Bob Quinn lasted five seasons as the Lions’ General Manager. His undoing came when he fired Jim Caldwell after back-to-back, 9-7 seasons and hired former Patriots’ co-worker Matt Patricia.
The Lions now are rebuilding with new General Manager Brad Holmes and new head coach Dan Campbell.
Current and former Lions’ players publicly lauded the dismissals of Quinn and Patricia, prompting a reporter to ask Lions president Rod Wood if things had grown “toxic” under the former administration.
“I’m not going to comment on the perception of the prior culture and whatever it’s labeled,” Wood said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I just know that going through that experience informed us on what the culture we wanted, I’ll put it that way, and how we pursued the candidates that we ended up hiring for our head coach and General Manager.”
The Lions also promoted Mike Disner to senior vice president of football and business administration and hired Chris Spielman as special assistant to the chairman and president this offseason. The new hierarchy is working as planned, Wood said.
“I can tell you having sat in meetings during free agency and sat in periodically in some of the draft meetings, everything that we described that we wanted is what’s happening,” Wood said. “There’s great collaboration; there’s great participation. Everybody’s voice is being heard, and I think the results so far of what we’ve done and the results of what will come later on will prove that point out.”
The Lions have not won a playoff game since 1991, going 0-8 in eight postseason appearances since. They last made the playoffs in 2016.