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The Detroit Lions are looking for a new defensive coordinator, and the first name to surface in their search is unsurprisingly one with ties to the New England Patriots.
Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports revealed that the Lions would talk to Patriots’ assistant Bret Bielema about the job. Bielema worked this season with the team after spending some time away following his run in college.
Later, however, Bielema was revealed by La Canfora to not be looking at the job. It was a quick reversal of fortune for a key name that many expected to be in the mix for the job once Paul Pasqualoni walked away from the Motor City last week.
Regardless of who is a candidate or who might be in the mix for the job, it’s not a surprise to see Patriots assistants on the list. Obviously, the ties between the Lions and New England run deep.
In addition to Bielema, another name that could be in the mix includes Jerod Mayo, the team’s linebacker coach. Patricia has ties to Mayo having coached him before.
Bret Bielema History
If the Lions were to take a closer look at Bielema eventually, it would make sense given his ability to run a solid defense. After playing for Iowa, Bielema went into coaching college and landed as the defensive coordinator for Kansas State. After that, he took the job with Wisconsin where he won 3 Big Ten titles before moving on to Arkansas for their head coaching gig. While there, Bielema didn’t enjoy the success he saw with the Badgers, getting fired in 2017.
In 2018, Bielema joined the Patriots staff as a defensive line coach for the team. During his tenure in New England, the Patriots line played well and developed several difference makers en-route to a very solid defensive season.
Bielema has never been a defensive coordinator in the NFL nor worked in the league for any long length of time, so it’s possible the team wants to target someone who has a bit more experience on their side for the gig. Some bigger names could be expected to emerge in the coming days.
Lions Defense Terrible in 2019
The shakeup is significant. Detroit had nearly the worst defense in the league by most metrics in 2019. As a whole, the Lions allowed too much yardage, giving up 6,406 yards on the year. As was pointed out, to put up numbers like that, it means the team has been giving up over 400 yards of offense a game.
Additionally, Detroit’s pass defense bottomed out as a league-worst outfit in 2019. The team allowed nearly 300 yards a game through the air, which is a miserable total.
Certainly, injuries helped complicate matters for Detroit’s defense, but that’s not an acceptable excuse for such awful numbers. Expectations were high for the Lions in 2019 given how they finished the season, and now, the team will have some major reconstructing to do in order to remedy this situation for the future. It starts at defensive coordinator.
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