So this was pretty much the season everyone expected. We finished 7-9 (I had them at 8-8), regressed a bit on defense, improved a bit on offense. 1-7 vs. eventual playoff teams. I'm tired of hearing about how impressive the turnaround was, when really all that happened is we started playing crap teams in the 2nd half of the season. With the lone Lambeau miracle exception, every win came against teams finishing with the same or worse records.

Stafford had an OK year, being towards the top of the pack in a few key categories (QB Rating, Completion PCT, TD's), but is still struggling with yards/attempt and INTs. Of course those don't tell the entire story, as he kept up his tradition of padding stats against horrid teams and getting shut down big time by good D's.

I guess there's a few upsides to this season. They have finally washed out the funk Matt Millen left behind in Lewand and Mayhew. Hopefully our GM search lands a good candidate shortly. I could really care less what happens to our current coaching staff at this point. The emergence of Theo Riddick as a weapon few NFL teams have or seem to know how to stop was pretty awesome. Hopefully we use him more next year. Ansah is a rockstar who will hopefully keep getting better. Abdullah has potential if we can open holes and he holds onto the ball. Ebron is catching on as a receiver, even though he has a long way to go to live up to his draft spot.

I'm not sure what direction this team will go in the draft. We still need help at OT/DT. Our safeties are getting up there in years. We could use another ILB. O-Line is probably the most important at this point though. I have no confidence in Stafford's ability to beat good defenses, but if there's anything that's going to help, it's more time in the pocket.

See you next season.

Stafford did his normal stat padding vs bad teams to make himself look good but hes still the best qb were gonna get. A middle of the ground nfl qb which still makes him the best lions qb in history. I think with a good offseason we can be right back in the playoff hunt.

Gm search is interesting. I wonder if whoever we hire is gonna keep Caldwell.Sucks cause he sucks but I dont see any candidates that are to interesting to replace him with. Alot of empty head coaching jobs this season as well. We wont be a first option for anybody over the giants/titans/eagles.Top need in the draft is for sure olineman.

Wish we could of pulled off a couple more wins or lost more to have a better draft pick. Pretty typical lions season with some bright spots and alot of bad spots. At least we have Ansah!

Better luck next season guys. Go Lions!

Calvin is considering doing the Barry Sanders on us. http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2016/01/...ring-retiring/. At least we save cap space if he retires.

I can't really say I blame Calvin. He's been banged up so much through these last few years that I have to imagine it takes a massive toll on you mentally and physically.

He's always seemed like one of those guys that has plenty going on outside of football, can't really blame him for wanting to preserve what he has left of his body and moving on.

Yeah I dont blame him. Hes always been a diff kind of dude. Hes given the lions everything he has and been amazing on and off the field .

At least hes not waiting till training camps about to begin to retire like Barry did. If he does retire I'm gonna miss him. The lions wont ever have another modest best in the league WR like him ever again.

Ya'all think Detroit will ask Calvin for his signing bonus back if he does retire?

Does a team ever NOT ask for part of it back? It seems pretty standard.

Yes, it is standard. But that's only because the precedent which I was referencing, set when an arbitrator ruled that Barry had to return a portion of his previous signing bonus upon his retirement. That's (part of) what caused bad blood between Barry & Lions management for so long after the retirement. Which basically lasted until Barry agreed to appear in the Lions version of the Play 60 commercials just a couple years ago.

*this is all iirc obviously

relevant article

"Ware has tried repeatedly to get the Lions to trade their rights to Sanders. He said other teams appear reluctant to discuss Sanders while he is still property of the Lions."

God what a cartel that league is...

Bob Quinn from NE is likely to be announced soon. Definitely not an sol move.

Sick hire

Bye Felicia. (JC)

Not even sure who's out there to hire in place of Caldwell. I don't love the prospect of promoting Austin or Cooter to HC and I doubt Quinn would do that.

I think at this point you're just trying to find your next Bruce Arians by throwing a dart at a coordinator and hoping he works out.

Josh McDaniels baby, Tebow is our QB next year

I would take literally anyone over JC.

Yup rumors are that hes a top candidate. Really though I'll take him just on the basis theres nobody out there to hire. He cant be a worse coach then Caldwell its impossible.

Anyways I'm excited about the new GM. Guys got experience in the pats warroom. Good drafting is the key to having a winning franchise. Not a SOL hire thats for sure.

I'm excited too. All I really want to see is him be given 3 years tops to turn the franchise around. No more 7 years of crap followed by 7 years of his crappy assistant. I cant really blame Martha for making this hire, but I will blame her if she sticks by him when its obvious he isnt the guy.

Yeah hopefully he'll have a shorter leash then the past GMS. I'm pretty confident hes gonna at least draft better then what we've had. Drafting well is the key to having strong teams. The M&M regimes had a obsession with pass catchers and rbs in the draft.

The year we took Ebron the lions had Ebron as the #2 offensive player on their board behind another pass catcher S.Watkins who they wanted to trade multiple picks to land. Ebron was rated over M.Evans/OBJ/and the oline guys even LOL. T.Austin was lobbying for Donald but Mayhew felt we needed a TE. Mayhew didnt want Donald he was confident in resigning Suh what a clown. He wouldnt pass up a 2nd DT in Fairley for R.Quinn the year after we draft Suh though just so fail.


http://www.mlive.com/lions/index.ssf..._i_lobbie.html

I expect a decision about Caldwell's fate by gametime Saturday. It's probably already been made but they'll announce before games to damper the chatter.

As much as Caldwell sucks in game I can't be the only one here who's on the fence about whether to fire him. Seems pretty clear he's above average from post to pre gametime based on player comments and team behavior last two seasons. Equally terrible during actual games.

Pros to keeping Caldwell:

• seemingly unanimous player support
• leader of men?
• calvin may take a pay cut and not retire
• stafford's mancrush james robert cooter would likely remain. they went 6-2 together against ****ty defenses but gotta love jbc being young and aggressive, stafford being top 5 qb last half and posting his best numbers ever over an 8 game stretch.
• offense doesn't need to learn a new system
• classy, learned

Cons to keeping Caldwell:

• give up 1.5(?!?!) wins per year due to poor game decison making
• more conservative than ted cruz

ideally i'd like to see caldwell fired, teryl austin promoted to HC to ensure JBC remains OC. think that ensures best possible chance of winning soon. that or retain caldwell for another year and keep rest of staff intact.

really i just don't want to see stafford/jbc separated and stafford have to learn a new system again. intrigued to see what those two could do together with an offseason to prepare. second half of season stafford was clowning on D's when given time.

basically I'm all right with the MFF/Wood/Quinn/JC/Austin&Cooter/Stafford structure for another year. maybe quinn can hire a game theory analyst to provide checks & balances on caldwell in game. that'd be ideal!

SOL

I think JC sucks as a coach but I just dont see any good options. Easier to keep him for next season see what happens and if theirs a better candidate out there or we start piling up losses early you can fire him no problem. If you sign a new scrub they'll give him at least 2 seasons.

If thats what it took to keep CJ and our coordinators I cant say its a bad call. If Quinn drafts well this team has a chance with JC.

I didn't want JC two years ago, don't want him now.

That said, this team has been a 9-7 team the last two years and ran hot once and ran bad once.


They can still make the playoffs with this group. Once in the playoffs, you have a shot.

Quinn is cleaning house, taking the axe to the strength and conditioning and scouting departments. Go get em Quinn!

Happy Retirement Sweet Prince