ALLEN PARK — T.J. Lang has played 10 years so he knows a little about how an NFL season unfolds.
The right guard spoke at length, after cleaning out his locker on Monday. The Lions wrapped up their season with a 31-0 win at Green Bay on Sunday to finish 6-10.
In the first season for coach Matt Patricia, the Lions got off to a slow start. There was much speculation about whether the team was buying in to Patricia’s changes especially at training camp and after the Lions started the season 0-2 with losses to the Jets and 49ers.
Lang was open about the transition calling it drastic.
“I guess I wouldn’t say the buy-in didn’t exist. Just like anything, you go through a change as drastic as we did there’s going to be a learning curve,’’ Lang said. “There’s going to be some things that you have to learn how to practice different, how to prepare different, how to meet different, I think that being said I think that takes a little longer sometimes — no excuses.
“I think that was maybe an issue we had early on in the season. I would never question the guys’ effort or the guys wanting to be here or the buy-in,” Lang said, “I think it’s something that at the end of the day, obviously it’d be nice to get off to a lot faster start in the season to kind of shred some of those questions, some of those doubts. But at the end of the day everybody in this locker room is together and that’s what it’s all about.’’
Lang said it was a combination of factors at work.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys, this is my 10th season doing it. I’ve seen different coaches, different approaches, anyway you can,’’ Lang said. “It’s about adjusting as fast as you can and adapting to new way and getting rolling. Like I said there’s no excuse. I think that will be a learning experience that we can take into next year.’’
Patricia was more vague about the situation and how it should make the start of next season smoother.
“There’s always a little more comfort with familiarity when you can walk into a situation and kind of know what to expect that’s always better,’’ Patricia said. “But I certainly do believe every team is different every single year in the NFL whether there’s consistency with the coaching or not. It does change and coaches do change, things do change it’s just part of the NFL season. We’ll certainly evaluate everything and try to do the best we can to make it better from that standpoint.’’
Patricia, whose ragged beard had been trimmed, had no update on the status of his coaching staff including offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter whose contract is expiring.
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