AP

Matt Patricia’s style as a head coach was a topic of conversation before his first season on the job got underway when he was criticized by a local columnist for making players run at practice.

Lions players didn’t share the belief that was a problem, but Patricia’s approach to the job continued to be a talking point as the Lions went 6-10 during the 2018 season and was cited as a negative factor by an agent in a survey about best and worst free agent destinations by Robert Klemko of SI.com.

Defensive end Trey Flowers didn’t share that opinion. Flowers said teams “can’t be comfortable” if they are going to succeed and cited his experience with Patricia with helping push him to the Lions in free agency.

“He taught me a lot of things, developed me,” Flowers said, via MLive.com. “I developed through his system of doing things. So he’s just a great guy to work for. Obviously he demands a high standard of excellence from his players, and when you get someone who can challenge you like that, day in and day out, you’re going to just continue to get better. Those are the types of guys you want to play for, because you know they’re expecting high [things] of you.”

The Lions brought in another former Patriot in Danny Amendola and we’ll see if that familiarity brings a different tune in Patricia’s second season in Detroit.