Patriots assistant Matt Patricia expected to take Lions job

The Giants themselves will be watching and waiting.

Three finalists for the Giants.

So why should New York Giants fans be on board with Patricia as lead candidate over offensive coordinators like Josh McDaniels and Pat Shurmur?

Though he’ll be a first-time head coach, several factors would set up Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia for success with the Lions. As long as all three candidates remain active in the playoffs, that can’t happen until the bye week before the Super Bowl. Per NFL rules, a contract can not be executed until after the conclusion of the employer club’s season. But there remains interest from the Cardinals and Giants, and the fact the Tennessee Titans job is open after the team parted with Mike Mularkey on Monday could further change the calculus, forcing another team to move quicker on another candidate if it’s anxious about losing him to a playoff team with a young quarterback. The Giants could wind up having to move on to Plan B. If Andrew Luck can get healthy, McDaniels will already have a solid quarterback.

The Giants face a decision regarding their vacancy at head coach.

He interviewed with the Lions, New York Giants and Cardinals.

And it would look awful and inept for the Giants to narrow their search to three, only to lose all three to other teams and reopen their head coaching search and start over at square one. They were very easy conversations in terms of what your philosophy might be. I expect the team to be aggressive in the draft in this department and I would not be shocked if general manager Bob Quinn and his staff go for a big name running back with the 20th overall pick.

But the man now destined for one of those jobs is Patricia, one year after he interviewed for the head-coaching jobs with the and.

It’s rare for a positional coach to be plucked away as a head coach without coordinator experience, but Flores, 36, is considered a promising coaching prospect. The Giants had enough storminess in 2017 to last them a while.

Fortunately for the Patriots, they have a head coach in Bill Belichick that has a defensive mind capable of picking up some of the slack, if necessary.

From the wild-card round through Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, ESPN.com has the playoffs covered.

Patricia, who once worked and made bets for “Dinos” (lunch at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que) at Hoffman Air & Filtration Systems in East Syracuse, could have a shot to turnaround one of the most prestigious teams in the National Football League.