Getty Dabo Swinney gestures during Clemson vs. Notre Dame in 2020.
The Detroit Lions have plenty of avenues to take when they target new leadership for the future, but quite possibly one of the most important things they should look to do is establish a new culture.
Former NFL executive Michael Lombardi was recently asked about what went wrong for Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn on VSIN, and as he said, he believed the duo’s inability to establish a positive culture had everything to do with their demise. As a result, Lombardi thinks Detroit should eventually be targeting names like Matt Campbell from Iowa State and Dabo Swinney from Clemson given what they’ve done to build programs.
“He tried to be Bill Belichick and no one, and underline the word NO ONE, can be Bill Belichick.”
@mlombardinfl discusses the firings from #OnePride. Will Matt Patricia land another head coaching job next year? @MitchMossRadio and @paulyhoward don’t think so. #FollowTheMoney
Lombardi said:
“I think the number one thing I’d do in Detroit, they’ve never had a real organization. This is a team that’s in constant search of a coach and constant search of a GM and never in search of a culture. They don’t know they don’t know. They really don’t. They think it’s all about hiring one magical person. And yet it’s about building a culture. If I was the president of the Lions, I would hire a general manager and a coach to simultaneously build the culture. I would look to a college coach, whether it be Matt Campbell, whether it be Dabo Swinney. I would look to a college coach to come in and build the culture around something that was positive. Because look, following Matt Patricia isn’t going to be a hard thing to do. Matt Patricia took over a team that was 36-30 under Jim Caldwell and he ruined it to a 13-29 team because he said there were no players there and Bob Quinn the general manager allowed him to do it. If I took over that team, it would be all about culture.”
As Lombardi also said, the reason he’d target a college coach is a team like the Lions needs someone to treat the team like a program and bring that mentality into focus. Considering all that’s gone wrong in Detroit, it’s tough to disagree with that assessment at all.
The Lions have not hired a college coach since Darryl Rogers left Arizona State to join the team in 1985, and that experiment backfired in a big way when Rogers went 18-40 in his career, a mark not that unlike Matt Patricia’s with the Lions. Perhaps over 30 years later, it’s time to try again, however. Lombardi clearly thinks that’s the case.
Dabo Swinney Career Profile
Other than Nick Saban, there’s been no more successful coach in college lately than Swinney at Clemson. He’s won a pair of National Championships with Clemson and has a very gaudy 138-32 record coaching in the ACC. Swinney has maintained he is happy in college and doesn’t want to leave the Tigers’ program, but if NFL money and power came calling in a serious way, it would be interesting to see what he would do. More recently, Swinney has left the door open for a new career in the NFL should the right opportunity present itself. Depending on who takes over as general manager and their plan for the team, this could be something to watch. He’d obviously be the top college call to make.
College Coaches Making Successful NFL Jumps
Recently, there’s been an increase in college coaches successfully transitioning to the NFL. The best example lately is Matt Rhule coming to Carolina and instituting a program successfully. He was able to successfully transition Joe Brady to offensive coordinator quite well and institute a culture with a team that has struggled to have one coming off losing Cam Newton and Ron Rivera. Kliff Kingsbury has come to the NFL and immediately turned around the Arizona Cardinals after managing to struggle in his job at Texas Tech. In both instances, the culture argument can perfectly explain why the coaches are having success. From day one, they had an immediate plan and have worked hard to institute it.
Whether it be Campbell, Swinney or someone else, the Lions would be smart to at least put feelers out to some of the top collegiate names in the game for the reason Lombardi says. At this point, the Lions should be open to anything that could get them over the hump and pushing toward greater consistency on the field.
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