When the Lions hired Bob Quinn as their new General Manager, some thought coach Jim Caldwell wasn’t going to be long for his job.
But after Quinn sat with Caldwell for 10 or 12 hours over the course of two days, he came to find out that his “philosophies” meshed with the coach he inherited.
“Just being able to get on the same page about how to acquire players, how to develop players,” Quinn said, via Tim Twentyman of the team’s official website. “I said in my press conference that I’m not a coach and I’m not going to be coaching them.
“It’s really to get a system in place to where he can be flexible to the players I bring in to develop them and mesh them into his offensive, defensive and special teams systems.”
Quinn said he didn’t talk to any players about the decision beforehand, though the continuity was a popular sentiment among the Lions in the locker room (such that they’d say so otherwise). And Quinn said that once he picks players and hands them off to Caldwell, he’s not going to interfere with them.
“What I’m going to ask the coaches to do is develop them,” Quinn said. “Players out here, on this field at the Senior Bowl, and even free agents that are younger players, they still need development.
“So that’s what I think one of the main jobs of the coach to do. Assistant coaches, head coach, everyone in-between is to develop these players so when the time and place is right to put them in the field, they are going to perform for the Lions.”
With the improvement the Lions showed the second half of the season, there’s a reasonable case to be made for Caldwell to stay put. And with Panthers G.M. Dave Gettleman and coach Ron Rivera turning a similar introduction into a Super Bowl team, the idea that staying the course can work has some traction.