After just 5 seasons, the Detroit Lions have decided to fire the man that restored the roar in Detroit just a few years ago, Jim Schwartz.
The big motivator for his removal from the program was a dismal 4-12 record last year and an 8 game losing streak to end the 2013 season, both following a 2011 playoff appearance that appeared to lead on that the Lions were heading in the direction of being a powerhouse football team.
The question stands as this though: why just Schwartz? Why have other people in this program not been given consideration for removal or why has no one decided to light a fire beneath them?
The single biggest culprit of under-performance is Matthew Stafford. The man leading the Lions on offense is just as responsible as Schwartz for what has happened in the past couple of years. He has all the talent in the world but cannot fix his own mistakes on the field.
Don’t fire Stafford, at least not yet. Make moves to show him that he is NOT the only option to lead the Lions on offense. Recently, there has been talk of bringing on a quarterback coach for Stafford who has declined due to it not being “his style.”
Well unfortunately Stafford, you only get a style when you are winning. Tom Brady, sure he can decline. Peyton Manning? He’ll end up teaching the coaches something. Even Ben Roethlisberger has earned his stripes to turn down extra help.
Stafford needs to wake up from this fantasyland where his numbers carry his career. His numbers are phenomenal; there is no doubt about that. Where he fails is when the game is on the line when he needs to push the ball down the field, the clutch situations that make quarterbacks in the NFL.
Maybe this is where Schwartz has failed most is with motivating Stafford. There is one other sore eye in the way of the Detroit Lions is the Lions receiving core. Calvin Johnson is one of the best wide outs in the game.
To win though, there needs to be more options than run the ball(where the Lions ranked at about the middle of the pack this season) or throw the ball the Calvin Johnson. The production from other wide outs on the team is dismal, not just in comparison with Johnson, but in comparison to other teams as well.
This is perhaps displayed best in games where Johnson doesn’t play, games that the Lions tend to do terribly in. In week five they looked terrible against Green Bay, on week 17 against Minnesota they looked like a shadow of themselves earlier in the season when they had beaten Minnesota by more than a touchdown.
Overall the blame may fall on Schwartz and a lack of discipline in the Lions locker room, however it may behoove the Lions organization to consider other cuts and changes before the 2014 season.
