Why the Lions hired Patriots DC Matt Patricia for his first head coaching job

The former aerospace engineer is expected to take over for Jim Caldwell as the next head coach of the Lions.

Matt Patricia rose from budding aerospace engineer and centrifuge salesman to one of the NFL’s most respected defensive minds in just over 15 years. Next up, he’s expected to take his first ever head coaching job in the NFL. The Detroit Lions will reportedly hire the Patriots’ defensive coordinator once Super Bowl LII is over.

The 43-year-old assistant will be tasked with getting the Lions back to the playoffs and more importantly, getting a win once they get there. The team is just one year removed from its last playoff appearance, but hasn’t won in the postseason in 26 years.

The Lions were in the mix for a spot this season, but just missed out with a 9-7 record. Head coach Jim Caldwell was fired the day after the season ended.

What you need to know about Matt Patricia

Patricia is an inspiring story of how diligence can lead to NFL success. The former Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute offensive lineman’s first stop on the coaching trail was as a graduate assistant with RPI, but the lure of a six-figure salary made possible by his aerospace engineering degree lured him from the sideline and into an office.

While he was a budding star at Hoffman Air & Filtration, the pull of the gridiron was too strong to overcome. Patricia bet on himself when he left a stable career to take an $8,000-per-year Division III defensive line coach position at Amherst College in 1999 — and it paid off in spades.

Within five years, he was an offensive assistant with the Patriots, where he slowly worked up Bill Belichick’s coaching tree. By 2012, he was the team’s defensive coordinator.

So why do the Lions want Patricia?

Patricia has a tie to the Lions organization: General manager Bob Quinn worked with Patricia in New England. First Quinn was a scout, then the team’s assistant director of pro personnel, and then the director of pro scouting until he left to take over in the Lions front office in 2016.

But Patricia’s success with the New England defense also caught the eye of the Lions, who have finished with a top-10 scoring defense just once in the last 17 years. In six seasons as the Patriots’ defensive coordinator, Patricia’s units never finished outside the top 10 in points allowed. The Pats used that success to advance to six straight AFC title games and win two of the greatest Super Bowls ever played.

His plug-and-play defense has managed to turn undrafted prospects into stars and continue a franchise tradition of turning other teams’ unwanted players into standouts. Malcolm Butler went from Division II starter to Super Bowl hero and All-Pro cornerback under his guidance. Veterans like Kyle Van Noy, Shea McClellin, Rob Ninkovich, and Akeem Ayers all revived their careers after landing in Foxborough.

But 2017 wasn’t all rosy for Patricia. Despite clamping down hard in the red zone and keeping teams from scoring with well-timed turnovers and tackles for loss, the Patriots still gave up more yards than all but three teams this season. Playoff teams like the Chiefs, Steelers, Panthers, and Saints all rolled up 400+ yards against New England.

Still, the Patriots finished 13-3 and made it all the way to the Super Bowl — which they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles — for a second consecutive season. They gave up an average of 366 yards per game, good for 29th in the league. But it doesn’t matter how many yards an opponent racks up if the Patriots didn’t let them score. The Patriots’ 18.5 points allowed per game placed them fifth in the NFL this season.

What can Patricia do with the Lions?

Patricia will bring his defensive chops to a Lions team that’s won at least seven games in each of the last five seasons. The Detroit passing game has been in good hands over that span thanks to Matthew Stafford’s mostly overlooked mastery. The big-armed quarterback had a typically above-average season in 2017, guiding Golden Tate and Marvin Jones to 1,000-yard seasons.

But Stafford is in serious need of some ground support. The Lions haven’t had a single tailback gain more than 600 rushing yards since 2014, and the Ameer Abdullah/Theo Riddick combination gained just 3.4 yards per carry last fall. Patricia will have to find a capable replacement for that subpar performance — either in free agency or in the draft.

Defensively, he’ll have to fill out the frame of a solid defense with playmakers — especially ones who can neutralize the Packers’ and Vikings’ potent offensive attacks in the NFC North.

It’s been four years since Ndamukong Suh was leading one of the league’s most ferocious defenses. That 2014 unit finished No. 2 in the NFL, while this year’s defense ranked just 27th. Still, Detroit has some interesting pieces with which Patricia can work.

One of his first major decisions will be whether to pay defensive end Ziggy Ansah the massive contract he’s in line for this offseason. After recording 12 sacks in just 14 games this season, the 28-year-old will be in high demand as a free agent and could end up signing something close to the five-year, $82.5 million deal Chandler Jones signed in 2017. That’ll be pricey, but the Lions have more than $50 million in cap space this offseason.

That roster also includes All-Pro cornerback Darius Slay, rising middle linebacker Jarrad Davis, and space-clogging defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson. While the Detroit defense underwhelmed in 2017, the foundation for a solid unit is there — it just needs some help to develop.

What does this mean for the Patriots?

It’s an unsurprising loss for New England; Patricia had been a top candidate to leave in 2017, and his work stabilizing a briefly atrocious Patriots defense this fall only served to bolster his resume. After giving up 32 points per game in a 2-2 start, the club allowed a league-low 14 in the 11-1 finish that followed.

Bill Belichick isn’t one to be caught off guard by anything. But replacing both Patricia and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels this offseason, as the team is expected to have to do, won’t be easy.

Can Patricia succeed without Belichick’s guidance?

The track record for Patriots assistants as head coaches hasn’t been stellar — the best of the group is Bill O’Brien, who went 4-12 with an injury-devastated Texans team in 2017. Now, the Lions are betting Patricia can break that trend.

He’ll have every chance to succeed and develop into a top-level head coach in Detroit. However, we won’t know if Lions fans have truly accepted him until he gets his own doppelganger.