes from here is unknown. But the Lions have quickly landed on a positive track, and players buy what he is selling. That last point is also more than many of his recent predecessors can say, rooted in Campbell being a former NFL player who had to grind to have as long as a career as he had.
Campbell could take the top spot on this list down the road. But he's got some work to do.
1. Jim Caldwell (2014-2017, 36-28 record)
Caldwell had three winning records in four seasons as Lions head coach, including two playoff berths. In Lions' history over the last five or six decades, this side of Wayne Fontes, that's a fantastic run. Since 2000, it's more than enough to be No. 1 in this ranking of Lions' head coaches.
But when Bob Quinn came on as the general manager in Detroit, from the New England organization, it was only a matter of time before he made a change at head coach whenever he deemed the opportunity was right. A 9-7 non-playoff season in 2017 brought the move, and Quinn hired "his guy" (Patricia). We know what happened after that, as "Quinntricia" tried to fix something that wasn't really broken.
There's no doubt Caldwell got a raw deal with a too-early exit in Detroit. After years of getting interviews, he now seems comfortable with the idea he'll never be a head coach again. But Lions can wonder what might have happened had he not been let go too soon.