When Matt Patricia was hired as head coach of the Detroit Lions was that he would help the team take the team further than previous head coach Jim Caldwell had managed to do.
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But instead of leading the Lions to playoff victories, Patricia came in with an iron fist and many players on the team rebelled against him. According to some players, Patricia was degrading to them and overworked them.
In fact, in a piece recently published in Bleacher Report, one former player said a group of players celebrated the end of Patricia’s first season by drinking mimosas in the locker room.
But according to various reports, Patricia has done his best to change his coaching style and how he relates to his players. Two players who believe the team is finally buying into what Patricia is trying to do are Taylor Decker and Matt Prater.
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Decker said Patirica has worked a lot on forming relationships with his players.
“He has done a really good job of evolving those relationships with players,” Decker says. “He is taking a lot of input and allowing us to take ownership more and more and more.
“We still condition after practice, and we still practice hard. But that’s our normal; that’s what we are used to now.”
“He is going to tell the hard truth 100 percent, and he is not going to sugarcoat things,” Decker says. “We are all big boys and can hear the truth.
“Do I think he has done a much better job of how he relays the information from year one to now? 100 percent. I think that is a testament to having conversations with players and asking, ‘What is your input?'”
Decker added that the pandemic and the social justice movement allowed for Patricia and Lions’ players to bond.
Prater noted that though Patricia is still demanding, it is not too much.
“It could be aggressive, but it’s just his coaching style,” Prater says. “He has definitely changed. I haven’t seen anything like that in a long time. He is demanding, but I don’t think it is too much.”
