The Detroit Lions and head coach Matt Patricia are hoping to bounce back after a poor first season. They went 6-10 in the former New England defensive coordinator's first season as a head coach.

Many players on Detroit's roster weren't fans of the faux-Patriots way from last year. However, Patricia is beginning to gain the respect of the veterans on the roster. Not to mention providing key pieces to the roster that he's familiar with from his time in New England like defensive end Trey Flowers and receiver Danny Amendola.

The Lions general manager has noticed the change in culture and improvement from Patricia as well. Most notably, with his engagement with the rest of the players.

“He’s taken a lot of input from the players, a lot of great conversations, I’d say, dating back to January, February, March, when the players weren’t even in the building about things that he was thinking about and wanted to get input from some of the veteran guys.”

A lot of change to the culture and mindset of the team was indicated by the general manager as well.

“I think the guys from the new guys to the returning guys, they just said, ‘You know what, we’re better than that. We’re better than what our record indicated last year,’ and we hopefully added some pieces that will supplement that.

I’ve seen the practices during training camp being more intense and just as physical as last year, and the guys just saying, ‘Hey, this is what it takes to win in this league.’”

Matt Patricia and the rest of the Lions organization believes that this team is a much-improved squad from last year. And they expect nothing but a winning record in year two of the Matt Patricia era.