Lions fans probably don't want to be sold patience when it comes to Matt Patricia. General manager Bob Quinn fired the team's former head coach, Jim Caldwell, because 9-7 in back-to-back seasons wasn't good enough. Quinn famously said the Lions were better than that.
Then, in their first season under Patricia, the Lions regressed to 6-10.
Well, what did you expect, says former Patriots linebacker and two-time Super Bowl winner Willie McGinest.
McGinest, who overlapped with Patricia for two seasons in New England (2004-05) and now serves as an analyst on NFL Network, was asked on Wednesday ahead of Super LIII in Atlanta if he was surprised the Lions didn't have more success in Patricia's first season.
"Did you expect them to be in the Super Bowl this year? NFC championship?" said McGinest, via PatriotsWire.
McGinest pointed to Patricia's mentor as evidence that it takes time. Bill Belichick went 5-11 in his first season as a head coach, 41-55 over his first six. He's 220-68 since, with five Super Bowls and possibly a sixth on the way. (Some might say it helped that he came across Tom Brady.)
"What was Bill's record the first year? … "You've got to understand. To change a culture, to find the right guys that buy in in the locker room, it doesn't happen overnight. You can't just do it in the draft. You can't do it in free agency. You can't just identify a core group of men in the locker room that you're going to build your team around," McGinest said. "Patricia has coached with the Patriots for 14 or 15 years. I think he knows what he's doing. I think he understands how to win football games.
"You don't have to come in the first year. It takes time to build teams. It takes time to build a roster with the right personality. That franchise hasn't won in years. When was the last time they were in the NFC championship? … To be able to install that and understand that, it takes time. I like the fact that he's doing it his way and not trying to be Belichick. … You've got to break things down before you build them up."
For what it's worth, Belichick's first winning season as a head coach didn't come until his fourth year. Of course, he inherited a team in Cleveland that went 3-13 the season prior.
The situation Patrica stepped into was markedly different -- and thus the heat will increase on the Lions head coach in 2019.
