Skip to main content

Did Jim Caldwell Take a Subtle Jab at Matt Patricia?

Read more on Jim Caldwell tweeting a message about leadership, following the Detroit Lions' shutout loss at the hands of the Carolina Panthers
  • Author:
  • Updated:
    Original:

The Detroit Lions are floundering under the leadership of head coach Matt Patricia.

Detroit's play on the field is indicative of a football team devoid of real leadership and a commitment to excellence. 

Back when ex-NFL head coach Jim Caldwell was the leader on the sidelines, Detroit was winning at a far greater clip than with the current regime. 

Prior to his dismissal at the end of the 2017 season, Caldwell had recorded back-to-back nine-win seasons.

On Sunday, following Detroit's first shutout loss since 2019, Caldwell posted an interesting tweet.

"Great leadership requires a devotion to task, mission and ideology that can be understood by watching the man or woman in charge lead their life," Caldwell tweeted. 

Caldwell said earlier this year on former Lions safety Glover Quin’s podcast that he believes Detroit general manager Bob Quinn wanted him out of town the moment Quinn arrived in the Motor City.

“I think without question that had he been left to his own devices, I probably would have been gone the day he came in, just kind of the feeling that I got even though, obviously, it went through a two-week process of kind of going through an interview process with him, in order to keep my job,” Caldwell explained to Quin. “And I was thankful to be able to continue, because I did think that we were going to move in the right direction. I did think that we had something that was pretty special.”

The timing of Caldwell's tweet has certainly led some to wonder if he was questioning the leadership of Detroit's current head coach.

Get the latest Detroit Lions news by joining our community. Click "Follow" at the top right of our SI All Lions page. Mobile users click the notification bell. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @DetroitPodcast.