Detroit Lions’ Sheila Ford Hamp made the right move in firing Bob Quinn, too

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Free Press sports writer Carlos Monarrez answers three questions after the Detroit Lions fired head coach Matt Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn on Saturday:

Should Sheila Ford Hamp have fired Bob Quinn?

Absolutely. Bob Quinn was hired to recreate the New England Patriots’ magic by hiring Matt Patricia. It was his one great idea, and most people don’t have two. Quinn and Patricia were always tied at the hip and should have succeeded or failed together. And if you look at Quinn’s track record, he had very few outstanding successes. He got half a good season out of trading for Damon Harrison and drafted one legitimate Pro Bowler in Kenny Golladay, with Jamal Agnew’s All-Pro season looking increasingly like a fluke. Otherwise, his drafts were unremarkable, sometimes bad with busts like Teez Tabor and Jarrad Davis, and even silly with wasteful picks on a long-snapper and consecutive sixth-round quarterbacks. (Really? You thought you were going to find Tom Brady again?) GMs typically get to hire two coaches, so kudos to Hamp for not giving Quinn a mulligan on keeping Jim Caldwell around for two years and letting him hire a third coach. Quinn’s tenure started in 2016 and five years is more than enough time to judge a GM’s track record.

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What did you think of the way Ford Hamp handled the situation?

As I’ve said before, there was no reason or advantage to firing anyone before the end of the season — other than placating fans and bowing to public pressure. After all, firing Steve Mariucci midseason led to hiring Rod Marinelli and firing Martin Mayhew midseason led to hiring Quinn. Internal assessments or external vetting could have still been done without firings. But if this was truly the decision Ford Hamp arrived at on her own, then it was good she made it swiftly and held a news conference immediately to provide answers. She’s new in her role as principal owner, but she’s come off well since she’s taken a more active ownership role. She has an easy and confident style without any pretense. I liked how she admitted to reporters that she had “a feeling today you’re going to have a lot more questions than I’m going to have answers to.” She has spoken publicly more often than any of the team owners in recent years and I hope that does something to dispel to incorrect notion from some fans that the Fords only care about money and not winning. Trust me. The Lions are a deeply personal family business and the Fords sincerely want the team to win. It’s certainly clear Ford Hamp cares. A lot.

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Whom should the Lions hire as their GM and coach?

Give me $20 million and a four-year contract and I’ll tell you. But if the Lions don’t want to hire me as Executive Team Visionary, here’s some free advice: Hire a GM and a coach who have their own unique visions. Don’t try to copy another team’s path or try to replicate success in college. Don’t try to be the Kansas City Chiefs or Ohio State. Ford Hamp’s father tried sensible approaches like hiring Bobby Ross and out-of-the-box ideas like hiring Matt Millen, and neither worked. Her mother signed off on trying to be the Patriots. Ford Hamp needs to follow her own instincts and discover if she has a knack for this. My biggest question about Ford Hamp is who counsels her? Team president Rod Wood, hired with no background in football, is her closest professional adviser. But whom does she listen to when it comes to people who are knowledgeable about football? Ford Hamp said she and Wood will “lean on all sorts of resources,” including getting help from people at NFL headquarters to help compile a list of candidates. Ultimately she needs to decide by herself what kind of team she wants to build, what kind of business she wants to run, and what kind of legacy she wants to leave behind.

Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.

This article was originally published by Freep.com. Read the original article here.