Detroit Lions: Is Jim Caldwell’s fate already sealed?
By Zac Snyder
With nothing to play for in week 17, is Sunday’s game definitely Jim Caldwell’s last game as head coach of the Detroit Lions?
It didn’t take long after the Detroit Lions‘ being eliminated from playoff contention with their week 16 loss at the Cincinnati Bengals for rumors of a coaching change to start swirling. That comes as no surprise after the Lions have had some of the same struggles for two years under Jim Caldwell after Bob Quinn made the somewhat unconventional choice to retain Caldwell as head coach after being hired as the Lions’ new general manager.
Caldwell is by all accounts a fine man and maintains the respect of the locker room, but there is little reason to believe he is the man to get the Lions over the proverbial hump. At today’s media session, Caldwell acknowledged that simply competing for playoff berths wasn’t the reason he was hired. The expectations were bigger.
Caldwell was asked about making the Lions a playoff contending team over the last 4 years & said his job when he came here was not to get into playoff conversation, but to win championships. Not doing so yet is “unacceptable"
— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) December 28, 2017
By that standard, Caldwell’s tenure has been a failure and change could be coming. But has the decision for change already been made? Martha Ford and Rod Wood declined comment when asked following last week’s game but the ultimate decision should lie with Bob Quinn.
Perhaps and indication that a head coaching change is inevitable comes from The MMQB’s Albert Breer who upgraded (or perhaps downgrade) Caldwell and the Lions into his “likely/done” tier of coaching changes – the most likely of the three tiers of potential change Breer identified. That puts the Lions in the company of teams like the Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts and New York Giants.
"With the Lions eliminated, I moved this one from the “maybe” pile, as rumblings have held for a few weeks that Jim Caldwell would be in trouble if he missed the playoffs. I’d expect Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia to be a consideration if Caldwell gets whacked, with the possibility that Jim Bob Cooter and the offensive staff stay."
The idea of Jim Bob Cooter being retained won’t sit well with some fans but there is some intrigue in the possibility. The plus is obviously the work he’s done with Matthew Stafford while the disappointing run game is a huge negative. However, the unanswered question is, how much is Cooter really in control of the offense or the play calling?
Is Cooter really running and calling plays that he wants or is he shackled a philosophy from Caldwell that leads to an insistence on running more than the team should given their liabilities. It’s old school thinking that a team must establish the run to set up the pass. A team could just as easily turn that philosophy upside down and use success in the passing game to set up the run. The Lions seem set up well to take that approach but they too often appear dead set on running
That’s not at all to say that Cooter is absolved from responsibility. As a former quarterback and quarterback coach he’s admitted to being more green in the running game and that’s an area he will need to improve.
Next: 7 Lions who could be gone in 2018
If change is indeed coming it will be interesting to see just how much change there will be. Sometimes change is needed, and the Lions have that feel, but some continuity can be important too.