ALLEN PARK, Mich. – One thing that becomes apparent as the smoke clears from the ruins of the NFL's Black Monday is that the league's most promising open head coaching position is here with the Detroit Lions.

"I can verify that by the number of calls [from candidates] I've already received," team president Tom Lewand said just a little over two hours after dismissing Jim Schwartz.

The Lions are a great job right now, one that should attract the best candidates.

This is a sentiment perhaps never before uttered about a franchise that has famously won just a single playoff game since 1957 and generally bumbles about the league.

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This is different.

Detroit fired Schwartz following a 7-9 season in which the Lions should've won 10 or 11 games, captured the NFC North and hosted a home playoff game this week, not a coaching search news conference.

That's should've won 10 or 11, not could've. The Lions could've won even more, of course, but that's only if every break went their way in a league where that doesn't happen.

Detroit was 6-3 in mid November however, atop a mediocre division that saw the other two contenders (Green Bay and Chicago) without their starting quarterbacks. It proceeded to lose six of seven, blowing a fourth-quarter lead in each defeat. Win just half of those and they are in the playoffs.

This team, with this roster, is primed to win and were primed to win not just tomorrow, but yesterday. It's a complete 180 from the last time Detroit went looking for a coach, in 2009 following an 0-16 season with the wreckage of a Matt Millen-produced roster.

Prime candidates wanted no part of such a massive rebuild, leaving the job to Schwartz. He was a defensive coordinator with Tennessee who did an admirable job building things up, but appeared incapable of getting the team to the next level.

This is now a contender in waiting, one that should be on the radar of proven NFL winners such as Ken Whisenhunt and Lovie Smith, or hot candidate Bill O’Brien of Penn State.

This is, franchise history notwithstanding, an ideal opportunity for a competent coach. This isn't a rebuilding. It's a rebranding. Just turn the key.

"We think we are pretty far along in the process and we don't want to start over," Lewand said.

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If one message was clear from the Lions on Monday, it's that Schwartz didn't convey a sense of possibility to the players. When the inevitable adversity struck, Detroit too often gave up. A change in mentality is critical here.

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