Matt Patricia

Patricia remained at RPI to begin his coaching career as a graduate assistant in 1996.[4] He spent the next two years as an application engineer with Hoffman Air & Filtration Systems in East Syracuse, New York.[5] After graduating, Patricia received an offer to maintain nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers with the Westinghouse Electric Company,[6] but decided to return to football as the defensive line coach for Amherst College from 1999 to 2000. In 2001, he moved to Syracuse University as an offensive graduate assistant for the team, a position he held for three seasons.[7]

Patricia joined the Patriots under head coach Bill Belichick as an offensive coaching assistant in 2004. In 2005, upon the departure of assistant offensive line/tight ends coach Jeff Davidson, Patricia was reassigned as the Patriots' assistant offensive line coach. Then-linebackers coach Dean Pees was promoted to defensive coordinator after the season, prompting another reassignment for Patricia, this time to linebackers coach for the 2006 season. Patricia was named the team's safeties coach in 2011. In 2012, he was promoted to the title of defensive coordinator, though he had been calling the plays on defense since the departure of Pees following the 2009 season. In January 2016, the Patriots gave permission for Patricia to interview for the head-coaching position of the Cleveland Browns, but Patricia would remain with the Patriots as defensive coordinator going into the 2016 season. The Patriots won three Super Bowls with Patricia: Super Bowl XXXIX at the end of the 2004 season, Super Bowl XLIX at the end of the 2014 season, and Super Bowl LI at the end of the 2016 season. On January 1, 2018 (NFL Black Monday), it was revealed that Patricia was the subject of the Detroit Lions' and New York Giants' head coaching searches.[8] To date, he is the Patriots' most recent defensive playcaller to receive the title of defensive coordinator.

On February 5, 2018, Patricia was named the head coach of the Detroit Lions.[1] He lost his first two games of the 2018 season, the first against the New York Jets, 48–17, on Monday Night Football on September 10, and the following week against the San Francisco 49ers, 30–27, on September 16.[9] His first win as a head coach came on September 23, 2018, a 26–10 victory against his previous team, the New England Patriots, with Patricia beating his old mentor, Bill Belichick, in the process.[9] It was also the Lions' first win over the Patriots since 2000, which was Belichick's first year coaching the Patriots.[9]

Under Patricia, the Lions posted a 6–10 record in 2018 and had a dismal 3–12–1 season in 2019. Both marked a regression from Patricia's predecessor Jim Caldwell, who had posted a 9–7 record in 2017 before he was fired in favor of Patricia.[10] Despite the record and decline, team owner Martha Firestone Ford and her soon-to-be successor Sheila Ford Hamp announced after the season that they would give Patricia a chance to show improvement in the 2020 season.[11]

On November 28, 2020, Patricia and general manager Bob Quinn were both fired by the Lions. This came after lots of criticism about Patricia's abilities. The firing happened after the 4–5 Lions suffered back-to-back lopsided losses to drop to 4–7: a 20–0 loss to the Carolina Panthers on November 22 (the first time the Lions had been shut out since 2009) and a 41–25 loss to the Houston Texans during the Lions annual Thanksgiving Day game on November 26. Patricia finished his tenure in Detroit with a 13–29–1 (.314) record in two and a half seasons.[12][13] The Lions finished last in the NFC North division in both of Patricia's full seasons, and were in last place again at the time of his firing.

On January 22, 2021 it was reported that Matt Patricia would be returning to the Patriots "in a variety of roles" after he went 13-29-1 in three seasons as head coach of the Lions. The variety of roles wasn't specified, but it's reported that Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Matt Patricia are working out a role similar to what Mike Lombardi had in New England though it is still a work in progress and Patricia is expected to work on projects, as well as be a resource to Belichick. [14][15]