The Lions can’t hire Matt Patricia this week, but they can meet with him

The New England Patriots came back from a 20-10 fourth quarter deficit to advance to their third Super Bowl in the past four years.

Unfortunately for Detroit Lions fans, that means that defensive coordinator Matt Patricia is off-limits for another two weeks. The Lions are expected to hire Patricia as their next head coach, but they obviously can’t hire him until he has officially finished his time with the 2017 New England Patriots.

However, if the Lions want to further discuss things with Patricia, they are permitted to interview with him for a second time in the upcoming week. NFL rules allow teams to meet with coaches from teams involved in the Super Bowl, provided that it’s before the team flies to the site of the Super Bowl the week of the game.

Even though it seems like Patricia-to-Detroit is a done deal, it may be worth it for the Lions to bring him in this week. It gives them an opportunity to ensure Patricia is still locked in and a chance for both sides to start locking in plans for Patricia’s supporting staff. According to Jason La Canfora, the Lions are already deep into the process of hiring position coaches, but this would be another opportunity to gain ground there.

So while it’s frustrating that we have to wait another two weeks for Patricia to officially join the Lions, Detroit has a good opportunity to further plans with their next head coach this week. We’ll see if they take it.