The Detroit Lions have been one of the most active teams in the first few days of NFL free agency. GM Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia have overhauled the roster with nearly a dozen new players coming in and several 2019 starters now gone.
Most of the fan and Lions-centric media reviews of the early comings and goings in free agency have ranged from underwhelmingly optimistic to downright angrily negative. It seems the national media feels the same, based on various free agency review pieces that cover the entire NFL.
Touchdown Wire noted some of the reasons why the moves might work, albeit in a quite skeptical tone. Being compared to Houston head coach/GM Bill O’Brien is about as low of an association as one can have these days, but that’s where they find Patricia,
We have a late challenger for the “Worst Bill Belichick Disciple Award.”
It looked like Bill O’Brien might have locked that up, with his trade of DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals. But Matt Patricia is making a late charge down the stretch to steal that title at the wire.
Sports Illustrated also lumped Patricia with the national media laughingstock that is O’Brien in declaring the Lions coach one of the “losers” of the first few days of free agency.
Fellow Belichick understudy Matt Patricia also struggled this week, getting crushed by Darius Slay on Slay’s way out of town (Slay was not the only one who decided to speak up either).
The Sporting News broke down the moves on an individual basis. Some of the grades are positives, notably a B for inking CB Desmond Trufant to replace Slay and a B- to upgrade “one of the league’s worst units” by signing LB Jamie Collins.