The Lions have plenty to focus on heading into today’s big game against the Green Bay Packers which will ultimately decide the winner of the NFC North. Not only though will it decide the NFC North but it could also determine a spot in the playoffs for either team which other than the game itself has Lions GM Bob Quinn re-examining who he wants head coaching his team should Detroit crash and burn.
According to CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora, Quinn and the Lions’ front office are going to potentially look into possibly hiring one of two Patriots coordinators, Josh McDaniels or Matt Patricia this offseason. That is if Jim Caldwell fails to get his team into the postseason with a loss to the Packers and a Washington win over the Giants.
However, Quinn also has close ties to two of New England’s coveted coordinators from his time with the Patriots — Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia — and this offseason could prove to be his only real opportunity to land one of them (McDaniels will be the hottest coordinator for interviews as soon as the regular season ends).
Quinn hasn’t been shy about keeping those close ties to his former team so the hiring of McDaniels or Patricia definitely makes sense. This is certainly the case for a guy like McDaniels whose already gotten his feat wet head coaching an NFL team before and has garnered a reputation around the NFL as one of the better offensive minds in the game. Quinn may find this an ideal matchup for his team that already has an established quarterback who may be on the verge of elite status.
Despite the perceived rebuilding year for the Lions the team should still explore coaching changes this offseason even if the team were to back into the playoffs. Many of the problems that plagued the Lions at times this season were due to the ineffectiveness of Caldwell who displayed his coaching inadequacies last Monday by failing to make halftime adjustments against Dallas. Lets also not pretend that the NFC North is some juggernaut division that puts the Lions through the gauntlet, Aaron Rodgers and the Pack are hot now but a few weeks ago there were some real questions as to whether or not Green Bay would even be in this position this week.
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