Detroit Lions summer break 'still a critical time for the team'

Dave Birkett | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Detroit Lions OTAs: What stood out from final media availability A wrap up of Detroit Lions' final days of OTAs, plus an early preview of training camp from Dave Birkett and Carlos Monarrez on Monday, June 11, 2018.

Matt Patricia has been going non-stop for nearly 11 months now.

He opened training camp last July as New England Patriots defensive coordinator, coached into February with the Super Bowl, took over as Detroit Lions coach a few days later and has spent the past four months installing his program in Detroit.

So while Patricia could use a long break after the Lions wrap up their offseason program with their final organized team activity practice on Thursday and rookie orientation next week, the first-year Lions coach doesn’t sound like he’ll be spending too much time away from football.

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“My family’s first and foremost, so I got to make sure that I'm a good dad here and a good husband for a little while, and then we'll be back to camp before you know it, so that'll be a big part of it for me,” Patricia said Monday. “But you really never get away from it. I’m always kind of thinking about what needs to be done, what we have to do when we get back and kind of planning. And there’s a lot still going into training camp when we get back. So that will all be part of it.”

The Lions used their sixth of eight planned OTA practices on Monday, and Patricia took some time before the workout to reflect on where his team is entering the summer, what has surprised him about his job so far and what he’ll do with the time off between next week and the start of training camp in July.

"Obviously, it’s still a critical time for the team,” Patricia said. “From a team perspective we’ve got to make sure that everybody’s ready to go, staying in shape, making sure that they’re following a program. We’ll talk to them making sure they have everything handled from a place to work out, from a program to follow, what we expect when they get back. These guys are great about making sure they maintain their level of physical performance so when we get into training camp — we don’t have a lot of time when we get into training camp, so we have to hit this thing running.”

Patricia said he has been pleased with the toughness and “the desire to get better” that he has seen from his team.

The Lions were able to open their offseason program a week earlier than most other teams because they had a first-year coach, and they’ve had good attendance throughout voluntary workouts.

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On Monday, safety Glover Quin, wide receiver Golden Tate and kicker Matt Prater were the biggest names absent from the workout. Quin has spent most of the offseason with his family in Houston, while Prater’s wife gave birth to their child over the weekend.

“These guys are all in as far as that’s concerned,” Patricia said. “There’s a really high football intelligence factor here, too. We are, kind of going back to what we were saying before from a defensive perspective, learning a little bit of a different language. There’s a little bit of a different scheme, little bit of a different philosophy. And I would say for the most part really kind of easy for them to transfer. Maybe things that they know or things they’ve done in the past into new terminology or new vernacular. It’s kind of like learning a new language from that standpoint. That’s always the most difficult part but these guys have really done with a good job with it.”

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As for what he has learned about being a head coach that he didn’t know before?

“Everything is new, everything is different,” Patricia said. “You’d love to be involved more with every minute of football, Xs and Os that’s out there, but you just can’t. The requirements are different. So that’s kind of the biggest adjustment from that standpoint. What’s good is that I can go in at the end of the day, or in the middle of the meeting, or in the morning and kind of just make changes and I don’t really have to worry about it. So that’s been good from that standpoint. You can do it faster. But overall, the kind of just demanding of your time is much more so away from the Xs and Os.”

'No expectations'

Jamal Agnew spent a good part of the spring as the slot corner working with the first-team defense, but the second-year pro insists he doesn't have any expectations about what role he'll play defensively this fall.

"We don't play until August, till preseason, September regular season starts, so as far as expectations with that, I'm just really focusing on doing what I can to get those opportunities on the field," said Agnew, who was held out of team drills Monday with a tender hamstring. "That decision isn't up to me, but I'm going to do whatever I can to make that decision tough for the person making that decision."

Agnew said he's focused on the finer points of cornerback play like flexibility, footwork and eye discipline, as he tries to carve out a bigger role.

As a rookie, he was one of the best punt returners in the NFL but played 69 snaps on defense.

This year, he'll compete with safeties Quandre Diggs and Tavon Wilson, and cornerback Nevin Lawson for time in the Lions' nickel and dime package.

"You're either trying to keep a job or you're trying to take somebody else's job, that's just a reality of the NFL, and you've really got to come with that attitude every day," Agnew said. "I know it sounds cliche and redundant, but trying to get better every day, there's nothing else you can do and nothing else you can say. You don't want to be complacent. You've got to get better or you're not going to be in this league for long."

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

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