Over the past three years, the Detroit Lions have gone from one of the NFL's long-standing sad sack franchises to one of the best teams in the NFC, as they are coming off of a 2023 season that saw them win the NFC North, win their first playoff games since 1991, and make it all the way to the NFC Championship Game and nearly win it. Much of the credit for the Lions' turnaround has gone to head coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes, but former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick argued during an appearance on the "Let's Go" podcast that a large part of the Lions' turnaround can be attributed to the work of former head coach Matt Patricia.
Belichick, who had Patricia on his coaching staff for 14 years in New England before his hiring by the Lions in 2018, credited Patricia with building Detroit's powerful offensive line, which has been a major part of the identity and success of their offense.
"I think that the Lions have built a really good offensive line for their quarterback, and they couldn't get a lot of production in the red area last week, but that's something that Matt Patricia started and now they're kind of getting the fruits of the labor from him," Belichick said.
There is a hole in Belichick's argument, however, in that the only offensive lineman Patricia and former general manager Bob Quinn were directly responsible for was center Frank Ragnow, their first-round pick in 2018. Taylor Decker and Graham Glasgow preceded Patricia in Detroit -- and Glasgow was not re-signed by Patricia and Quinn in 2019 -- while Penei Sewell and Kevin Zeitler were brought in through the draft and free agency respectively after Patricia was fired midway through the 2020 season.
Patricia was equal parts unsuccessful and unpopular as head coach of the Lions, as his New England-influenced approach rubbed many the wrong way and did not lead to results on the field. Patricia went 13-29-1 as head coach of the Lions, with his winning percentage (.314) being the fourth-lowest of any head coach in Lions franchise history.