ALLEN PARK -- Nobody rushed for fewer yards per game last year than the Detroit Lions. Nobody rushed for fewer yards per carry, and nobody had less success in power sets.

However you measure a run game, the Lions were probably the worst at it, and nobody is that bad at anything without everyone being at least a little to blame. And the Lions knows this.

Which is why they're taking that thing apart brick by brick, and then putting it back together again.

"It needs a little of everything," general manager Bob Quinn told MLive this week. "It's not going to be an easy thing to fix."

Yes, that means better personnel in the backfield. Quinn stood pat with Ameer Abdullah last year, but Abdullah struggled in the No. 1 role, was eventually benched and finished with just 552 yards on the season. He was the worst running back in the league, according to ProFootballFocus.

He does some things well, especially on third down, but struggled as a No. 1 back. So Quinn expects to acquire one this offseason.

"I think I was clear in early January when I said, you know, we need a running back," he said. "Maybe not an every-down-back, because those don't really exist very much anymore. There's about five in the league. But a guy you can legitimately hand the ball off too and be really comfortable with that in any situation."

But Quinn was also clear that it wasn't just the running backs' fault. Indeed, advanced metrics from Football Outsiders said the Lions had the worst run blocking in the league last year.

Quinn said he likes the foundation that he's set with draft picks like Taylor Decker and Graham Glasgow, and free agent pickups like T.J. Lang and Rick Wagner. He blamed injuries for some of their problems, and it's true the Lions were ravaged more than most. Their top line started just two games together, and played just 95 snaps.

They started 10 combinations up front in all.

"I think we have good personnel," he said. "I think there might be some changes, but the core group are going to be back at core positions, and I would hope those guys would improve. There are some veteran players, some younger players. And some of those guys had injuries last year, and obviously we were without our left tackle for half the year. If a little of each of those things improve, the whole thing is going to be better."

While the personnel might not change much up front, the scheme will. Offensive line coach Ron Prince was fired after the season, and the Lions have charted a new direction with the hiring of Jeff Davidson. A longtime offensive line coach who once coached the position in New England, Davidson has coached in various schemes over the years and is expected to play a major role in overhauling the blocking assignments.

"Jeff brings a wealth of experience," Quinn said. "Both Matt and I have a relationship with him from our time in New England, and Jeff has branched out (since then), coached different schemes and styles. So I think Matt, Jim Bob, Jeff, tight ends coach, they're all going to get on the same page about how to improve it scheme-wise."

The Lions' running attack is going to be rebuilt this offseason, both in scheme and personnel. And incoming coach Matt Patricia will have a say in it too. While he's known for defense, he got his start as an assistant offensive line coach in New England and played the position in college. He says he has ideas about what makes an offense hard to defend, and will make some calls on the Cooter offense once he conducts a review.

But no matter what happens, just don't expect him to hire a run game coordinator.

"I don't want to say this the wrong way, but I'm probably gonna," Patricia said with a laugh. "I don't want to say it's a younger generation thing, but everyone is so caught up on titles. Everyone is like, 'What's my title? What's my title? What am I doing here?' I'm just like, 'We're just working. We're just working right now.' It's different with coordinators obviously, because somebody has to be in charge and make sure everything is run from an organizational standpoint, but I mean, I was an assistant coach in New England for 14 years. That's all I was. This was my job duty every day to make sure I could work the next day. I wasn't caught up on what I was. I was just trying to make sure I did my job well. And it's always just so funny to me when someone's like, 'Well, I'm the run game coordinator.' I'm like, 'What does that mean? What does that mean? Like, I don't know. Like, what am I asking you to do? Just do that job. You tell me what that means. Are you going to install the run plays?

"We have a staff. They're going to do everything they can to put everyone in the right positions to win. I think people get caught up on the titles instead of, hey, let's just go work really hard, do what we're supposed to do. We're all football coaches, at some point we're going to have to coach the run game, we're going to have to teach the passing game, we're going to have to teach pass blocking and we're going to have to teach run blocking. We're going to have to teach tackling too. And I don't need to hire a tackling game coordinator. Everyone should be coaching tackling, you know?"