Getty Matt Patricia before a game in Atlanta.
The Detroit Lions have never had a former head coach land the same role again, but Matt Patricia is about to begin the long road to trying.
After getting fired by the Lions in November on the heels of a miserable 2020 season, Patricia kept a low profile for the last few months. Now, he’s set to resurface with the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick with a whole new role.
Patricia will join the Patriots as an assistant to help the coaching staff in a variety of roles, Evan Rothstein, who had been with the Lions during their last few regimes and famously got to call plays thanks to COVID-19 is also joining Patricia in coming to the Patriots. The story was broken by Jim McBride of the Boston Globe.
The #Patriots are bringing back Matt Patricia, per @globejimmcbride. He will assist the team’s coaching staff in a variety of roles. But the former #Lions HC is back with Bill Belichick.
When last he left the Patriots, Patricia was being hyped as the team’s brilliant defensive mind on his way to Detroit to team up with Bob Quinn. Obviously, things never worked out for the sides in the Motor City, so now Patricia will retreat back home to New England and try to refocus his career.
It’s tough to ignore what a demotion Patricia is getting, though. He won’t be the defensive coordinator since Jerod Mayo is doing that, nor will he be calling plays of any kind on the field during the game.
Bill Belichick Often Brings Back Former Assistants
If this news is not surprising to either Lions or Patriots fans. it’s because both sides likely saw this coming. No matter the struggles that Patricia had, he was always likely to be accepted back at home by Belichick. Former Patriots coaches and players tend to have a tight brotherhood with each other, and once again, Belichick proved that with this move.
In Detroit, Patricia often hired former Patriots coaches as well as brought in players, so this is just another example of that playing out again.
Matt Patricia’s Lions Tenure
Patricia came to the Lions fresh off success in New England in 2018, and struggled out of the gate to capture the attention of the locker room. Those struggles never subsided in 2019 or 2020, and the coach was run out of town in embarrassing fashion after a total fail with the team.
Early in his career in Detroit, Patricia has helped the Lions stay in games for the most part but never helped get the team over the hump at closing. That’s perhaps his biggest wart so far as a boss, combined with a lousy defense that has not picked up the program whatsoever. Patricia’s program was defined by disorder within the team, a fact that frustrated many fans as well as the organization.
Both Patricia and Quinn got a mulligan on 2019 considering the rash of injuries that set the team back, and 2020 always seemed to be the make or break year. Things broke. The duo was fired in November, with Patricia maintaining an ugly 13-29-1 mark with the Lions over three failed seasons.
Now, Patricia will try and rehabilitate his career back where it all began after a rough go of it in Detroit.
READ NEXT: Dan Campbell Reveals Awesome Meaning Behind Kneecap Rant