Well, that sure backfired. Slays voice was heard immediately.
His discontent was predictable and obvious. It is the reason he was traded instead of kept on the bench. He would’ve been a distraction. The Lions preempted that by trading him. It was is the right thing to do. Once the decision was made to elevate Walker, this was the next step. Players know it is a Business. And, they should know more than to sound off about it unless they want out. The Lions got that heads up, too. So, goodbye to Slay, too. We can trade him or tag him. We have the leverage and the heads up. Hard to find a bad thing about it. That’s professional sports.
I think it’s more likely that the scheme / injuries are bigger factors in apparent performance than any change in talent level.
But let’s assume that isn’t the case, and that Diggs all of a sudden just became sucky. That doesn’t impact anything that I said. The scheme still sucks, and any criticism of it is valid. Diggs was still a captain and the one who should be voicing concerns. And most problematic to me is management’s oversensitive reaction to a critic.
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It’s an interesting debate, but I think a captain, though he may talk with the coaches about scheme, has to ultimately fall in line.
If the Pats just don’t listen, not much any of us can say, their record speaks for itself
If Patricia thinks not listening is the thing to do, that seems like a bad approach
He doesn’t reek of credibility yet
When I was younger I had bosses say “we’re gonna do X”
I resented it when I was not able to say Y would be a better way to do it
I always ask my people how they think something should be done
They do the stuff day to day, not me
It stands to reason they may have a better approach
If not, they learn from the conversation when I show another way that makes more sense
Generally, people that bark a lot are morons that aren’t trying to work with you
But are trying to 1 up you
They are a pain and don’t last long with me
The Truth here is most likely somewhere between the extremes
You’re certainly entitled to your own opinion, but that is ineffective leadership. Even the military has started to adopt a lot more modern tactics, including incorporating field feedback into decisionmaking.
Regardless, pro sports are not the military, in spite of what some people wish. The players are not interchangeable, and this kind of “culture” is not attractive to the type of people who can help to win. Is preserving Patricia’s iron-clad rule worth losing talented players like Slay? No way.
Bottom line, the organization is leaderless. On some franchises they have a leader or leaders in various levels.
The Pats have a leader as an owner, a coach, a QB, etc.
Cowboys have Jerry Jones. He is THE man. He is over the top the leader of that franchise. He is involved in every move, including wiping Jason Garrett’s ass after he poops.
Seahawks have Pete Carroll and Wilson.
Saints have Payton and Brees.
Every semi-successful team has a leader or leaders.
The Lions have NOBODY from top to bottom. They just discarded one of their captains because he may have spoken out. Lol. I get it, Diggs was an average player, but the fact that he was one of the biggest voices on a team that has players being paid 15-30 million dollars a year is laughable.
Some might say Stafford is the leader, but he is nowhere close to it. He comes in, does his job, toes the company line, goes home and plows his wife. Great life, great dude. Not a leader. Never questions the play calls, the staff, players who fuck up, officials, the commissioner, anything, nothing. Basically what Calvin and Barry were. No fire. No dog, no passion. Now, it doesn’t have to come from your QB. Hell, Mahomes isn’t the leader of that KC team even though he won MVP. Andy Reid is the unquestioned leader. The closest thing we have to a leader here is Slay and his finger wag. That’s it. That is the most passion we get on the field, a damn finger wag. We desperately need difference makers on and off the field, and a red-assed take no shit, mo-fo would be a good start. Not a bunch of pansies who accept defeat and their first instinct after a heartbreaking loss is to have a circle jerk and trade jerseys with the team that ate your lunch.
Patricia isn’t a leader, because nobody in the world respects him. He doesn’t even respect his position showing up like an ungroomed homeless man, who is a walking billboard for diabeeeetus.
Quinn isn’t a leader, because he’s a nerd who sucks at his job and always takes the safe pick and has no demands or expectations.
Martha is basically weekend at Bernie’s and doesn’t even know what happens at Ford Field.
This is it exactly whenever anyone brings up the Patriots. It’s an incomparable situation. When Belichick is an asshole, it’s excused because he’s demonstrated winning. When someone like Patricia does it without the winning to back it up, it’s just being an asshole.
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It is not the captain’s role to foment discord. He can bring issues to the coach but not publicly. He was being replaced because of poor play, which may have been a combination of injury and decline, not because he was a voice of disagreement? Either way, he would’ve been a distraction in the locker room as a reserve.
Perhaps, and yet someone like Anthony Barr was lobbying for us to sign him so he could play for Patricia. I have no clue what’s going on.
I run a small company and I definitely encourage ideas to come up the chain of command. At the same time if we are working on a growth initiative that a middle manager disagrees with and he/she is openly dissenting or perhaps even sabotaging then I’m going to try and oust him as quickly as HR will allow me to. The real decision makers need to be able to make their decisions and implement it. They need to have the ability to push through challenges that present themselves without their team conspiring against them. I definitely have my issues with Patricia/Quinn. This behavior is not one of those issues though.
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There is a right way and a wrong way to air discontent, even as a leader. Believe me, I speak from experience here. Unless you own your own business and said business is not also directed via a Company Board and or shareholders, you WORK for someone else. This generation in large part, has a disconnect with this hard fact. It is painful for all involved. In a game of A types at the top of the male food chain, there is no room for the tail wagging the dog.
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So do you think Belichick was Jim Caldwell prior winning a SB? Or do you think Belichick was the same Belichick and he only would tolerate players on his teams that understood it wasn’t a democracy? You can’t change your stripes and go from an aw shucks you’re right Quandre, I’ll change it all up for you, to a tyrant. Then get held accountable for the W/L record. If I’m going down, I’m going down with my guns out (credit to Mike Zimmer for that one…) and if I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Got no issue with that. Diggs apparently likes where he is so that’s that really. He should be thanking the staff for sending him to a good team and not Miami!
And Daniels, and Flowers, and Blount.
I’ll take guys who signed with the Lions only because they knew they would over pay them for $100, Alex.
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Who was going to pay Flowers more than the Lions and would Blount have even been in the league if not for Lions last year?
I still don’t believe Daniels turned down more guaranteed money.
Exactly. Nobody else was going to pay damaged goods that much damn cash. He’s basically Ziggy Ansah reincarnate.
Don’t forget about replacing Blount with CJ Anderson, I mean, JD McK… I mean, Paul Perk… I mean Tra Carso… I mean our GM is a clueless fucktard.
I wonder if part of the problem is that the NE approach worked because Belichek and Brady can say, “See those Super Bowl trophies? Want one? Then shut up and listen to us.” Even Randy Moss could get on board with that.
Patricia has nothing to point to. Players aren’t dense enough to think that a defensive coordinator was going to bring a Super Bowl mentality to an organization that hasn’t won a fucking playoff game since 1991.
As someone stated earlier, Diggs was a captain, beloved figure in the locker room, and AS SUCH held a certain amount of importance. This isn’t high school or college football. It isn’t about “just playing.” These are adult men, and every locker room has subcultures, including player voices that carry more weight than that of the coaching staff. If you don’t understand that, then you don’t get the NFL (or NBA, or any other major league sport). There’s a reason there’s ‘players only meetings.’
Cutting a beloved team captain and then having your best defensive player RETWEET his sentiment is a catastrophe for Patricia. This wreaks like Patricia has lost the team. And the fact he’s a supposed defensive genius with the worst defense in the league doesn’t help matters.
He needs to go.
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Daniels had 13 teams pursuing him and Flowers was the top FA DE available again with multiple teams he could have signed a high end DE contract with. But sure, I’m sure you know for a fact that the Lions were the highest bidders for all three and that none of them really thought highly of Patricia. All I know is the people saying we couldn’t attract top FA’s have been wrong since year one of Quinn’s tenure and are still wrong. Also if you don’t think other teams overpay for top FA’s you are smoking dope.
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Good point Nate. I bet some of the same people who side with management on the Diggs trade are the same ones who respect guys like Kellen Moore and Dan F’ing Orlovsky who were straight awful as players.
Again, you don’t have to be the best player on the team to be valuable as a leader.
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Sure. 13 other teams wanted Daniels so bad that he said “■■■■ you all, I’m signing with the worst franchise in sports history”. Give me a break. If any real team offered anything close to what the Lions did, he would have gone there. Flowers went to the highest bidder. He’s worth less than half of what we gave him. If he was so wanted, then New England would have found a way to re-sign him, but they were more than happy to let him walk and found a cheap rookie in the draft that has more sacks in a part time role. We overpay more than anyone else, because we are the last resort.
Sure he would have. His effusive praise of Patricia was all BS. No question at all and we also know for sure no one else offered him anywhere close to what we did. At least knowing this as fact assists our narrative… 
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