Now there is another subject I would like to talk about. People think Matt Patricia is being groomed to be the next general manager because he helped out in the draft and in free agency. I partially disagree, and believe he is being groomed to take over for Belichick completely. While I think Steve Belichick would be a better coach, we don't always get what we want. So let me explain why I think Patricia will be the next man to rule over the Patriots kingdom.
Patricia went to Detriot to install a "winning" culture, and his players rejected it. It's the comments that came out that lead me to believe that Matty P. was treating the Detroit Lions exactly like Bill Belichick. There was a lot of negative talk in the media about Matt Patricia and how nobody wanted to play for him but as Patriots fans, we all heard how much people wanted to actually play with Belichick, so keep that in mind. As I will look to discredit it.
Bleacher Report's KALYN KAHLER quoted a source in Detriot in November 2020 as saying, "Listen, we all want to replicate the Patriots' success, but the track record of guys that come out and seem to try to replicate it is tough among front office and coaches. Authoritarian, very hierarchical organizations, whether they are in football or otherwise, that's what you get: You don't get people to develop their own way."
The Patriots teach players how to be their best by using them to their strengths. Cassius Marsh complained about that same thing. He didn't get to play and train how he wanted. He had to do things the 'Patriots Way,' and he was miserable because in New England football is treated as a corporate job. Martellus Bennett couldn't get out of Green Bay and back to New England fast enough because he missed the structure Marsh bitched about.
Former Lions quarterback turned analyst Dan Orlovsky said this about Patricia, "To come in and say you had a lot of work to do is completely false. It's a bunch of trash. Because that wasn't the case in Detroit. We were a good football team. Matthew Stafford was playing as good as he has in his career. That was because of Coach Caldwell. And we were an organization that was ascending."
Under Caldwell the Lions went 7-9, 11-5, and two back to back 9-7 seasons. Caldwell appeared to have the team stagnant at a game above .500, so the ownership made a change at head coach and brought in Patricia. The ownership and general manager would've known the culture Matt Patricia was bringing into Detriot and would've had to agree with him on a need for a culture change before hiring him.
Running back Zach Zenner said the following, "We really weren't that bad! We had a good thing going. We had … made the playoffs [in 2016]. It wasn't like he was starting from scratch."
The NFL is about what have you done for me lately. What you did two, three, or even six years ago doesn't matter. That's a major part of the Patriots way. The Patriots won a superbowl in 2018 but nobody on the roster thinks they're a superbowl team in 2021.
Yeah, they may have win the superbowl but for coaches the work begins about a week after the superbowl and for the players at the latest, by OTAs. The time to relax and enjoy the victory is short. The last season becomes irrelevant for the Patriots regardless of what they did. That's something Matt Patricia tried to install in Detriot.
Kahler wrote about the 'Patriots Way' saying, "That Patriot Way is a structure defined by physical practices and post-practice conditioning that former Lions and Patriots player Ricky Jean Francois referred to as 'gruesome.' Head coaches rule more like dictators than democratic leaders, and they have a tendency to call out players in full-team settings, putting guys on the spot to quiz them or identify unwanted behavior. Players are expected to fall in line, and any resistance or too much self-expression is not tolerated. "
Authoritian and dictatorship has been thrown around to describe the Patriots by many former Patriots, many who had short careers with the Patriots. While players who had success in New England agree regardless of how short saying otherwise. With players like Francios saying that playing for the Patriots is grueling work. Many more also said it's the ring ceremony at the end makes it fun.
Throughout her article, players talked about resisting Matt Patricia's culture change. With Kahler even writing, "Bleacher Report spoke to seven players who spent time on the Lions in 2018, and they all agreed that Patricia's attempts to bring this culture to Detroit were unsuccessful that first year. The result was that not enough players bought in, and because of that, they couldn't achieve the on-field success needed to encourage the buy-in."
It's no secret that Matt Patricia believed in working hard, studying, and practicing. Matt Patricia's former defensive lineman Mike Dainels said about playing under Patricia, "You definitely were going to practice, that was a must. It was mandatory; I'll put it to you like that."
Players in the nfl are getting paid anywhere from tens of thousands to tens of million dollars to play in the NFL. It's a business what did the Lion's players expect, a street game of shoot'em up bust'em up in the local grocery store parking lot?
Matt Patricia brought in Danny Amendola to help instal a work ethic and the Patriots culture in Detriot. Amendola was no Rob Gronkowski but he was still a critical part of the Patriots superbowl runs. Hence the nickname Danny 'playoff' Amendola.
Amendola had the following to say about playing for Matt Patricia in May of 2020. "The way I operate as a football player and the product that I put on the field in relation to the business that I conduct, I want it to be as tough as possible in practice so when I get into the games I've been there before. I understand what it feels like to be tired in a game because I was tired in practice, and I understand what my body can go through and how I can push my body mentally and physically, and that's something I really relate to. That's something I look for.
This is my sixth NFL team in 13 seasons, and played for all different types of coaches and in all different types of offenses and methods. So this is, what Coach Patricia has to offer is something that I eagerly look for because I know I'll get the best version of me."
Kahler quoted another former Lions player of Matt Patricia as saying, 'There were guys that weren't used to that more blue-collar, hard-work type of style, and so they had something to say about it and they didn't want to conform to that. Those were the type of guys he was getting out of the building, and trading them or releasing them and then bringing guys that were used to hard work."
Matt Patricia was building a team in Detriot, part of team building is getting rid of guys who don't have the right mindset, who hinder the progress and development of the culture you want installed. Bill Belichick was lucky in his early days as a head coach with the Patriots. There were many players still left from the Bill Parcels days, when Parcels was allowed to build that culture. Matty P. was having to start from scratch.
Francois the former Patriots who played under Patricia in Detriot criticized the players and the assistant coaches. Inferring that neither were doing their job or took it seriously.
Francios went on to say, "A lot of guys there couldn't adjust to the New England culture. Everybody was still used to the Detroit Lion culture. ... Guys were just so laid-back, they were used to just chill. They didn't have the urgency, they didn't have the urge to get on the football field and go after people."
Francois continued, "I just don't believe people are staying in the facility long enough. ... When you buy in, you lock in. It's a guarantee."
Players on the roster questioned what buying in meant, especially the players left over from Caldwell who heard what Francois had to say. They just apparently didn't get it. With former safety Glover Quin saying, "Obviously guys are going to gripe and complain, I am not going to sit here saying I didn't gripe and complain. Because some things you are just like, 'Man, what are we doing this for?' But at the end of the day, we did it."
The players had no faith in Matt Patricia, they didn't want to work, and they didn't want to change. When a manager, a coach, a company is dealing with that kinda mindset, the only thing that can be done is to clean house as quickly as possible.
Glover Quin added, "Everybody that had some kind of ties to the last regime, some kind of leadership role, every last one of those guys are gone except for Matt Stafford."
There were guys who tried to rebel and Matt Patricia did his best to get rid of them. Guys who rebel are a cancer to the culture and the locker room. There's no place for them.
Kahler wrote in 2020, "One Lions source says Diggs was turning the locker room against Patricia, which played into the team's decision to deal him to the Seahawks last season."
Trey Flowers said about his time with Patricia in Detroit, "I tried to give as much insight as I could as far as what was the expectation or what was the demand and why is the demand for excellence so high. Coach Patricia, he's a guy who has always been about winning. And so however he can get that out of guys, he demands highly of them and expects highly of them and his standards are very high no matter what environment he goes in."
Flowers spoke about some of the guys that didn't buy into the system saying. "(They) obviously was accustomed to a different style or a different type, and that's just how business goes. Some people like it and some people don't. That's just how any business you go in, you're going to have people that agree with things and don't agree with things."
The biggest problem in Detriot under Patricia was lack of patience. It started from the front office above him and it trickled down to the players under him. Everyone wanted instant gratification or Matt Patricia's installment of the Patriots way in Detroit was a failure. It takes business three to five years to install a culture change. That's what a football team is. If Patricia had stayed on to coach a fourth season in Detriot, changes would've started showing themselves.
Running Zach Zenner said, "It's all the hard work and not the rings. You go to [New England] to win a ring, and you work hard and you earn it or you go deep in the playoffs. And you go to Detroit, you do that same thing, but you just lose. People don't want to lose, and people especially don't want to work way harder than everyone else to have a worse record than people who work half as hard."
That mindset is what hurt Patricia, it's a misunderstanding from people who don't know the Patriots history. It took Bill Parcels 4 seasons to get the Patriots into shape to appear in superbowl 31. Parcels left after the 1996 season. When Bill Belichick took over in 2000, he had one transition season because of the sheer number of players left over from 1996 AFC championship team. The culture was still there, players just needed a review.
After the firing of Patricia in Detriot some of the players were upset about the coach being let go. Michael Rothstein tweeting, "Reggie Ragland said it's been tough not having Patricia out there because He came to Detriot to play for him."
Former quarterback Matt Stafford said the following about his former head coach, “He and I had a good relationship, no matter what anybody wants to say. I could go into his office and talk to him, he could get me on the phone whenever he needed to. I think we both grew in that relationship. I have a lot of respect for him and who he is, as a football coach and an unbelievable mind.”
Stafford admitted to Detriot Free Press that when leaving Detriot that he wanted to win now and that's why he didn't want to play in New England, that it had nothing to do with Matt Patricia. Part of me questions if playing in Brady's shadow had anything to do with it.
It just goes to show, what Patricia was doing in Detriot was working. Players wanted to go to Detriot to play for him. Like the Dolphins with Chad O'shea, the Lions caved either due to the player personnel or to inpatients. Regardless of the reason, the lions gave up on Matt Patricia too soon.
There was enough being said in public to give credence that there's praise behind close doors for Patricia from players he coached in Detriot. We all know good players say things behind closed doors so not to cause rifts in the locker room.
There's reasonable doubt to question if Patricia would've of had a good season in 2021. He was making progress slow and steady as a head coach because like Rome, the Patriots weren't built overnight, and the Lions weren't going to be any different.
With players Belichick has respect for, that still have respect for the Patriots organization coming out to defend Patricia, it's understandable why Bill rehired him. Why he might be in line to be the next general manager, or even head coach of the Patriots, and successor to Belichick.
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