Once upon a time, Charlie Weis was the Patriots assistant coach who was supposed to be the next big thing.
While that proved true in regards to his wallet if not his resume, the family is still the family, and the connections run deep.
According to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press, Weis said he talked to Lions coach and former co-worker Matt Patricia about his offensive coordinator job this offseason, but stopped short of calling it an interview.
“We talked, but it never got to that point,” Weis said. “There was no interview. Matt and I are too close to go through an interview. If it ever would have happened, it would have been, ‘Hey, you want to come?’ And I would have said yes or no. It wouldn’t have been anything other than that.”
Patricia worked with Weis one year in New England (2004), and Weis tried to take Patricia with him to Notre Dame. As it turns out, Weis’ college coaching career wasn’t quite the success many expected, as he was 41-49 in eight seasons at Notre Dame and Kansas.
The Lions hired former Seattle coordinator Darrell Bevell to replace Jim Bob Cooter this offseason.
Weis is working in radio now, but said he’s had chances at jobs recently, but didn’t find the right situation.
He also defended Patricia’s work after a 6-10 season, citing the improvements on defense and the injuries which robbed the offense of star power including Kerryon Johnson.
“I mean, how was the defense playing at the end of the year?” Weis said. “So let’s start with that, where the defense went from. OK, that was a step in the right direction. Now, the next thing is you’ve got to make those same type of strides with the offense. You lost Kerryon Johnson during the season just when he was rocking and rolling. If you can get to the fact where you don’t want to depend on just throwing it every down and continue to build toughness on the offense and you’ve got both sides of the ball be tough, especially in that division.
“What I’m saying to you . . . you’re really not that far away. It’s just, you know how the league is now, these stays are short-lived so you’ve got to make the most of it as quickly as you can.”
That was also a fair description of his stint at Notre Dame, and the contract extension he got in the middle of his first season paid him well enough to be picky about future jobs.
