Lions GM Bob Quinn Says Players '100 Percent Support' HC Matt Patricia

Despite comments from a number of former Detroit Lions players, general manager Bob Quinn sees no problems with head coach Matt Patricia from the current roster. 

Speaking to reporters, Quinn said the players are "100 percent behind" Patricia and the comments from others aren't indicative of any real issues:

"You can't make everybody happy in this business in terms of how you do certain things, but I can just say from the guys that we've signed in free agency, the guys that wanted to be here—a number of guys in our free agent class reached out to us. We obviously liked them as players, but in the weeks leading up to free agency, those guys had their agent call me and say, 'Hey, my guy wants to be there and play for Coach.'

So, you just have conversations with guys like Duron Harmon, who we traded for. I mean, I've never seen a player more excited to be traded—and we've done a lot of trades since I've been here—than Duron Harmon. I mean, he was like literally jumping out of my FaceTime wanting to come out here immediately. I have no concerns with that at all."

Former Lions cornerback Darius Slay, who was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles last month, told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press his relationship with Patricia was unsalvageable due to an incident during training camp in 2018:

"He told me in front of the whole team, in the team meeting room, showed clips of me in practice getting a ball caught on me or so in practice. I posted a picture (of a wide receiver on social media), and he told me, stop sucking this man's private. So I'm like, 'Whoa.' I'm like, 'Hold up.' Where I'm from, that don't fly. Cause I wouldn't say that to him. I wouldn't say to him to stop you know what to Bill Belichick. I wouldn't do that. That's just not me as a man. That's disrespectful to me and so from there on it was done with."

Slay and safety Quandre Diggs, who was traded to the Seattle Seahawks midway through last season, expressed frustration in an Instagram Live chat with the way Patricia managed the team, including holding practices outdoors in snowy conditions as they prepared to play four straight games at indoor venues. 

Patricia was hired to replace Jim Caldwell as Detroit's head coach in February 2018. Caldwell had a solid 36-28 record with two playoff appearances in four seasons. 

In two seasons under Patricia, the Lions have gone 9-22-1 and have finished last in the NFC North in both years.