Detroit Lions' woes fall on GM Bob Quinn just as much as Jim Caldwell

The Lions' playoff hopes are spiraling down.

The team has lost its past two games and most of the focus has been on coach Jim Caldwell. And for good reason. He absolutely botched the game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens. There was another slow start. There were horrible time management issues. And putting nine guys on the field? Without calling a timeout? When it looked like absolute chaos? That’s on Caldwell.

Right on cue, fans started screaming: “Fire Caldwell!”

Which was understandable.

But don’t lose sight of the big picture: Focusing on the coach might ease some of this season's frustration, but firing Caldwell isn’t going to change a mediocre team into a Super Bowl contender.

When it comes down to it, the only person who can fix this mess is general manager Bob Quinn.

More on the Lions:

Lions' futility after Ravens loss summed up in two words: 'It sucks'

Lions QB Matthew Stafford 'not out of the woods' with hand injury

Problems with the roster

Before this season, with left tackle Taylor Decker projected to miss the first half of the season with a shoulder injury, many people looked at the Lions’ talent and said: “Yikes, that looks like a .500 team, at best.”

But that all changed after the Lions won three of their first four games; expectations skyrocketed. But, in retrospect, who did the Lions really beat during that start?

They beat the Arizona Cardinals, a team that is now 5-7. They beat the New York Giants, a organization that has already fired its coach and GM. And they beat the Minnesota Vikings on a day when running back Dalvin Cook blew out his knee. At that stage, the Vikings were 2-2 and still adjusting to Case Keenum as their starting quarterback.

Since that victory in Minnesota, the Lions are 3-5. They had a golden opportunity in the division, with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers breaking his collarbone. But they have squandered it.

The Lions are going backward. They are not improving. And Caldwell deserves blame for that.

But so does Quinn. He is the guy who put together this roster.

The root of the problem is Detroit’s inability to run the ball; that’s more on Quinn than Caldwell. Quinn revamped the offensive line during the off-season and bet that Ameer Abdullah would be the answer. Now, the Lions struggle to gain a yard on third-and-short. And they are still searching for their first 100-yard rusher since late 2013.

To be fair, the hope for a successful running game went sideways when Decker was injured. And there have been a rash of injuries along the offensive line since then.

I’m not making excuses for Caldwell. Far from it. I blame Caldwell for his team’s slow starts. I blame him for a long list of in-game decisions. And he drives me crazy, trying to run the ball with a team that can’t run the ball. But some of the blame has to go on the players, too.

Firing Caldwell would be nothing but a diversion from the real problem.

We have seen this story way too many times in Detroit. Firing a coach makes everybody feel good … until the Lions struggle again and everybody wants the new coach fired. Hire a coach, fire a coach. Wash, rinse, repeat. It's an endless cycle that goes nowhere, especially here in the land of mediocrity.



This is a mediocre, flawed team. It doesn’t matter who is coaching: The Lions aren’t going to become legitimate contenders until they get the players.

And the pressure is on Quinn to make that happen.

Coaching changes not always a fix

Let’s zoom back and look at the big picture. Caldwell was one of seven coaches hired in 2014 and you can easily make the argument that he has been one of the more successful hires in that class. Let's start with the frightful four:

• Ken Whisenhunt didn’t even make it two seasons in Tennessee. He was fired after going 3-20.

• Lovie Smith lasted just two years with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, going 8-24.

• Mike Pettine was booted from the Cleveland Browns, going 10-22 over two seasons.

• Jay Gruden has been muddling along with the Washington Redskins, putting together a 26-33 record with one playoff appearance.

In fact, other than Caldwell, only two coaches hired in 2014 have winning records:

• Bill O'Brien has a 31-29 record with the Houston Texans, going 1-2 in the playoffs.

• Mike Zimmer took over the Minnesota Vikings and went 26-22 in his first two seasons. Now, of course, Zimmer has the Vikings soaring, with a 10-2 record. But he has only one playoff appearance.

I point out the successes and failures of those coaches not to argue that it is a reason for Caldwell to keep his job but to stress that changing coaches rarely transforms a mediocre franchise into a contender.

The Lions have three winnable games coming up, assuming Matthew Stafford's bruised hand doesn't prevent him from playing. If the Lions come out and look like they did at Baltimore, yes, Caldwell should be gone.

But be careful before you think a new coach is the answer.

The real problems are something only Quinn can solve. He has had the job less than two years, and we still don’t know if he’s capable of turning this around.

At this point, the evidence is becoming alarming, and the honeymoon is over.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel/