For a team with one winning season in the last 13, the Lions have lofty aspirations.
And with a trio of stars making most of their money, they know there’s not much time to develop.
When new coach Jim Caldwell declared “the time is now,” to win, he set a bar that management isn’t pulling back from.
“It’s a year of let’s go right now,” team president Tom Lewand said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. “I think you heard Jim say it in his introductory press conference, we heard it in his interviews, you hear it from our players, there’s no five-year plans here.”
Lewand said the roster construction was a big part of the reason they hired Caldwell, known as a steadying influence who can work well with quarterbacks. Given the investment in Matthew Stafford, that was deliberate.
“I think part of it is where we are as a football team, where our players are in their careers, and the type of head coach we brought in,” Lewand said. “We didn’t bring in a head coach this time who’s becoming a head coach for the first time and learning as he goes. There’s no adjustment period for him in terms of being a head coach, there’s no adjustment period for him in terms of the expectations that he had for his staff and how he’s going to build his staff. He knows what he’s looking for.
“He’s been to the Super Bowl as a head coach, he’s been to the Super Bowl twice as a top assistant. So he knows what it is he’s looking for, he knows how he wants to build his football team and wants to do it right now.”
So, there you go Jim. No pressure. Just do what hasn’t been done there ever. No problem.