ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- The Detroit Lions are retaining general manager Bob Quinn and head coach Matt Patricia for the 2020 season, owner Martha Ford said Tuesday, giving the combination of former New England Patriots employees a third year together to try to build their program.

The Fords made it clear, though, that they expect improvement next season, which will be Quinn's fifth as general manager and Patricia's third as the team's head coach.

"We expect to be a playoff contender and those are our expectations," Ford said during a meeting with a small group of reporters Tuesday. "Which we've expressed to both Bob and to Matt."

This doesn't mean playoffs or bust next season for Patricia and Quinn, but it's clear there needs to be tangible progress for the duo to receive a fourth season together.

Conversations about the job security of Quinn and Patricia increased over the past month, while the Lions have been mired in a seven-game losing streak. Detroit started the season 2-0-1 followed by close losses to Kansas City and at Green Bay. The Lions also suffered a rash of injuries, including to quarterback Matthew Stafford, and have 14 players on injured reserve.

Patricia, on a teleconference with reporters Tuesday afternoon, said "it means the world to me" that he would be returning in 2020.

"I appreciate Mrs. Ford and her family so much and Rod [Wood] and Bob and everything that we're trying to do here and what we're trying to accomplish, where we're trying to lead this organization," Patricia said. "It's a process that we're trying to go through to get the team to a highly competitive level that can sustain and be consistent and handle the ebbs and flows of an NFL season.

"...It's something that we're trying to lay a foundation for. I think that we've seen some strides that we've made with the team this year. We obviously need to improve and build upon that going forward."

Since Patricia took over, the Lions have struggled. They went 6-10 in his first season and are 3-10-1 in his second year, on pace for a potential top-five pick in the 2020 draft. It has led to speculation about Patricia and Quinn being fired.

"That would have been the popular choice, the popular decision, and we knew that," Lions vice chairwoman Sheila Ford Hamp said. "But, as I say, we're doing what is right for the organization."

What is right for the organization could be avoiding another rebuild so soon after committing resources to a specific vision laid out by Patricia and Quinn. Since hiring Patricia in February 2018, the Lions have rebuilt much of their team -- even if Patricia has refused to call what has happened with Detroit the past two seasons a rebuild.

The Lions have brought pieces in to fit what Patricia has been looking for, including free agents Trey Flowers and Danny Amendola last offseason.

"This is a process," Patricia said Nov. 25. "I know there's a lot in play here that we're going through, and we're trying to build, and we're trying to do the best we can to improve and get better."

Patricia's process has never been given a timeline, with the Lions having deconstructed a lot of the roster from coach Jim Caldwell's final team to remake it in the Quinn and Patricia image.

When Quinn fired Caldwell, he did so saying he believed his roster was better than 9-7 and that even with an over-.500 record, "we didn't beat the really good teams."

Just 18 players remain on Detroit's roster -- including players on injured reserve -- from Caldwell's final team in 2017. Only five -- Darius Slay, Stafford, Don Muhlbach, Matt Prater and Sam Martin -- remain from when Quinn took over in January 2016, replacing Martin Mayhew.

In back-to-back years close to the trade deadline, Patricia and Quinn traded a key member from the Caldwell-Mayhew era Lions -- Golden Tate in 2018 and Quandre Diggs in October -- for future draft picks.

Patricia, 45, has often spoken about the fight his team has had throughout the season -- the club led at some point in each of the first 12 games -- and has continually believed they are close to turning things in a positive direction.

"It's always hard to judge and say, 'Definitely, this is exactly where we are and where we're going to be,'" Patricia said. "I would say I'm always encouraged by the way that the team right now fights every single week. I'm encouraged by some of the players that I see out there improving and getting better and playing more consistent. And even some of the players that have been forced into, kind of, action because of whatever circumstance may be, showing up in a positive way.

"So, I think those are all things that we look for as signs that we're moving in a good direction from that standpoint of at least trying to improve overall as a team."

Patricia will now receive a third year to try to create his vision. After a loss to Minnesota on Dec. 8, he focused on the big picture.

"I know there's been a lot of coaches that have taken over programs and really tried to start and build something and work from the bottom and try to grow on it and build it," Patricia said. "And I know what those records look like, too, when those guys have all started out."

Later that week, Patricia declined to say which coaches he looked at when focusing on program creation. Since 1980, only four coaches have won Super Bowls at the place they were coaching after finishing their first two seasons with back-to-back losing records: Pete Carroll in Seattle, Jimmy Johnson in Dallas, Dick Vermeil in St. Louis and Bill Walsh in San Francisco.

All four of those coaches took over programs that had at least two straight losing seasons when they were hired. The Lions had finished 9-7 in back-to-back seasons before Patricia was hired.

At 9-20-1, Patricia's .317 winning percentage is just above that of Darryl Rogers (.310), Rod Marinelli (.208) and Marty Mornhinweg (.156) among full-time Lions head coaches in the modern era.