The Detroit Lions have announced that they have chosen to terminate general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia. The announcement was made on Saturday via Twitter and simply said that both had been relieved from their duties with the organization.
While the Twitter post was kept simple, the Lions organization alluded to the contribution they made to the organization during a video conference for the press. In the video, team owner Sheila Ford Hamp stated:
“They’re both very fine men and we wish them nothing but the best in the rest of their careers. It was a hard decision, just because as I said they’re both terrific people and they’ve worked very hard and tirelessly for this organization, it just clearly wasn’t working. It wasn’t what we hoped for when we hired them.”
Terminations were put on hold
While the Lions ownership had made their decision to terminate Quinn and Patricia weeks earlier, the move was put on hold as the team had other issues to deal with over the course of the last few games. The terminations cam only days after Detroit its Thanksgiving Day game again the Houston Texans. The loss added Detroit’s dismal season, which now sits at 4-7 for the season.
While the Lion’s management begins searching for replacements to fill the vacancies created from their terminating Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia, they have assigned responsibilities for the interim to Darrell Bevell, who will act as head coach for the remaining five games for 2020.
Patricia, who joined the organization in 2018 after acting as the defensive coordinator for the New England Patriots for six seasons had a record of 13-29-1. After taking on the role of head coach, the Lions have fallen to the ten worse teams in the league based on total and pass defense and scoring. The NFL reported that Patricia has the worst record for win percentage in the league based on teams that average 21 points per game.
Bob Quinn took over the general manager responsibilities for Detroit in 2016 and under his leadership, saw the Lions record drop to 31-43-1. Furthermore, under Quinn’s leadership, the team has failed to make it to the playoffs. That has led team ownership undertaking a comprehensive and thorough search to find qualified replacements. At the time of the video press conference, no candidates were mentioned.
