Matt Patricia Has One More Season Left In Detroit

Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia will remain in the job next year, despite two consecutive losing seasons. 

His job security comes with a caveat, though. Matt Patricia must make the Detroit Lions a winning team.

Matt Patricia hasn’t looked like achieving that since he took the job. The Lions were 6 – 10 last season, and at 3 – 10 – 1 this year, they won’t even match that in 2019.

“We expect to be a playoff contender,” Lions owner Martha Ford said. 

“That means playing meaningful games in December.”

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There are some green shoots of recovery for the Lions, although not many. Detroit has a habit of losing games by fine margins this year. Theoretically, with more experience, the young team can learn to close those games out.

Patricia certainly believes that there is something positive to be built on in Detroit.

“We just look at, ‘OK, what are we building? What have we started and where is our foundation right now?’,” Patricia said. 

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“I think having a foundation of a team that is tough, a foundation of a team that is competitive, from a standpoint that they’re going to come to work every day and try to get better, and then show up on Sunday and really try to do everything they can to compete.

“I think that’s where you need to start, and I would say that’s where we’re at right now. We obviously need to add some pieces, and we need to get better, and we need to improve, and hopefully stay a little bit more healthy than where we’re at right now. I think those things will build on top of each other from there.”

Lions fans being Lions fans, won’t expect much. Patricia would not be the first coach to fail to lift the malaise around Detroit. He has one more year to try.