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The fact that the Detroit Lions are firing general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia seemed to be inevitable by the time it happened on Saturday afternoon. Patricia had gone 13-29-1 in her three seasons as Quinn’s handpicked coach, and had overseen back-to-back collapses, one against the Carolina quarterback and the other with the entire nation watching Thanksgiving.
Quinn fired Jim Caldwell, who made two playoff games and won records in three of his four seasons, including his last, in Detroit, to hire his friend, the former Patriots defensive coordinator. Patricia led the Lions to the basement of NFC North and to the final 10 over three seasons in scoring, total and assist defense. Great job, everyone.
With more than a month into the regular season, Patricia is already the third head coach to be laid off – he follows Atlanta’s Dan Quinn and Houston’s Bill O’Brien – which means, at the very least, that he there will be many. opportunities for NFL owners to prove they might be able to change their habits and conduct a comprehensive and inclusive coach search after all. Patricia’s debacle only underscores Caldwell’s skill – his .563 winning percentage was the best among full-time Lions coaches in the Super Bowl era – and should make him the target of all intelligent research. ‘coaches.
This hiring cycle will be a test for NFL practices, especially given recent improvements to strengthen Rooney’s rule. These improvements, which, among other things, require several diverse candidates to be interviewed, should boost the profile of candidates like Michigan native Dearborn, Robert Saleh, the 49ers’ defensive coordinator who should be given serious consideration by multiple teams.
At the local level, however, these layoffs, and what will follow, present a night out for Sheila Ford Hamp, owner of the team since taking over from her mother, Martha Firestone Ford, who had overseen the hires of. Quinn and Patricia. Hamp said she and team president Ron Wood had been eyeing Quinn and Patricia’s future for the past few weeks, but the two embarrassing losses in five days sealed their fates. The Lions won’t play meaningful games in December, as Hamp had hoped when she took over from her mother.
“It clearly wasn’t working,” Hamp said in a video conference on Saturday afternoon.
In house cleaning, Hamp gave herself and her franchise the clean slate she desperately needed. A lot of teams are talking about the need for a culture change, but in Detroit it’s been an issue almost since Patricia arrived, when players started talking about how he treated them. Hamp said she and Wood had an idea of what they were looking for, although their target was not fully defined. Hamp offered a refreshing frankness to an owner – she said she didn’t have all the answers on what she would be looking for in the next coach or general manager. There were no platitudes about previous head coaching experience or championship pedigree. It probably won’t appease people who want a clear goal, but Patricia was the Lions’ last clear target and here we are.
Perhaps the strongest statement Hamp made about the future was what she didn’t say. She did not guarantee that quarterback Matthew Stafford, who has been with the team for 12 years, will be part of the future.
“We’ll see what the new coach has to say,” Hamp said.
This is the smart answer; there is no need to close the door on candidates who might want to start over with a younger quarterback. The most important thing Hamp can do, in fact, is to leave all doors open during this research. Don’t just target people from particular organizations, like many have done with the Patriots, with mostly disappointing results (four of the five fired so far this year – O’Brien and Patricia, Quinn and Thomas Dimitroff have patriotic roots). Don’t be convinced the coach has to come from the offensive end of the game – the best recent recruit is Brian Flores of Miami, the former Patriots defensive assistant. Don’t limit the candidate pool by NFL or college experience or even the candidate’s place on everyone’s radar.
Hamp said she and Wood would receive feedback from many sources – they’ll likely use a research firm to some extent, but Hamp also stressed that Wood’s connections in the league are now important – and that will be key. Although Hamp’s family is a mainstay of the league, she is a relative newcomer. The late Steelers owner Dan Rooney used to advise his colleagues not to succumb to the impatience of the media and fans and to rush into coaching searches. Too many owners still do this, cutting off possibilities before they can even organize a meeting. Hamp must remember the case of Mike Tomlin, who was not on anyone’s coach list, until Rooney questioned him and made him coach of the Steelers.
Hamp has a unique advantage during her first search: she saw the mistakes both of her parents made in leading the Lions. She said she would look into those mistakes – one was allowing Quinn to fire Caldwell and then conduct a search with Patricia as the obvious target to the exclusion of other possibilities – but prefers to dig into what’s in front of her. .
“We can’t hide our past for sure,” Hamp said. “I’m very committed to evolving this ship and really making a difference, and I hope we don’t have a lot to look back on, we’ll just be looking forward.”
For a franchise that last won a championship in 1957 – in the pre-Super Bowl era – looking back is extremely painful. There are no guarantees, Hamp has said a few times. Quinn and Patricia are the most recent examples. But while Hamp is as open-minded about the possibilities as it looked on Saturday, the Lions are already ahead of what they were when Quinn and Patricia started out.
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