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Detroit Lions' Matt Patricia: 5 important things said at NFL meetings

Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia met with reporters for an hour on Tuesday morning over breakfast as the NFL's annual meeting.
Credit: Darron Cummings, AP
Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia speaks during a press conference at the NFL combine Feb. 28, 2018 in Indianapolis.

Detroit Lions coach Matt Patricia met with reporters for an hour on Tuesday morning over breakfast as the NFL's annual meeting. Here are the highlights from his session:

Pasqualoni calling plays

Though Patricia comes with a strong defensive background, having been the New England Patriots' defensive coordinator the last six seasons, he said Paul Pasqualoni will call defensive plays for the Lions this season.

"Coach Pasqualoni will be calling the defense and will be running it from that standpoint," Patricia said. "I think it’ll always be very difficult for me not to gravitate towards defense in general, probably the linebackers in particular. That’s just kind of, that’s your comfort zone, that’s where you tend to go. Probably drive the position coaches a little bit crazy more than not. But again, I’m excited to kind of be involved in all facets."

Let's keep this in perspective here: This will be Matt Patricia's defense. He'll take a lead role in designing it and building the game plan every week, and he reiterated Tuesday that he'll call plays – on offense, defense and special teams – whenever he has a play that he wants.

Nov 27, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Chicago Bears defensive line coach Paul Pasqualoni against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field. (Photo: Andrew Weber, Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports)

But on an every-down basis, it will be Pasqualoni relaying the signals to Jarrad Davis or whoever the Lions designate as their green dot on game day.

Pasqualoni, 68, has been an NFL defensive coordinator twice before, with the Miami Dolphins in 2008-09 and the Dallas Cowboys in 2010, and he worked for Bill Parcells (the coaching tree that, by extension, Patricia comes from) both in Miami and Dallas. There's an undeniable level of trust between the two.

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"The good thing about Coach Pasqualoni, obviously I worked for him for a time at Syracuse but then when he left Syracuse he worked in a very familiar system working for Coach Parcells, and the avenue he took was very similar from a fundamental standpoint so there’s a lot of things that we already just have a common ground from that standpoint," Patricia said. "There might be some scheme questions of things that I’ve done in the past that he’ll ask or we’ll have to go over, but from that standpoint I’m real confident in just I hired him to do that."

The biggest need? TE

"I would say right now if we had to go line up and play, we’re probably short maybe at the tight end position," Patricia said. "Try to get another body in there if we can from a free agency standpoint. But the good part is the draft’s coming. We’re still working through free agency. There’s still a lot of really good players out there that we’ll take a look at and try to inquire about. I think you’re continually building your roster, you’re continually trying to improve it the best that you can and that’s what’s most important."

While some may ask, why release Eric Ebron if the tight end position is such a big need? (Money, Bob Quinn said Monday, is the answer.) I view this more as the Lions' uncertainty about whether they can trust Michael Roberts at this point.

The Lions currently have four tight ends on their roster: Roberts, who played in 15 games as a blocking tight end last year but was suspended for the season finale; Luke Willson, who they added in free agency; and unproven young players Hakeem Valles and Brandon Barnes.

The Lions have brought a handful of other tight ends in on free-agent visits, and one veteran who remains a possibility to sign is Levine Toilolo. So far, the Lions have made only minimum salary-type offers to several potential signings. It's possible they wait to see if they add to the position in the draft, as I've reported they've told at least one veteran they plan to do, though with just six picks it's best not to rely on that strategy completely.

Lions like their pass rush

For those who worry about the Lions' depth at pass rusher (myself included), Patricia didn't sound overly concerned about that being an issue.

“We’ll see once we get into," Patricia said. "I’m excited about the guys we got. There’s different types of pass rush. There’s edge pass rush, inside pass rush. There’s schemed-up pass rush. There’s certainly, it’s more than just the defensive line. There’s guys that can come off the edge, whether it’s secondary players, linebackers through the middle, whatever the case may be. I think we have a wide variety of ways to be able to hopefully generate pass rush and we’ll find out when we get out there."

That sounds like a vote of confidence by Patricia in his ability to out-coach his opponents and use his players in a variety of ways.

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For the record, the Lions count Ziggy Ansah, Kerry Hyder, Anthony Zettel and Cornelius Washington as their top defensive ends, A'Shawn Robinson and Akeem Spence as their best interior rushers (in base looks; certainly any of the ends can slide inside in sub packages), and they signed Devon Kennard in free agency to add a bigger pass-rushing element to the linebacking corps.

Incidentally, Ansah has not yet signed his franchise tender and is currently in his native Ghana with no immediate plans to sign. He is not, however, expected to drag his situation out until August, like Cliff Avril – the last Lion to get the franchise tag – did six years ago.

Relationship advice

Patricia said he's thought "a lot and have for a long time" about the message that he wants to convey to players when he gets in front of them for the first time next month.

He said he wants them to know they need to be a smart, tough, fundamentally-sound football team. But he also talked about the personal connection he hopes to strike with players, something many of his former players have talked at length about.

"I think it’s just going to be who I am and what the team should be," Patricia said. "I think it’s important for them to understand who I am as a person and how I feel about this game, how passionate I am about this game, how much I believe in the relationship part of this game and this is family. So that’ll hopefully all be conveyed through my conversation with them the first chance I get to talk to them."

The Lions report for voluntary workouts on April 9, and they have their first minicamp – more of a teaching clinic than real football practice, Patricia said – the week of the draft.

Dad knows best

Matt Patricia, left, and Bill Belichick celebrate the Patriots' win over the Colts in the 2015 AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium on Jan. 18, 2015 in Foxboro, Mass. (Photo: Jim Rogash, Getty Images)

Kind of along those lines, Patricia was asked if there's a message he's heard from someone in his past that he'd like to convey to players. Naturally, Patricia mentioned Bill Belichick, his former boss with the Patriots. But he also mentioned his father, an old wrestling coach and mechanical drawing teacher in central New York.

"My dad was really great at taking I would say sometimes some of the guys that were just, the kids in school that maybe were pushed into his classroom that maybe some other teachers didn’t want to deal with and they always had a clean slate," Patricia said. "They always were allowed to come in and just work and he helped them and taught them and gave them just as much attention as everybody else and I just always admired that from him."

So what does that mean for the Lions and perhaps their willingness to take on draft prospects that have a less-than-perfect past? Well, don't expect them to all of a sudden be scouring the county jail for back-end roster upgrades, but perhaps the Lions will be more apt to draft a player with trouble in his background.

"Obviously depending on the degree in issues, but let’s just say just in general, I think it’s important to work with all those guys," Patricia said. "We’ll go through the process and if we feel that there’s someone that would be good for us and a good fit for our organization and what we need, than that’s my job as a coach is to go in and do everything I can to try to make them the best player they can be or the best people they can be.

"I really look at it as we’re educators, we’re trying to teach these guys. And one of the reasons I left engineering and got into coaching was for that reason, to be able to have that human element of trying to make a difference in people’s lives. Really trying to make sure that I was doing everything, and whether I did or I didn’t, I wanted to be there for them in case there was something they needed. And I think that’s really important. probably could use a little bit more of that in general."

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!

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