Can the current Detroit Lions regime win fans back?

It’s Week 15 in the NFL, but Detroit Lions fans have checked out long before that. The team’s playoff hopes were officially dashed on Thanksgiving, but they had been on life support for weeks prior to that. At this point, we’re all just waiting at the bedside of the Detroit Lions’ 2019 season waiting for it to pass on to the great beyond.

But instead of a peaceful setting, there is rage abound. Head coach Matt Patricia continues to be under fire for his methods both on the field and inside the locker room. Most importantly, the losses just continue to pile up. In what was supposed to be easy part of the schedule, the Lions look just as hopeless as they have since that fateful night in Green Bay. And Lions fans look just as lifeless.

The question now is whether Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn can resuscitate the Lions franchise.

It’s hard to imagine anything that Patricia or Quinn could do in the offseason to really drum up any faith in the duo. At this point, it’s clear the large majority of fans are skeptical of the way they are running things, and the only thing that will likely change their mind is results. Draft picks and free agent signings will undoubtedly provide a bump, but it’s hard to imagine that the Lions will enter 2020 with the same amount of optimism that fans had at the beginning of this year.

We’ve seen “successful” drafts fail and free agent “splashes” turn out to be duds. At this point—if Quinn and Patricia are even around next year—the only way they are going to save a fanbase that is quickly ready to move on is to win. Simple as that.