Tag: Lions coaching search

Ranking Matt Patricia in the pantheon of terrible coaching hires

Matt Patricia made a recent list of top 10 worst head coaching hires of all-time, but did hiring Patricia really seem that bad back in 2017?

The good folks over at Pro Football Network recently ranked their top 10 worst coaching hires in NFL history. As expected, Matt Patricia represented the Detroit Lions on the list.

Patricia checked in at No. 7 overall on the list. He was the only Detroit coach in the top 10, though Rod Marinelli did manage an honorable mention. Here’s what they said about Patricia,

Many of Bill Belichick’s former underlings have attempted to instill the New England Patriots’ way of doing things with other organizations, and it typically hasn’t gone well.

Matt Patricia was no exception. The ex-Patriots DC’s reign as the Lions’ head coach featured one disaster after another. Patricia’s domineering approach backfired, leading to a toxic relationship with the Lions’ locker room.

This started the wheels turning in my mind…

I thought back to the aftermath of Jim Caldwell being fired for not being able to break through with a very talented, albeit thin and defensively challenged roster. In the process of hiring Patricia, he was widely heralded as a very solid choice — and not just by Lions sympathizers. His résumé as the architect of the great Patriots defenses under Bill Belichick was well-established.

Also well-established at that time was the fact PFN smartly led with: Bill Belichick proteges have made for spectacularly bad head coaches. There was some very real skepticism from many voices that the rocket scientist who nobody had ever heard talk before wouldn’t be an exception, even before he was hired. Some of us wanted Mike Vrabel, or a more experienced coach who had tasted some postseason success, to guide a Lions team that was poised to compete in 2017 but needed a lift.

But the fact remains that Patricia did have a strong enough track record and buzz in the NFL to merit a choice. On the surface, back when Martha Ford hired him, there wasn’t a lot of consternation that he was a bad choice. An iffy choice, maybe, but even the most hardened skeptics didn’t envision just how truly awful Patricia would be as a head coach and leader of men. Hindsight trumps the foresight after such a traumatic experience, but it truly was impossible to know just how terrible Patricia’s people-management skills and dictatorial style would turn out back in 2017.

And because of that, I don’t rank him nearly as bad of a coaching hire as many others, sone of whom made the list. The Jets hiring Adam Gase for a second go-around immediately after he napalmed the Dolphins organization stands out as a much worse hiring decision. The Brown hiring wildly inexperienced Freddie Kitchens to take over for a disastrous retread hiring of Hue Jackson–which I’d also rank worse than Patricia’s hiring in Detroit–is also much worse at the time of hiring than what Detroit tried. Those are No. 10 and No. 9 on PFN’s list, but I would elevate both of them above Detroit and Patricia both then and now. Jackson to Cleveland was No. 4 on PFN’s list and deservedly so.

I thought back to Rod Marinelli when he was hired in 2006. He had been a very successful and universally lauded defensive line coach for over 20 years. Marinelli had also been the assistant head coach for four seasons with the very successful Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was a likable, cantankerous personality. That he turned out to be a truly awful head coach owed more to his aversion to caring about the offensive side of the ball as well as Matt Millen’s unspeakably bad player personnel decisions. Honorable mention seems right for Marinelli.

I would argue that the Lions decision to hire Marty Mornhinweg back in 2001 was worse than either of them. Matt Millen got a little too far ahead of the curve in hiring a 38-year-old coordinator with just six NFL seasons of experience. All of that experience came from organizations (Green Bay and then San Francisco) that had Hall of Fame quarterbacks and well-established systems largely on autopilot. When Steve Young left Mornhinweg’s 49ers offense in 1999, so did any evidence of success. That should have been a sign for Millen and the Lions that maybe the truculent Mornhinweg wasn’t all he was hyped to be.

This is not a defense of Patricia. He was probably a worse head coaching entity than any other person the Lions have hired in the Super Bowl era.

So Patricia gets the nod as the worst Lions coach, but not necessarily the worst Detroit coaching hire. He was more of a well-intentioned decision and thought process that simply failed spectacularly.

Report: The Lions have a new DL coach from the college ranks

Report: The Lions have a new DL coach from the college ranks in Penn State’s John Scott Jr.

The remaining hole on the Detroit Lions defensive staff might now be filled. A report from Pennsylvania indicates that the Lions are hiring current Penn State DL coach and run game coordinator, John Scott Jr., will be heading to Detroit to join Dan Campbell’s staff.

From the Centre Daily and reporter John Sauber,

John Scott Jr., the team’s current defensive line coach and run game coordinator, will be leaving the Nittany Lions to accept a job in the NFL with the Detroit Lions, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.

The reporting does not indicate if Scott will be the Lions’ defensive line coach or will serve in a different capacity. Right now, the Lions already have an assistant DL coach in Cameron Lewis, whose fate remains unknown.

Scott, 47, was a DL assistant coach with the New York Jets for two seasons. He’s spent most of the last two decades coaching in the college ranks, including the last two years with the Nittany Lions.

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Report sheds more light on the Lions pursuit of Iowa State coach Matt Campbell

A new report from SI’s Albert Breer sheds more light on the Lions pursuit of Iowa State coach Matt Campbell

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The Detroit Lions had strong interest in hiring Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell as the new head coach in Detroit this offseason. That’s not fresh news, but just how close they came and how much the Lions pursued Campbell is coming to light. A report this week from SI’s Albert Breer sheds more light on how heavily the Lions pursued Campbell and how close he came to biting on the interest.

Here’s what Breer wrote in this week’s MMQB at Sports Illustrated,

But in January, he did at least give the Detroit job some thought. He and Lions special assistant to the owner Chris Spielman have a strong relationship—the two are both from the football-mad city of Massillon, Ohio—and, as such, Campbell spoke with the Lions brass a couple times about the job opening as the NFL hiring cycle got revved up. And Detroit was preparing to fly out to visit with Campbell just before Campbell pulled his name out of the running

The connection with Spielman is important here. It’s something I’ve discussed repeatedly on the Detroit Lions Podcast as a driving force behind the entire Matt Campbell dalliance in Detroit. It’s a big factor in why Matt Campbell had such strong odds to succeed Matt Patricia early in the process, too.

Breer also reinforces the notion that the Lions were not the only team coveting Campbell this offseason. He notes,

But as we’ve been saying in this space for some time, power brokers in the league are well aware of how good he is. And it’s fair to assume that will manifest in more opportunities down the line. As for right now? I don’t know if the Lions’ getting on that plane and visiting Campbell would have led, eventually, to an offer being made. What I do know is that one wasn’t made. And, again, that Detroit’s not alone in its interest in the Cyclones coach.

One key piece of information there is that the Lions did not make a formal offer to Campbell. That verifies a report from Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press from last week, too. A wild report from CBS Sports listed actual figures in the discussion, but it’s now clear the talks never progressed to that stage. Campbell didn’t allow it to get that far.

The Lions quickly hired Dan Campbell, a much different style and path despite a similar surname.

Report indicates Iowa State coach Matt Campbell turned down a huge offer to coach the Detroit Lions

A report from CBS Sports indicates Iowa State coach Matt Campbell turned down a huge offer to coach the Detroit Lions

Back when the Detroit Lions were still looking for a successor to ex-head coach Matt Patricia, one of the early front-running names for the job was Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell. Based on a report from CBS Sports’ college football reporter Dennis Dodd, the Lions really wanted Matt Campbell before hiring Dan Campbell.

Dodd reports that the Lions offered the Cyclones coach a whopping 8-year, $68.5 million contract to take over the team in Detroit. He made the comment during a roundtable talk about the top Power 5 coaches. The claim, which has not been independently corroborated, was captured on Twitter,

If that reported figure to lure Matt Campbell to Detroit proves accurate, it’s a stunning sum for the Lions management to commit to a coach who does not have NFL experience. Campbell also declined an interview with the New York Jets for their head coaching vacancy this offseason, which went to Robert Saleh.

Campbell, 39, is in demand for elevating the Cyclones program into a consistently competitive team after years of substandard play. He did the same at Toledo prior to arriving in Ames.

Updating the new Detroit Lions coaching staff

The staff is loaded with former NFL players

A flurry of recent hirings has nearly completed the Detroit Lions coaching staff built around new head coach Dan Campbell.

With Friday’s official additions that includes QB coach Mark Brunell, the Lions staff is getting fleshed out. There has been a decided emphasis in hiring former NFL players across the staff.

As of Friday, January 29th, here is what the Lions coaching staff officially looks like:

Head coach – Dan Campbell

Offense

Offensive coordinator – Anthony Lynn

QB coach – Mark Brunell

RB coach – Duce Staley, who is also the assistant head coach

WR coach – Robert Prince*

TE coach – Ben Johnson*

OL coach – Hank Fraley*

Offensive assistant – Tanner Engstrand*

Defense

Defensive coordinator – Aaron Glenn

Passing game coordinator/DB coach – Aubrey Pleasant

Inside LB coach – Mark DeLeone

Defensive quality control – Stephen Thomas*

Special teams coordinator – Dave Fipp

Coaches with an asterisk (*) are carryovers from 2020

Rams coaching history and how it might impact Brad Holmes with the Lions

Holmes survived through several regime changes with the Rams that can influence his decisions on the coaching front

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In trying to figure out who Brad Holmes might favor as a head coach to work with in his new capacity as the Detroit Lions general manager, it’s worth looking into what coaching experiences he saw firsthand in his time with the Rams franchise. And boy, did Holmes see some things on the coaching front in his 18 years in St. Louis and Los Angeles.

Holmes started with the Rams in 2003 as a public relations intern, a proverbial “foot in the NFL door” gig. They were winding down the days of the “Greatest Show on Turf” era with Mike Martz as the head coach. Martz would last until midway through the 2005 season, when he was fired and replaced by interim coach Joe Vitt. Martz would quickly resurface with the Lions as the offensive coordinator, so Detroit should be familiar with his coaching style and personality.

Vitt as the interim coach was the polar opposite of Martz. A hard-nosed defensive coach, Vitt’s style was more old-school than the offensive master schemer that Martz brought to the equation. Vitt went 4-7 and impressed enough that he got another interim gig with the Saints in 2012 (during Sean Payton’s suspension). It was a radical change within the season, akin but antipodal to the move the Lions made in replacing Matt Patricia with interim Darrell Bevell in 2020.

The Rams changed both GM and head coach after the 2005 season. Lions fans know the head coaching hire well: Scott Linehan. Then 43, he was a rookie head coach lured away from the Minnesota Vikings. Linehan’s style of offense was more subdued than Martz. The Rams paired the rookie head coach with a seasoned defensive coordinator in Jim Haslett, who had just been fired by the New Orleans Saints as their head coach.

That combo lasted less than three seasons and fell from 8-8 to 4-12 to 2-14, with Haslett taking over for a fired Linehan in 2008. The once-feared offense got old and then-GM Jay Zygmunt did a poor job replacing key pieces and building depth.

The next regime change brought in GM Billy Devaney and new coach Steve Spagnuolo. “Spags” was a defensive coach, a rookie head coach hired from the Giants. The team cratered immediately to 1-15 in 2009, finishing 32nd in offense and 31st in defense. Spagnuolo was not a dynamic personality on the sideline and the team was criticized for being predictable and vanilla. It lasted three miserable seasons before ownership pulled the plug on both GM and head coach.

This is when Holmes took over the collegiate scouting department, before the 2012 season. New GM Les Snead, who still holds the job in Los Angeles, was a young rookie GM. The team hired retread coach Jeff Fisher, a longtime (17 years) Titans coach who had taken the prior season off from coaching. Fisher was a controlling, defensive-oriented coach who had final say on personnel decisions over Snead. Their arranged marriage didn’t go well but wasn’t terrible. The Rams won seven games in the two seasons they coexisted.

It’s a pertinent experience because many expect the Lions to pair the rookie GM in Holmes with an experienced head coach with some personnel background. Holmes might push back against that, based on how the Fisher/Snead dynamic played out. Snead gained the personnel control over Fisher for the 2014 season and Fisher squeezed out two more underwhelming seasons where the team failed to hit its preseason over/under win total.

A more confident and seasoned Snead fired Fisher midway through a bad 2016 season. Into the 2017 offseason, Holmes witnessed the Rams swing for the fences with a young hotshot offensive guru in Sean McVay. And he was the needed infusion of energy and ideas to wash away the tired, stolid Fisher era.

McVay was a controversial choice. Just 31 at the time, he had been the offensive coordinator in Washington. In his three seasons in Washington, McVay’s offenses were slightly above-average at their best, but Snead saw something that made him believe.

If Holmes draws upon that experience, it makes sense. McVay has led the Rams to one Super Bowl and they’re still playing in the playoff this season. His “bad” year of 2019 saw the Rams go 9-7. McVay was the youngest head coach ever hired at the time, and to help on that front the Rams brought in veteran defensive guru Wade Philips. That worked out very well for all parties, and it’s worth noting Philips is once again available (at 73) and looking for work.

It’s too early to know how much say or sway Holmes will have in hiring Detroit’s head coach. But the Lions would be wise to listen to what he has to say about his enlightening and diverse experiences with the Rams.

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Rams coaching history and how it might impact Brad Holmes with the Lions

Holmes survived through several regime changes with the Rams that can influence his decisions on the coaching front

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In trying to figure out who Brad Holmes might favor as a head coach to work with in his new capacity as the Detroit Lions general manager, it’s worth looking into what coaching experiences he saw firsthand in his time with the Rams franchise. And boy, did Holmes see some things on the coaching front in his 18 years in St. Louis and Los Angeles.

Holmes started with the Rams in 2003 as a public relations intern, a proverbial “foot in the NFL door” gig. They were winding down the days of the “Greatest Show on Turf” era with Mike Martz as the head coach. Martz would last until midway through the 2005 season, when he was fired and replaced by interim coach Joe Vitt. Martz would quickly resurface with the Lions as the offensive coordinator, so Detroit should be familiar with his coaching style and personality.

Vitt as the interim coach was the polar opposite of Martz. A hard-nosed defensive coach, Vitt’s style was more old-school than the offensive master schemer that Martz brought to the equation. Vitt went 4-7 and impressed enough that he got another interim gig with the Saints in 2012 (during Sean Payton’s suspension). It was a radical change within the season, akin but antipodal to the move the Lions made in replacing Matt Patricia with interim Darrell Bevell in 2020.

The Rams changed both GM and head coach after the 2005 season. Lions fans know the head coaching hire well: Scott Linehan. Then 43, he was a rookie head coach lured away from the Minnesota Vikings. Linehan’s style of offense was more subdued than Martz. The Rams paired the rookie head coach with a seasoned defensive coordinator in Jim Haslett, who had just been fired by the New Orleans Saints as their head coach.

That combo lasted less than three seasons and fell from 8-8 to 4-12 to 2-14, with Haslett taking over for a fired Linehan in 2008. The once-feared offense got old and then-GM Jay Zygmunt did a poor job replacing key pieces and building depth.

The next regime change brought in GM Billy Devaney and new coach Steve Spagnuolo. “Spags” was a defensive coach, a rookie head coach hired from the Giants. The team cratered immediately to 1-15 in 2009, finishing 32nd in offense and 31st in defense. Spagnuolo was not a dynamic personality on the sideline and the team was criticized for being predictable and vanilla. It lasted three miserable seasons before ownership pulled the plug on both GM and head coach.

This is when Holmes took over the collegiate scouting department, before the 2012 season. New GM Les Snead, who still holds the job in Los Angeles, was a young rookie GM. The team hired retread coach Jeff Fisher, a longtime (17 years) Titans coach who had taken the prior season off from coaching. Fisher was a controlling, defensive-oriented coach who had final say on personnel decisions over Snead. Their arranged marriage didn’t go well but wasn’t terrible. The Rams won seven games in the two seasons they coexisted.

It’s a pertinent experience because many expect the Lions to pair the rookie GM in Holmes with an experienced head coach with some personnel background. Holmes might push back against that, based on how the Fisher/Snead dynamic played out. Snead gained the personnel control over Fisher for the 2014 season and Fisher squeezed out two more underwhelming seasons where the team failed to hit its preseason over/under win total.

A more confident and seasoned Snead fired Fisher midway through a bad 2016 season. Into the 2017 offseason, Holmes witnessed the Rams swing for the fences with a young hotshot offensive guru in Sean McVay. And he was the needed infusion of energy and ideas to wash away the tired, stolid Fisher era.

McVay was a controversial choice. Just 31 at the time, he had been the offensive coordinator in Washington. In his three seasons in Washington, McVay’s offenses were slightly above-average at their best, but Snead saw something that made him believe.

If Holmes draws upon that experience, it makes sense. McVay has led the Rams to one Super Bowl and they’re still playing in the playoff this season. His “bad” year of 2019 saw the Rams go 9-7. McVay was the youngest head coach ever hired at the time, and to help on that front the Rams brought in veteran defensive guru Wade Philips. That worked out very well for all parties, and it’s worth noting Philips is once again available (at 73) and looking for work.

It’s too early to know how much say or sway Holmes will have in hiring Detroit’s head coach. But the Lions would be wise to listen to what he has to say about his enlightening and diverse experiences with the Rams.

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Iowa State coach Matt Campbell indicates he’s not jumping to the NFL

Campbell was on the Lions list of potential HC candidates

One of the more intriguing potential candidates for the Detroit Lions head coaching vacancy appears to have withdrawn any possible consideration. Iowa State Cyclones head coach Matt Campbell indicated in a Twitter post that he is staying at the college level.

Campbell cited a “foundation … built on Loyalty and Faithfulness” and that it will continue to be what guides him. He did not specifically cite the Cyclone program, but it’s widely interpreted that this is Campbell’s way of saying he’s not interested in jumping to the NFL.

The Lions had real interest in Campbell as a candidate. He was also being courted by the New York Jets for that team’s head coaching vacancy. Campbell has built up the Cyclones into a Big 12 contender after years of being near the bottom of the major college programs. He also had tremendous success at Toledo prior to jumping to Iowa State.

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Lions complete interview with head coaching candidate Robert Saleh

Saleh is widely seen as the leading candidate for the Lions head coaching job

The Detroit Lions search committee spent Thursday interviewing San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh for the team’s head coaching vacancy. The Lions acknowledged the interview in a public statement.

Saleh is widely seen as the perceived leading candidate for the job of taking over the Lions. He is a Detroit-area (Dearborn) native and local politicians have advocated for the Lions to hire him. Saleh’s 49ers defenses have played well despite myriad injuries across the unit. He’s respected for his leadership presence and ability to adapt to the talent on hand.

The Lions have interviewed several candidates for the head coaching vacancy, including interim head coach Darrell Bevell and Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy this week. There are more interviews scheduled, including one early next week with Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

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Rod Wood: Lions won’t rush GM hiring, could hire head coach first

Wood noted the competition for head coaches with other teams

Detroit Lions team president Rod Wood met with the media on Tuesday morning, and the primary topic of conversations in the cordial press conference was the process of hiring a new GM and head coach for the team.

Wood was fairly candid in his answers, and one of them stood out to me. When asked about the timeframe for hiring a head coach, Wood noted the competition with other teams fighting for the same candidates.

“We’re in competition with other teams who are going to meet with some of the same people, and it’s important I think to get the right coach, and if that means we have to hire a coach first, that’s what we’ll do,” Wood said when asked if the decision to hire a head coach before hiring a GM remained a possibility.

As for the timeline on the GM search, Wood indicated less urgency. He said there is “no deadline to our process” in finding the right GM, even if it means waiting until after the Super Bowl concludes. Several GM candidates are part of teams in the playoffs, including Terry Fontenot with the Saints and Ed Dodds with the Colts.

Wood’s more in-depth explanation,

“What we’re looking for is people that can work together and be partners, and not one working for the other necessarily. So, it doesn’t require us to hire a general manager first. It may work out that way because we’re a little bit ahead of the general manager search relative to the head coaching search, but if we find the perfect head coach and we’ve not yet found a general manager, we’re not going to wait on the coach. We’re in competition with other teams who are interviewing some of the same people, and it’s important, I think, to get the right coach. If that means we have to hire a coach first, that’s what we’ll do.”

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