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As if the NFL’s offseason hasn’t been tumultuous enough, Matt Patricia of the Detroit Lions continues to get shit on again and again by some of his former players, only adding to the dysfunction that’s been going on. We first saw Darius Slay claim the head coach belittled him during a meeting a couple years ago. Then a backup tight end named Garrett Hudson slammed Patricia for being the “worst person” he’s encountered in football. Finally, Glover Quin ripped the head coach, saying Patricia was “arrogant” while failing to build a culture.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse for Matt Patricia, yet another former Lions player stepped to the plate to accuse the head coach of being a bit of a rotten egg. Citing disagreements with the head coach, former defensive end Robert Ayers hinted that things with Patricia were so bad that it led the defender to retirement just one day after signing a deal with the Lions in 2018. Take a look at what Ayers told the Knoxville News Sentinel about his experience with Patricia.
“Let’s just say me and the head coach didn’t agree. There were some things he wanted me to do that I didn’t feel comfortable with. We just weren’t on the same page and it didn’t work out. He’s a tremendous coach, a brilliant mind, there’s a lot of things that was great about the Detroit Lions organization, but it was just something that we didn’t agree on.”
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“We can leave it at that,” he said. “I’m not going to get into specifics on what we didn’t agree on.”
Although Robert Ayers isn’t talking specifics about how his tenure with the Lions ended, Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press helped describe the scene back in 2018, with Lions GM Bob Quinn speaking on the issue.
“Ayers took part in one practice, declined interview requests in the locker room after the workout, and despite sending a few social media posts that indicated he was looking forward to playing in Detroit, was nowhere to be found the next day.
“Lions general manager Bob Quinn spent an extended portion of the next day’s practice on the phone, and after hanging up had a brief conversation with Patricia, who told reporters minutes before practice that he was anxious to see how Ayers fit his scheme.”
This is all fishy AF, and, while Ayers isn’t giving specifics about what happened, it’s clearly another black eye on the reputation of Matt Patricia, who has really been a pain in the ass ever since he arrived in Detroit, with veteran players criticizing his coaching style. Even worse, the team has gone just 9-22-1 in the two seasons with the head coach at the helm, with his lone memorable performance coming during a press conference when Patricia ripped a reporter for having bad posture. Uh, yeah, things in Detroit are really F’ed up.