The Lions Go With Caldwell

The Detroit Lions will introduce their 26th head coach. Former Colts head coach and Ravens offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell will try to do what no man has done in 56 years and make the Lions a winner. The Lions apparently missed on former Cardinals head man Ken Whisenhunt. Caldwell beat out freshly booted Gary Kubiak (Texans) and Mike Munchak (Titans) to take over Detroit. Not sure if this head coach will work out for the Lions but at least he has a resume that makes you believe he can fix some of the problems with the team. That being said I do have my concerns.

Caldwell has the kind of background that the team says that they were looking for. He is a former head coach who is offensive minded. His Colts teams had two winning seasons before being fired for a 2-14 season. That last losing season most will give him a pass for due to his star quarterback not playing the entire season. The team also had plenty of injuries throughout the team and who has won in the NFL with Curtis Painter under center? The belief is that he could a good tutor for Matthew Stafford. Caldwell is a long time quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. The fact that a big part of his resume is that he coached Peyton Manning and not sure how much credit a coach gets for his development.

Caldwell does get a lot of credit for pushing the 2012 Ravens offense to the Superbowl after taking it over at the end of that season. His mentoring of a young Joe Flacco is believed to be the difference in their season. In 2013 Caldwell was not able to follow up on the success. Baltimore finished 26th in total offense this season. They were 30th in rushing and 18th in passing offense. That can largely be attributed to the offseason fire sale that the organization went through. Ray Rice was never 100% and Flacco really didn’t have a lot receiving options.

It appears that any of Caldwell’s shortcomings in the NFL come with extenuating circumstances. He is spoken extremely high of by former players and coaches that he has worked with. One of the major issues with the Lions last season was discipline. Being a disciple of Tony Dungy, Caldwell definitely get this team in line. Hopefully he can push Detroit in the right direction with some wins in the playoffs.

Keith B. Holt

Follow on Twitter @Kholtjr