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Better hope he gets a good staff. He has hired the Eagles QB coach for offensive coordinator.
College...who cares? Bill Walsh was not an exceptional college coach, but a legend at the pro level. It's a different skill set that it takes to succeed at the respective levels.
Whether Caldwell is the best X's and O's guy or whether he had his team as fired up as another coach, those are sidebars. I think that the fact that he went 14-2 and had earned the respect of coaches like Dungy and John Harbaugh is enough for me.
Whether it's a good hire or not is a different issue - a coach can be a good coach in one situation and bad in another. I agree it could be a bad hire, but I still think he's an okay coach. Yeah, he made the infamous timeout decision, but even great coaches have made really boneheaded moves - Belichick's made several and nobody's about to question his coaching ability. His sanity sometimes, but not his ability.
I'm wondering if this team will adjust to someone trying to bring in some structure. He is known for working with QBs, will Stafford accept it? He has said, I don't need a QB coach telling me what to do. Jeff Saturday said Caldwell had a plan every Wed. and expected players to adhere to his plan. In the past, it didn't appear Lions had a strict structure, this could be interesting!
I think the Lions problems are deeper than that, and I'm really curious to see how he handles Stafford. But more to the point, I'm really curious to see how he handles a defense that occasionally just does inexplicably dumb things and a team that lacks discipline. Schwartzy's answer was to talk to Suh after he did something dumb as he was coming off the sideline, but he relied on the NFL to impose discipline. He really has to be a disciplinarian. Lovie would have been a better hire. Not sure I'm entirely sold on Wizzy but he was definitely a good offensive coach and could have really done great things for that offense.
The Lions need a Jim Harbaugh in a bottle. They don't need a players' coach; they need someone who's going to come in and absolutely hold people accountable. I don't think they've hired that guy, but we'll see. I'm not even a Lions fan but as a football fan, it would be a terrible waste to watch this team get old and injured without even coming close to achieving their full potential. They're easily a Super Bowl contender with the right management.
The Lions would have been better off buying a coffee table as their head coach... It would be much cheaper with identical results!!
Jim Caldwell is a good person but SUCKS as a coach!! His "deer in the headlights" look on the Colts' sideline was always priceless... He got outcoached in many games here! I saw it first hand on the sidelines of Peyton Manning's last game as a Colt... The playoff game against the Jets.
The Lions would have been better off buying a coffee table as their head coach... It would be much cheaper with identical results!!
Jim Caldwell is a good person but SUCKS as a coach!! His "deer in the headlights" look on the Colts' sideline was always priceless... He got outcoached in many games here! I saw it first hand on the sidelines of Peyton Manning's last game as a Colt... The playoff game against the Jets.
That timeout was on par with Marty Mornhinweg kicking off in OT.
College...who cares? Bill Walsh was not an exceptional college coach, but a legend at the pro level. It's a different skill set that it takes to succeed at the respective levels.
Whether Caldwell is the best X's and O's guy or whether he had his team as fired up as another coach, those are sidebars. I think that the fact that he went 14-2 and had earned the respect of coaches like Dungy and John Harbaugh is enough for me.
Whether it's a good hire or not is a different issue - a coach can be a good coach in one situation and bad in another. I agree it could be a bad hire, but I still think he's an okay coach. Yeah, he made the infamous timeout decision, but even great coaches have made really boneheaded moves - Belichick's made several and nobody's about to question his coaching ability. His sanity sometimes, but not his ability.
I bet that 14-2 year was the year after Dungy left.
Barry Switzer won a Super Bowl the year after Jimmy Johnson left.
I just think some people are better coordinators than coaches. He is one of them IMO.
I'm very unhappy with this hire. I hope to god they know more than me and will prove me wrong. I just don't see good things to come with Caldwell. I feel like this is going to be yet another bad decision made by good ole mr. Ford.
The Lions need a Jim Harbaugh in a bottle. They don't need a players' coach; they need someone who's going to come in and absolutely hold people accountable. I don't think they've hired that guy, but we'll see. I'm not even a Lions fan but as a football fan, it would be a terrible waste to watch this team get old and injured without even coming close to achieving their full potential. They're easily a Super Bowl contender with the right management.
I was hoping so much for Josh McDaniels. I really thought it might happen after we didn't get Whisenhunt. I wasn't 100% sold on him(wisenhunt) but I felt like he could be better than Caldwell.
Maybe I'm just drinking the yellow Kool-Aid and eating the stale cornbread, but I have a good feeling about the Caldwell hire. He isn't the "sexy" pick like Whisenhunt, but he's experienced as a head coach and he took a team to the Superbowl (albeit with Peyton Manning) and lost to a very strong New Orleans Saints team in 2009.
His primary challenge is to find a way to help Stafford grow into a Peyton Manning or near-Manning and to cut down on the team's turnovers. I'm not real sour on the defensive coordinator hiring either. He hired the Ravens' DB coach, and we all know that the Lions could use improved coaching of the DB's.
IMHO, coaching is an art and it's very difficult to predict which combination of players and coaches will work out. A "sexy candidate" can take over a team and have bad chemistry and do poorly whereas a relatively unknown coach can have success. As with draft picks, we won't really be able to grade him for two seasons (unless he has an extremely bad or good season in his first year).
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