FanPost

Fear And Loathing in Allen Park

This is my nightmare come true. Like most others, I believed it was time to change coaches. I liked Jim Caldwell in many ways, but he seemed unable to take the next step beyond being a mediocre team. The problem is that when you already have a coach that is performing a bit above average, in the big scheme of the NFL, the odds are better that you will take a step backward rather than forward. At some point the people who kept preaching that you needed to "roll the dice" wore me down and I accepted that it had to be done.

The problem is that during the entire process of terminating Jim Caldwell and hiring Matt Patricia, I had this uneasy feeling about the process and how it would turn out. I kept telling myself to trust in Bob Quinn and let him bring in his team. Now, my trust has been shattered and my worst fears seem to be all too real. Not only does this team appear to have taken a huge step backward, it may take years to repair.

Now, I hope that people see what I was preaching for so long when I argued to keep Caldwell. Rolling the dice is not a valid strategy and it often turns out far worse that you might think. Every coaching change results in changes in personnel in order to get players that can play the new systems. For all of the talk about Matt Patricia being able to alters scheme to accommodate personnel, I do not see much of that so far. If clearly looks like there will be a rebuilding period.

The main problem that I have with that is the entire rationale to fire Jim Caldwell was based on the idea that a 9-7 record and missing the playoffs was underachieving for this roster. Let's just say I don't buy that. I believe the roster for 2017 accomplished nearly what it should have, given the personnel. It was not Jim Caldwell that refused to sign a short yardage back which helped lose to Pittsburgh. The Lions were about as close to a playoff berth as you can get. Literally, about one foot short in the game against Atlanta. This team looks much much farther away from competing than that.

So, the "win now" mantra seems to be out the window now that hiring buddies is more important than being competent. I am afraid that this Lions front office and coaching staff is more about living a fantasy than any form of reality. Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia were probably planning this for years. The problem is that if wishes were fishes you would likely starve. They rarely turn out the way you envision.

So, where are we now? I cannot say definitely that Matt Patricia and Bob Quinn are going to be abject failures. I pray to God they aren't. if it ends up the way the initial indicators point then we probably have just wasted Matthew Stafford's entire career. It may likely take years to recover from this and that is why you don't just roll the dice when you have a respectable and competitive team. it is much more likely we could have fixed the issues with the Caldwell staff than we can fix the issues with this one. So, now we will give them a couple of seasons in order to see if they can turn it around. They another staff will come in and we will roll the dice again.

Sounds a lot like what happened when we dumped Wayne Fontes. I seem to remember discussing this before Caldwell was fired.

In fairness, Patricia and Quinn may turn this around. I don't think so, but it is possible. So, I am not really saying "I told you so", yet. All I am saying is this is what I feared when we discussed it before, and it sure looks like my worst fears have come true. That is not "I told you so" as much as it is saying I really hope I will be wrong when the smoke clears. For now, I am really afraid that I may end up being right.

I will try to post a couple of other pieces about what I think is wrong and what needs to be fixed.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pride Of Detroit or its writers.