The momentum is building toward a new head coach in Detroit, with Jim Schwartz likely to get the boot after five years, a playoff appearance in 2011, a 4-12 backslide in 2012, and a failure to win the NFC North in a none-of-the-above 2013 season.
The bigger question becomes whether G.M. Martin Mayhew will also be fired after five years on the job. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network said earlier in the hour that the front office could indeed be cleaned out in Detroit.
That raises another important question. Could team president Tom Lewand also be in trouble? Lewand, who like Mayhew and Schwartz has spent five years in his current job, has been employed by the Lions for 19 years. Largely able to avoid accountability for football failures because he’s not a football guy, a clean sweep of the front office would include, technically, Lewand.
A change that dramatic would indeed signify that the Lions are moving in a new direction, ripping away all ties to the Matt Millen era and the years preceding it and turning the page at a time when the roster contains enough talent to entice candidates with options to opt for Detroit.
It would also suggest that the notoriously loyal and patient Ford family finally has had enough mediocrity, especially when the talent on the team suggests that the results should be much, much better.