Because they’re the Lions, it’s easy to look at the current state of the franchise and assume that this is how it’s been throughout their recent history. But there was a four-year stretch not too long ago when Detroit was a consistently competitive team and a perennial playoff contender.
From 2014 to 2017, when the team was coached by Jim Caldwell, Detroit won more games than all but 11 NFL teams and made the postseason twice. After the 2017 season, Caldwell was fired with GM Bob Quinn explaining that a 9-7 record wasn’t good enough.
The Lions have won 13 games since the move and the subsequent hire of Matt Patricia. Making matters worse, Patricia, who was hailed as a defensive genius after coordinating Super Bowl-winning defenses in New England, has been unable to field a good defense for a full year after handpicking the roster and molding it to his liking.
Matt Patricia inherited a defense which ranked 15th in DVOA. Since then…
2018: 21st
2019: 23rd
2020: 25th https://t.co/Fh6RuWzmKa— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) November 26, 2020
The Lions’ embarrassing Thanksgiving Day loss to the Texans, in which Patricia’s defense surrendered 41 points, reminded the NFL world of the team’s decision to replace Caldwell with Patricia and held an old fashion Twitter roast…