ESPN Article: Amendola and Flowers laud Matt Patricia's tone

[diehardlionfan]

On 6/25/2020 at 1:22 PM, LionArkie said:

I feel like this kind of gives him way more credit than what it was.  I mean, yes the numbers support the claim, but after he was fired, no one was knocking down his door as a top 50 coach of all time.

• First Year 11-5
• 2nd year 7-9, with 7 losses in the first 8 games
• 3rd year 9-7, lost final 3 games
• 3rd year 9-7, 3-3 down the stretch and some sketchy play management calls in key situations.

He was incredibly average, at best, albeit much better than Patricia record wise.  He could have possibly been the next Wayne Fontes in Detroit. I felt like the further away from Schwartz's team he got, the worse he would do.  He has always been an "almost good enough" coach. His teams weren't tough, they had no resiliency, and he managed it terribly. Remember 9 men on the field for a key 3rd down stop?

I will always respect Caldwell as being a fantastic human being, or so it is reported, but as a coach, I'll pass.

The only point I disagree with is the overall evaluation. He’s the winningest Lions coach since the 50’s. While he made mistakes he made far fewer than any Lions coach in my lifetime. As we’ve seen, even with Quinn bringing in his guy Patricia hasn’t even come close.

Quinn has had the best opportunity to create a winning Lions franchise in a long time. For years bad teams were financially burdened by high draft choices. If they missed not only were they stuck with the salary, it seriously reduced their flexibility in free agency. The Lions have had money to spend and good draft opportunities. Still, Patricia hasn’t delivered on the field. 

I was never a huge Caldwell fan and understood what Quinn was doing. However history has shown it was the wrong decision. If it’s still the wrong decision at the end of the season then it’s time for accountability. 

I really liked Quinn’s draft. I don’t think it will be enough, but I liked it. Good enough that I have a glimmer of hope.

If I were making decisions the season would be split in two parts. If the Lions are out of it at mid season, Quinn is gone, Patricia is gone. Bevel is interim head coach and anybody can take over the defence. If out of it mid season the likely cause is the defence so they likely couldn’t get worse. 🤠

My first step would be to hire Deloitte to do an operations audit on every NFL franchise. The information would be so useful. It’s one way to create best practices. Internally the Lions management and coach only has knowledge from one franchise. The financial expenditures by position versus wins losses would be great information. Position spending specific to scheme, so much could be learned. (I should really conduct a basic audit myself. I just can’t stand doing audits.)

I would then set up a simulation exercise using the last 10 seasons  of the Lions draft selections, trades, free agent signings. I would pay 10 experienced GM’s to run the simulation, capture the data and analyze it. Version 2 of the simulation would be part of the interview process during the GM search. It would be a multiple day interview with specific specialties of examination, represented by experts in the appropriate field. 

Once the GM is selected we proceed through a similar process in selecting a coach. The candidates would be from a variety of scenarios including experienced NFL head coaches, Co-ordinators, College HC, across the age spectrum.

 

 

 

[LionArkie]

On 7/5/2020 at 10:28 AM, diehardlionfan said:

The only point I disagree with is the overall evaluation. He’s the winningest Lions coach since the 50’s. While he made mistakes he made far fewer than any Lions coach in my lifetime. As we’ve seen, even with Quinn bringing in his guy Patricia hasn’t even come close.

Quinn has had the best opportunity to create a winning Lions franchise in a long time. For years bad teams were financially burdened by high draft choices. If they missed not only were they stuck with the salary, it seriously reduced their flexibility in free agency. The Lions have had money to spend and good draft opportunities. Still, Patricia hasn’t delivered on the field. 

I was never a huge Caldwell fan and understood what Quinn was doing. However history has shown it was the wrong decision. If it’s still the wrong decision at the end of the season then it’s time for accountability. 

I really liked Quinn’s draft. I don’t think it will be enough, but I liked it. Good enough that I have a glimmer of hope.

If I were making decisions the season would be split in two parts. If the Lions are out of it at mid season, Quinn is gone, Patricia is gone. Bevel is interim head coach and anybody can take over the defence. If out of it mid season the likely cause is the defence so they likely couldn’t get worse. 🤠

My first step would be to hire Deloitte to do an operations audit on every NFL franchise. The information would be so useful. It’s one way to create best practices. Internally the Lions management and coach only has knowledge from one franchise. The financial expenditures by position versus wins losses would be great information. Position spending specific to scheme, so much could be learned. (I should really conduct a basic audit myself. I just can’t stand doing audits.)

I would then set up a simulation exercise using the last 10 seasons  of the Lions draft selections, trades, free agent signings. I would pay 10 experienced GM’s to run the simulation, capture the data and analyze it. Version 2 of the simulation would be part of the interview process during the GM search. It would be a multiple day interview with specific specialties of examination, represented by experts in the appropriate field. 

Once the GM is selected we proceed through a similar process in selecting a coach. The candidates would be from a variety of scenarios including experienced NFL head coaches, Co-ordinators, College HC, across the age spectrum.

 

 

 

I think me and you probably won't agree on the overall evaluation.  Just because Caldwell is the shiniest turd over the past 70 years means nothing to me.  I still think his record gets worse and worse as the team looks more like him and less like Schwartz, but I can't prove it so it is what it is. However, I love your post and I don't disagree with anything else in it.

Edited July 6, 2020 by LionArkie

[diehardlionfan]

On 7/5/2020 at 6:18 PM, LionArkie said:

I think me and you probably won't agree on the overall evaluation.  Just because Caldwell is the shiniest turd over the past 70 years means nothing to me.  I still think his record gets worse and worse as the team looks more like him and less like Schwartz, but I can't prove it so it is what it is. However, I love your post and I don't disagree with anything else in it.

You may be right about Caldwell. Unfortunately we will never know. My beef has never been about firing Caldwell. My beef is about the replacement and the resulting dumpster fire. 🤠