Detroit Lions: GM Timeline Won’t Save Jim Caldwell’s Job
By Zac Snyder
Indianapolis Colts hire Chuck Pagano
January 26, 2012
After conducting a full general manager search and delaying the decision on the future of Caldwell, the Colts had their next head coach in place before the Super Bowl. In less than four weeks the Colts went from cleaning house with no thought of who would take over the front office to having an entirely new regime and head coach in place.
Perhaps Grigson and/or Pagano turned out to be the wrong hires (I’d say Grigson was a mistake with Pagano more or less a victim of Grigson’s roster building), but that has to do with decision making, not schedule or timeline.
I can’t guarantee that Jim Caldwell won’t be the Lions’ head coach next season but if he is, it shouldn’t be because of the GM search timeline. The Colts had a lot of moving parts and big decisions to make in the winter of 2012 and with him still maintaining the support of Irsay, at least initially, it would have been easy to leave him in place for a year.
The Colts situation wasn’t enough to save Caldwell’s job in Indianapolis so there is no reason to believe the situation in Detroit will be such that Caldwell maintains his job by default.