Spielman patient on Quinn, Patricia
Chris Spielman knows something about patience.
He won just one playoff game in eight seasons as a decorated linebacker while playing for the Lions from 1988 to 1995.
The Fox NFL television analyst was preaching patience again Sunday in Minnesota, where he said during the Lions’ 20-7 loss to the Vikings — the team’s sixth straight that dropped them to 3-9-1 — that general manager Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia should be brought back next season for a third year together.
“Do you think they are trending in the right direction,” play-by-play announcer Thom Brennaman asked Spielman in the fourth quarter. “I don’t necessarily mean wins and losses, but they’re moving as a franchise in the right way?”
“Well,” Spielman said, “I think the Lions as an organization made a decision to rebuild. It’s like renovating the house. Sometimes you’ve got to tear it down to the studs. They’re changing what type of team they are and it’s my opinion that you have to be a little bit patient with that. I have numbers to back that up.
“And you have to let these guys to do it. I think there needs to be substantial improvement but they need another year to get that done.”
Quinn took over as GM in 2016 and retained Jim Caldwell, but fired him after he posted consecutive 9-7 seasons with one playoff appearance. He hired Patricia, his old cohort with the New England Patriots in 2018, when the Lions went 6-10. They are 9-19-1 under Quinn and Patricia and were eliminated from the playoffs after a Thanksgiving Day loss to the Chicago Bears.
The “numbers” Spielman cited came from the San Francisco 49ers, who are 11-2 in their third season with general manger John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan.
“And while I’m talking,” he said, “OK, two years and there’s a lot of people: ‘Get rid of Quinn, get rid of Patricia.’ I don’t think that makes sense.
“I make an argument for patience because you look at John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. Their first year together is 6-10, 2018 they’re 4-12. This year they’re (11-2) because they built the type of team that they wanted to build. And so I do think at the very least that Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia can continue this on and see where they go next year, with substantial improvement.”
Brennaman asked Spielman to explain what he meant by improvement.
“Not be out of the playoff hunt in Week 14 next year,” he said. “You’re still in the playoff hunt. It’s a tough division, but with a healthy team and a healthy Matthew Stafford I believe they can maybe get there. They’ve got to improve on the defensive side of the ball. That’s been the most disappointing thing this year.”
Spielman did not respond to an interview request Monday from the Free Press.
Spielman is correct about the 49ers’ example and there is other recent precedent of a GM-coach tandem finding success in its third season. The Buffalo Bills are 9-4 and closing in on a playoff seed in their third season under GM Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott. They made the playoffs in 2017 at 9-7 but went 6-10 last season.
There are other examples of teams that took much longer to find success and some that never did after a GM-coach tandem that gota third year together.
The Dallas Cowboys won two Super Bowls under Tom Landry. But as an expansion team in 1960, the Cowboys didn’t post a winning record in their first give seasons under Landry and GM Tex Schramm.
Then there’s the Lions’ own recent example that closely mirrors the current regime. Matt Millen was named GM in 2001, hired Marty Mornhinweg and fired him after five wins in two seasons. Then he hired his friend, Steve Mariucci, who won 11 games in his first two seasons and was fired 11 games into his third season with a 4-7 record.
Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.