ALLEN PARK -- Players rarely weigh in on the fate of their coaches, but Matthew Stafford has waded into those waters.

The Detroit Lions quarterback gave Jim Bob Cooter a vote of confidence on Monday, and said he'd like to see his offensive coordinator return for another season.

"Jim Bob and I have a great relationship," Stafford said as he cleaned out his locker at team headquarters. "Ever since he's had the opportunity to take the reins, this offense has moved in the right direction in my opinion. I feel like I'm playing some of the best football in my career.

"So I would love to have the opportunity to keep working with him. He's been good for us, and good for me."

Detroit has fired head coach Jim Caldwell and offensive line coach Ron Prince, but left the rest of the staff intact for now.

Cooter joined Caldwell's original staff in 2014 as the quarterbacks coach, then was promoted to coordinator after the dismissal of Joe Lombardi in the middle of the 2015 season. And an offense and quarterback that had stagnated immediately took off.

In 41 games since Cooter's promotion, Stafford has completed 66.3 percent of his passes for 73 touchdowns, 24 interceptions and a QB rating of 98.2. In the 41 games before that, Stafford completed 60.5 percent of his passes for 66 touchdowns, 42 interceptions and a QB rating of 85.3.

That's a dramatic leap, especially in the accuracy and turnover numbers. He's throwing a pick roughly half as often as he did before Cooter's promotion, while throwing for almost as many yards and more touchdowns.

Cooter has helped tighten up Stafford's technique, especially his footwork. But most of the gains are the product of a shift in philosophy. Cooter's offense pulled back on the downfield passes for a while, instead preferring to distribute the ball to skill players on low-risk throws into the short or intermediate field.

Then once Marvin Jones started blossoming this year, and Kenny Golladay was added to the fold, Cooter brought back the deep ball. Stafford racked up the second-most deep passing yards this year, while also posting the second-best QB rating on the deep ball (111.6).

And Stafford would like to continue operating in that scheme.

"I think continuity is important in this league to a certain extent, and I voiced my opinions earlier just a second ago on our guys on the offensive staff," Stafford said. "I think they do a good job, I think our offense is going in the right direction, I think our team is close. So we'll see what happens."

Stafford has put up big numbers throughout his career since the Lions took him first overall in 2009, but rarely has he done so with this kind of efficiency, and never for this long of a stretch. He ranked among the top-10 quarterbacks in the league in every major passing statistic this year. And he didn't leave out Caldwell when he was handing out praise.

"He's been great," Stafford said. "He's as level-headed a guy as I've ever been around, understands the position of quarterback really well and was great for me and great for a lot of guys on offense just to bounce ideas off of, so I have a ton of respect for him. just the way he carried himself, the coached us, the way he treated everybody. He's a great guy and a great coach."

Of course, the Lions still had their problems offensively. Nowhere was that more true than in the running game, which finished last in the league in both yards per game and yards per attempt. And those issues are some of the biggest reasons why Caldwell is out of a job.

But there's also no disputing he delivered on one of his biggest promises -- that he would develop Matthew Stafford.