Ha! See what I did there? Classic. As most know, the Lions found their OC of the future yesterday in Darrell Bevell, which stole the thunder from an original Lions blog idea I had, but the good news is now I can combine the two together! You’re welcome. Before I delve into Bevell (air high-five to myself!), I want to walk things back a bit and cover how we even got here. You guys remember Jim Bob Cooter right? Ol’ JBC. Before him it was Joe Lombardi (best known for his USAA commercials). I remember when Joe L took over Jim Caldwell’s offense and it was abysmal. Nothing could get going. Flash forward a year later and Lombardi is fired and JBC came in and took over. Highly regarded by Stafford. His impact was almost immediate, the offense just seemed to click so much more and big play after big play came rolling in. JBC was looked at like a savior of sorts as Matt Stafford cemented himself in the Lion’s and NFL record book for passing yards. Years went by and the offense never seemed to be a glaring issue. So….WTF Happened? 2018 comes along and a new HC is hired in Matt Patricia. Cool. Whatever. He’s a defensive mind and JBC is still employed, so the offense should still at least be par for the course right? Wrong. The offense, outside of Kerryon Johnson, wasn’t stagnant this year, it regressed. Oh, and that record setting QB we have in Stafford? He’s never looked worse. He looked better his rookie year. Happy feet, inaccurate, POOR decisions, I’m talking POOR decisions in critical spots. It was a pattern of areas that Stafford had excelled with during previous seasons but clearly regressed during this past season. By all accounts, the Lions went out and tried to improve their OL. They brought in a bona-fide stud in Kerryon, and the receivers were the same as last year. Yet their output was one of their worst with Stafford at the helm. I’m puzzled. So if I’m Matt Patricia, yeah, I probably fire my OC and bring in my own guy. I get it, but also I don’t know how the offense fell off so fast and so hard. Especially when they had a consistent 100 yard rushing threat in KJ. Something Stafford never had. I digress, I get the firing...but the hiring on the other hand….ehhhhhhh I don’t love that either. So let’s look at some of the details of Mr. Darrell Bevell. PRO: His offense has ranked in the top 10 in offensive efficiency 5x, including 4 out of the last 6 years he was an OC CON: After 4 straight years in the top ten, he finished his last two 16th & 14th PRO: He’s best known for his ground game prowess, so bodes well for Kerryon CON: He’s best known for his power ground game and Kerryon hasn’t been able to avoid the injury bug, in the pros nor college PRO: He’s been a part of a Super bowl winning staff CON:
CON: He had his play calling duties stripped from him CON: He’s been out of work for a year CON: He’s been out of work for a year and it’s because no one has interviewed him CON: The Lions are the only team to interview him (don’t fact check that, I found it on the internet) Not exactly a glowing review. I’m not ready to give up on Stafford yet so I’ll say this past year was his mulligan. So bringing in a run-oriented guy that is also supposed to knock Stafford out of his funk...well...well I just don’t have a lot of confidence in that. Expect Kerryon to blow up those fantasy stats though for the first 6 games before he gets dinged up and misses 6 of the next ten games. Of course you can’t count out the fact that Patricia could be a genius and this all works perfectly, but until then, I’ll side with history. Sadly. Deal with it.
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