The NFL’s Detroit Lions fired head coach Matt Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn, announcing in a tweet Saturday that both were “relieved of their duties.”
“They’re both very fine men and we wish them nothing but the best in the rest of their careers,” Detroit Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp said in a video press conference. “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.”
Hamp added that Lions ownership was considering the terminations for weeks but the past few games “had a lot to do with it.”
The firing came two days after the Lions lost to the Houston Texans on Thanksgiving Day 41-25, which dropped the Lions record to 4-7 on the season.
Darrell Bevell will serve as the Lions’ interim coach for the final five games of the season, Hamp said.
Matt Patricia after the Lions lost 20-0 to the Carolina Panthers on November 22 in Charlotte, Carolina del Norte.
Patricia led the Lions to a 13-29-1 record since taking over in 2018. He joined the team after serving as the New England Patriots defensive coordinator for six years.
Since Patricia’s hiring, the Lions fell to the bottom 10 ranking in scoring, total and pass defense, according to the NFL. He has the worst career win percentage “by any coach whose teams averaged 21-plus points per game in the Super Bowl era (minimum 40 games coached),” the NFL reported.
Quinn joined the Lions as the general manager in 2016. The Lions had a 31-43-1 record during his tenure as general manager.
The team’s last playoff appearance was in 2016.
Hamp said the Lions will do an “extremely thorough and comprehensive search” for who will fill in the two positions, but nothing has been decided.
