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Bob Quinn says Lions offensive coordinator hire is 'primarily' Matt Patricia's decision

Posted at 8:54 PM, Jan 08, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-08 20:54:37-05

ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Bob Quinn has another big hire to make.

This time, he says it's up to Matt Patricia to choose the right person for the job.

The Lions moved on from Jim Bob Cooter as their offensive coordinator, opening the door for Quinn and Patricia to pick a mind for the gig and start anew.

Speaking for the first time in over seven months, Quinn addressed the job search.

On what he’s looking for in a new offensive coordinator and how involved he is in the selection process: “This is primarily Matt (Patricia) making the hire. I will help him with some research on candidates that I might have some background on or might have worked with or have been associated with in my time in the League. So, we’ll have those conversations. Matt will hire the offensive coordinator. We’re looking for someone that improves the offense. I think we want a balanced attack, like we talked about before. We want to be able to run the ball, we want to be able to use our quarterback because he has a ton of talent. So, we want to be diverse. We’re not going to sit there and be in four wide receivers, shot gun every play and throw it 45 times. That’s not good for anybody. On the other hand, we’re not going to be three tight ends and run the ball 40 times. We need to do, like I think I said in my opening statement, we need to do a better job of going into each week looking at the opponent and say, ‘How are we going to beat this team?’ If they have a great run defense and a poor pass defense, maybe we throw it 45 times and vice versa. So, we want someone that thinks that way, that thinks that, ‘Hey, I have an offense, but my offense is adaptable. I can change week-to-week, or I can change from this week if I have this set of receivers, and two weeks later I don’t.’ We just need to figure it out. That’s what coaches get paid to do. I think it was a great example—Week 17, we had our fourth, fifth, sixth, maybe even seventh string receivers and we played one of our best games on offense. So, I think that’s what offensive coordinators, coaches, defensive coordinators in general, have to do. They have to adapt. Your playbook might look like one thing in Week 1, your roster might look like one thing in Week 1. Week 7, Week 9 could look totally different. So, I think that’s kind of what we’re looking for, if that answers your question.”

On if he has a timetable for the hiring process for an offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator and if he expects to choose from outside of the organization: “I think everything is on the table right now in terms of inside or outside of the organization. I think there’s no timetable. We’re just going to get this right, there’s no rush. The way this works in the NFL is you can’t talk to people that are employed by other teams, so there’s a waiting period if teams are still playing. Our candidate pool is pretty wide right now, so we’re going to keep it wide until it narrows down and then we’ll go hire the right guy.”

On if Stafford will be involved in the search for an offensive coordinator: “I don’t think so. I think Matt’s (Patricia) going to hire this guy. Matthew Stafford is very opinionated on a lot of things in terms of players, coaches, maybe Matt (Patricia) will reach out to him and ask him about, ‘Hey, call your friend at this team and ask about him.’ I’m not sure, we haven’t gone that far yet.”

Quotes provided by Detroit Lions staff