Friday open thread: Did the Lions give other coaching candidates a fair shot?

Even before the Detroit Lions fired head coach Jim Caldwell, Matt Patricia was already rumored to be on their radar. Though the Lions had to wait until Patricia was officially done with his playoff run with the Patriots, Detroit eventually got the man it was clear was their number one choice.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. If you think someone is going to be a good coach, you waste no time and you get them. And not many people would know Patricia better than general manager, and co-worker for 12 years, Bob Quinn.

But I’ve seen several accuse Quinn of cronyism, suggesting that Quinn gave Patricia the job simply because they’re friends, and implying that the five other interviews were just for show. So today’s Question of the Day is:

Do you think the Detroit Lions gave the other head coaching candidates a fair shot?

My answer: It’s hard to say. The Lions seemingly did their due diligence, interviewing five other candidates and reaching out to at least one other. However, despite having an abundance of time waiting for Patricia’s availability, they didn’t bring a single one back for a second interview.

But there is one important part of the interview process that sticks out to me, as revealed by Bob Quinn. When interviewing Patricia for the job, Quinn made sure to leave the room and allow team president Rod Wood to have some one-on-one time.

“I felt that was necessary cause I’ve known Matt for so long,” Quinn told the Detroit Free Press. “And as Rod, being the representative of ownership during these interviews, I thought that was really important to, ‘OK, Rod, we’re going to start it, we’re going to go through most of our questions, then I’m going to go take a walk.’”

This shows that Quinn was at least cognizant of his own biases towards Patricia. It may not have changed his decision in the end, but it shows that Quinn was at least interested in making sure he was getting the right guy.

So in the end, I do think Patricia had a much better chance to win the job than his fellow colleagues, but at the same time, I think he still had to work for the opportunity.