A pair of incidents early in Matt Patricia's tenure with the Detroit Lions may have contributed to the team trading Darius Slay this week, the player told ESPN.

In the wake of his trade to the Philadelphia Eagles, Slay talked about his respect for Lions owner Martha Ford, his teammates and the city of Detroit. However, he didn't see "eye-to-eye a lot" with the coach.

The first incident involved Patricia telling Slay that he wasn't an "elite" corner, despite coming off an All-Pro nod after leading the NFL with eight interceptions in 2017.

"I'm like, 'Huh?' I said, 'Huh.' I'm trying to see where he's coming at. He said I wasn't an elite corner and that I'm not in their category. I was coming off an All-Pro year, eight picks," Slay said. "That told me right there that he didn't have no respect for me. He told me I was a good player, but then to tell me what I'm not, so I said, OK. I just took that to the chin and said, 'OK, that's cool.'

"Then I bounced back to two back-to-back Pro Bowlers on him. Let him know how elite I was."

Slay was more bothered by Patricia's decision to single him out during a team meeting and tell him to stop kissing up to another player, who the cornerback had posted a photo of himself with on social media.