After two blowout losses, including a 41-25 blowout loss to the middling Texans, which saw their once glimmering playoff hopes all but disappear, the Detroit Lions announced large-scale organizational changes as they fired both head coach Matt Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn on Saturday.
The Lions, who deposited their trust and hopes in the duo after hiring Quinn in 2016 and Patricia in 2018, saw the team continue to struggle and fail to make the playoffs in all but the first season under Quinn.
Patricia, who was hired after Jim Caldwell got the axe after a disappointing 2017 for the franchise, failed to make any significant progress and accumulated just a 13-29-1 record at the helm of the team.
Despite the team’s #6 seed and Wild Card playoff berth in his inaugural season as the team’s GM, Quinn was unable to build any sort of long-term success and saw his hand-picked replacement for Caldwell finish with a losing record in each season as the team’s new coach.
The Lions’ 4-7 record in 2020 was unacceptable and showed that things continued to go the wrong direction, according to team owner Sheila Ford Hamp.
“It just clearly wasn’t working, and it wasn’t what we had hoped for when we hired them.”
The Lions have named offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell the team’s interim head coach, while a group of front office executives including Kyle O’Brien, Mike Disner, Rob Lohman and Lance Newmark will handle general manager duties for the rest of the season.
