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Lions to keep head coach Matt Patricia, GM Bob Quinn for 2020

Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia joked with reporters on Monday that “they’re going to have to throw me out” if he was to get fired.

It hasn’t come to that ... yet.

Lions owner Martha Firestone Ford told reporters on Tuesday that both Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn are being retained for the 2020 season.

Until Ford said that, the fates of both men were up in the air, and for good reason. The Lions are a dismal 3-10-1 this season, which is decidedly worse than the still-not-great 6-10 they were in 2018. A 9-20-1 record is not what the Lions had been planning on when they hired Patricia back in February 2018, especially since he was brought on to help the Lions capitalize on two straight 9-7 seasons.

Instead, the Lions have gotten progressively worse. Patricia spent 12 years coaching under the tutelage of Bill Belichick, and when you’re picked from the vaunted Belichick coaching tree, expectations are high. At the very least, Patricia was expected to maintain the team’s progress, and he hasn’t done that.

Now the heat is on for Patricia and Quinn. When Ford met with reporters Tuesday, she made her expectations crystal clear.

“We expect to be a playoff contender [next year]," Ford said, via mlive.com. "Those are our expectations, which we’ve expressed to both Bob and to Matt.”

The Lions aren’t throwing Patricia out yet, but unless there’s improvement, that scenario could be in his future.

Despite a dismal record since he was hired in 2018, Matt Patricia gets to keep being head coach of the Lions for another year. (Photo by Amy Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Despite a dismal record since he was hired in 2018, Matt Patricia gets to keep being head coach of the Lions for another year. (Photo by Amy Lemus/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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