Jim Bob Cooter was hailed as one of the brightest young minds in the NFL when he transformed the Detroit Lions’ sputtering offense into one of the league’s most efficient units after taking over for Joe Lombardi midway through the 2015 season.

Three years later, Cooter and his quarterback are taking on equal amounts of fire as the Lions are once again searching for ways to get more out of an offense that everyone agrees should be much better than it is.

“I try to figure out how many radios and internets and newspapers I can get around my office so I can really soak all that stuff up,” Cooter joked Monday. “I mean, really it’s the same thing I’ve said a couple times and the reality of the situation, this league is a week-by-week, year-by-year league. You’re kind of judged on your results. We want better results. Our goal is to play better offensively to help our team win games, so it’s probably not very wise for me to worry about all the sort of outside talk or all the speculation. It’s pretty wise for me to sort of get ready for the next opponent, evaluate our offense, what we can do better, what we should do better and how we can kind of improve as the year goes.”

After Nathaniel Hackett was fired as Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator Monday, Cooter is sitting on perhaps the hottest coordinator seat in the NFL.

He’s working for a coach he had no prior relationship with before this season, in charge of an offense that ranks in the bottom 12 of the league in both yards and points, and calling plays for a unit that has no clear path to improvement now that Marvin Jones is out for the season and with Kerryon Johnson still battling a knee injury.

Matthew Stafford, who made public and private pleas for the Lions to retain Cooter before Matt Patricia was even hired as head coach last February, has plateaued in his play, and the 4-7 Lions are on the verge of mathematical playoff elimination.

Cooter acknowledged the difficulty of the situation he’s in — the Lions also traded away leading receiver Golden Tate last month, and are down to Kenny Golladay and a bunch of backups at the position going forward — but was at ease Monday answering a barrage of questions about his future and the Lions’ offensive troubles.

“At the end of the day you’re judged on winning and losing,” Cooter said. “We’re not winning as often as we would like right now, and especially offensively we’re not helping our team win as often as we would like right now. It’s a team game. That goes for the coaches, that goes for the players as well. It’s all of us and it starts with me offensively. I’ve got to do a better job getting our guys ready.”

Cooter’s offense was supposed to be the thing that kept the Lions afloat this year as they transitioned to a new defense under Patricia.

The Lions entered the season with one of the best wide receiver trios in the NFL (Jones, Tate and Golladay), a refurbished offensive line and a well-paid quarterback who seemed primed to take advantage of the best running game he’s ever had.

Jim Bob Cooter for president? Jim Bob Cooter for president!

But while Johnson has flourished at times and Golladay has emerged as a potential No. 1 receiver, there’s been a disconnect with Stafford and the rest of the offense.

With 11 games in the books, Stafford has 13 turnovers and is on pace to tie a career high 47 sacks, and the Lions are averaging a paltry 21.6 points per game, far below the league-leading New Orleans Saints (37.2 ppg) and the potent Los Angeles Rams (35.4 ppg), whose innovative approach will be on display at Ford Field this week.

“I sort of stay away from the comparisons,” Cooter said when asked why his offense isn’t on par with that of other NFL teams. “It’s funny how that works, but hey, guys are out there in the league doing a lot of really good things. When we have opportunities to study different teams and look at different things, we do plenty of that. But we’re building this thing around our guys, we’re building this thing with our team in mind to try to win football games.”

Most recently, that’s meant putting shackles on Stafford and the offense’s big-play ability.

In last week’s loss to the Chicago Bears, the Lions attempted just two passes over 15 yards as they neither had the playmakers to win downfield nor wanted to subject Stafford to excessive hits from the Bears defense.

Stafford is completing 67 percent of his passes, the second-highest of his career, but he’s averaging just 7 yards per attempt and has become a favorite scapegoat for fans.

“None of us are perfect,” Cooter said. “We all got things we’ve got to improve upon. But Matthew Stafford’s a really good football player. I’m excited to call plays and let him go execute them. I’m excited to work with him on a daily basis. I stand behind him. I think he’s an excellent player. He’ll continue to get better. He’ll continue to help this team win games.”

The question is how many games, and with just five weeks left in the season, whether that will be enough to save Cooter’s job.

Cooter said Monday those judgments are for others to make, and the only thing on his mind now is beating the Rams.

“It is my goal to continuously improve,” he said. “Day after day, week after week, month after month. It’s not my goal to stand up here and say look how much I have improved, or haven’t, or whatever, but I’m certainly trying to get better.

“It’s really a fascinating game when you get really in-depth with it, in-depth with the strategy, with the psychology, with the people, dealing with different types of guys, different types of people that grew up in different environments. It’s a really interesting job, one I really enjoy, and I am working really hard to get better every single day. Whether or not that is happening, I’ll let you write the story.”

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!