It appears the Detroit Lions are going to get their top target in the team’s head-coaching search.

ESPN Insider Adam Schefter reported Sunday that New England Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia is likely to become the Lions’ next head coach, a position vacated after Jim Caldwell was fired Jan. 1. Patricia had appeared to be Lions general manager Bob Quinn's main target going back to before Caldwell was even let go.

If Patricia ends up in Detroit once the Patriots' season ends, it should be the last major non-player addition for Quinn to implement the vision he’s had for the Lions since he took the job in 2016. It will also continue the Patriot-like ways in which the Lions will potentially operate in the future.

Guide To NFL Coaching Carousel It's firing-and-hiring season, and we're tracking all the moves.

• Everything to know about current, potential openings »

• Candidates our analysts would hire »

Quinn and Patricia come from the same NFL lineage -- both working their way up from low-level staffers in New England to become two of Bill Belichick’s most trusted advisers at the time when they made their decisions to leave. And a strong relationship was built between Quinn and Patricia in their time together in New England, which spanned more than a decade.

Even when Quinn was hired by the Lions in January 2016, he indicated that he believed both Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and Patricia were ready to be head coaches then. Quinn stuck with Caldwell for two years, though, leading to two 9-7 records and a playoff berth in 2016 before he made the decision to go find his own coach.

That coach will be someone with whom Quinn has familiarity -- a trait he has been transparent about from the start. At Quinn's news conference discussing Caldwell’s firing, he was asked whether familiarity with the person he was hiring was going to be a factor. Quinn said it could be a factor, and in the end it looks like he’s going with the candidate he knows best.

It makes sense for Patricia, too. Quinn has brought a lot of what New England does to Detroit, in terms of how the Lions scout and grade out players on their roster as well as potential free agents and draft picks. Patricia's familiarity with the Lions doesn't end with Quinn, either, as some of the GM's closest staff -- including vice president of player personnel Kyle O'Brien and assistant to the general manager Kevin Anderson -- also have New England ties. So does the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Harold Nash, so Patricia will know what type of workout program his players are expected to take part in when they return for offseason training.

DETROIT LIONS 2018 draft position: Top-20 selection in first round and six overall picks 2018 projected salary cap space: $53.2 million 2018 starting QB: Matthew Stafford is the highest-paid player in the NFL and entrenched as the team's starting quarterback. He's going nowhere and barring a trade, Detroit's backup situation seems pretty locked in, too, with Jake Rudock entering his third season. Key free agents: DE Ezekiel Ansah; S Tavon Wilson; C Travis Swanson; LB Tahir Whitehead

Patricia would be inheriting a good situation -- one that likely fits a first-time head coach whose main focus throughout his career has been on defense. He has his quarterback set in Matthew Stafford, potentially in an offense Stafford feels comfortable with if Patricia chooses to retain offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter. Patricia also has two 1,000-yard receivers in Golden Tate and Marvin Jones. So the offensive pieces are there, though he would need to help fix the team’s run game and offensive line.

Quinn said when he fired Caldwell that the new head coach would have autonomy over his staff, so it would be up to Patricia on whether he wants to stick with Cooter (which seems possible) or move on to someone else.

Defensively, Patricia would inherit a good secondary -- Darius Slay was named first-team All-Pro this season and Glover Quin has been a Pro Bowler in the past -- and a young middle linebacker with potential in Jarrad Davis. He’ll also have a good chance to mold the front seven of his defense because two key players, Ezekiel Ansah and Haloti Ngata, are free agents and the front seven is one of the key areas needing improvement in Detroit.

What the Lions would be getting in Patricia is an exceedingly smart coach who has shown he can take players who don’t necessarily fit in other places and make them work in New England. Among the players he did that with over the past two seasons is former Lions linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who had 102 tackles and 6.5 sacks in 20 games with the Patriots after having only 39 tackles and one sack in two-plus seasons with the Lions.

There is the reality, of course, that any first-time head coach is a bit of an unknown. But by being in a post with so much familiarity thanks to his connections with Quinn, Patricia could be in a better position to succeed than he would have been somewhere else.