Detroit Lions (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
The Detroit Lions have a new general manager, head coach, and direction. So, why is ‘progress’ a dirty word?
There are sweeping changes down at Allen Park as compared to this time last year. No longer are former general manager Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia causing locker room angst while not supplying enough talent to get the job done.
I said before that I didn’t think Bob Quinn was quite as abysmal as many claimed he was. However, he clearly didn’t acquire enough talent to take the Lions to the next level. As a matter of fact, probably the best way to categorize the majority of his draft choices is that they were depth or role-players.
The one thing the Lions lacked the most was play-makers. This was one of the critical reasons that Quinn and Patricia went down with the ship. Play-makers make plays and the more a team is able to field, the more chances they have to find a way to win.
Kenny Golladay was probably Quinn’s most celebrated selection. That was a pick he nailed. It’s too bad Golladay was too rich for the Lions’ blood in the face of this rebuild.
But while Quinn did certainly earn his dismissal, that was not the only issue holding back the Lions. The culture that Matt Patricia fostered in the locker room caused dissension and on the field, his defense was passive and clueless.
Was this just a side effect of players who wouldn’t give Patricia their all or was the coaching so poor that the cluelessness was authentic? Maybe it was a little of both, but no matter how you wish to spin it, that was a recipe for disaster and that’s exactly what we saw on the field.
Had it not been for Matthew Stafford and the offense, the Lions just might have gone winless in Patricia’s time here. But now there is a new regime in town and they have the difficult chore of lifting this franchise out of the mire it was left in and build a winner.
Will it be easy? No. Will it happen overnight? Yeah, I don’t think so. However, this team has a chance to prove they are heading in the right direction and building towards something good. Yet to some fans ‘progress’ is a dirty word for some reason.