Cooter is good

[inkfreq]

And this brings up a very good point. It may be vastly more difficult to find a new head coach in the near future, or even a GM, because the family may be unwilling to part with Austin and Cooter.

I don't think either of them has done enough to make them a "must keep", but it's entirely possible the Ford family sees it that way.

Imagine if you fire Caldwell, and then try to find a new head coach while telling them who they will have as their top coordinators. Or a GM while telling him the same thing.

It's going to limit the field of candidates considerably. Any qualified guy is going to want "his guys".

 

[mhughes0021]

And this brings up a very good point. It may be vastly more difficult to find a new head coach in the near future, or even a GM, because the family may be unwilling to part with Austin and Cooter.

I don't think either of them has done enough to make them a "must keep", but it's entirely possible the Ford family sees it that way.

Imagine if you fire Caldwell, and then try to find a new head coach while telling them who they will have as their top coordinators. Or a GM while telling him the same thing.

It's going to limit the field of candidates considerably. Any qualified guy is going to want "his guys".

Theres not many options out there with an entire staff of guys. Typically you pick the coach and theres little to no conversation about staff during interviews. Mainly because those candidates have no clue who will be available. Id say itd be rare at best to find a candidate that has an entire staff in mind.

 

[inkfreq]

Theres not many options out there with an entire staff of guys. Typically you pick the coach and theres little to no conversation about staff during interviews. Mainly because those candidates have no clue who will be available. Id say itd be rare at best to find a candidate that has an entire staff in mind.

Probably true, but they usually want guys well versed in the type of system they plan to run.

For example, a coach who wants to run the 3-4, is going to want a D-Coordinator known for running the 3-4, not a Cover 2 guy.

Schwartz was actually a very successful D-Coordinator in Buffalo in 2014, but Rex Ryan fired him in 2015 because he's a 4-3 guy and Rex wanted a 3-4 guy.

That's what I mean by "his guys". Not saying you are going to find a coach with a pre-assembled staff of great coaches. That just doesn't happen... but what a windfall it would be, huh?

It was just to say that the field gets further limited by candidates who may not want Austin and Cooter, who are both currently very popular among the players and the fans.

 

[Mitchrapp]

When it comes time to fire someone, there are always available options. No company has ever not fired a failing employee because they didn't have a viable immediate replacement.

If you feel the guy is detrimental to your company, you fire him before he can do more damage. You fire the coach before he gets an expensive long term investment like Calvin Johnson or Matt Stafford injured.

We're not just talking about the wife who inherited the team. We're talking about a woman who grew up in boardrooms spoonfed the fundamentals of business by the time she took her first steps. She knows how to run a company and showed that by firing Mayhew and Lewand (and according to some reports, many many other people who's names weren't important enough to make the headlines).

She either believes he's a good coach who can turn this team into a championship team, or he's too expensive to fire right now.

According to Coaches Hot Seat, he's the 27th highest pain coach in the NFL, but that still comes at a price tag of $4Mm per year, and he's only in the 2nd year of his 4 year contract.

http://coacheshotseat.com/NFLCoachesSalaries.htm

To fire him now during the purge (love that, I'm just going to call it The Purge from now on) you would eat $10Mm while having to find a new coach and likely pay him even more, making your head coaches position more expensive than Sean Payton at $8Mm a year.

My guess is Caldwell is here in 2016, and then maybe fired after 2017 if the improvement isn't there. Almost all of these coaches have a buyout clause in the contract, so when the buyout becomes less expensive than the contract, you pull the trigger.

Only in the most dire of circumstances would he be fired during the season due to the money, and likely it would take a catastrophe of epic proportions to get him fired before year 3 was up.

But how often you fire GM/President/OC/HC in the middle of a season? Just not enough guys left.

 

[Mitchrapp]

On a side point, how do they justify wanting to keep Cooter based on 1 game? I hope they fire his ass..

 

[inkfreq]

On a side point, how do they justify wanting to keep Cooter based on 1 game? I hope they fire his ass..

The offense fired like it should for one game, but there are other stats more telling.

In weeks 10, 11, and 12 Matthew Stafford was sacked 6 times. In week 8 he was sacked 6 times. In week 7 he was sacked 7 times. The O-Line has been improving.

In weeks 10,11, and 12 he threw 1 int. He's throwing fewer picks.

There's a few other stats we could probably analyze, but it shows that things are looking better since he took over. I suppose that would be how you could justify it.

More than that, the offense as a whole just seems more comfortable with him. That alone could be enough to justify keeping him.

I'm not saying they will keep him, just that it's a possibility.

 

[Mitchrapp]

The offense fired like it should for one game, but there are other stats more telling.

In weeks 10, 11, and 12 Matthew Stafford was sacked 6 times. In week 8 he was sacked 6 times. In week 7 he was sacked 7 times. The O-Line has been improving.

In weeks 10,11, and 12 he threw 1 int. He's throwing fewer picks.

There's a few other stats we could probably analyze, but it shows that things are looking better since he took over. I suppose that would be how you could justify it.

More than that, the offense as a whole just seems more comfortable with him. That alone could be enough to justify keeping him.

I'm not saying they will keep him, just that it's a possibility.

Still only scored 18 points, twice, against teams not really known for their defense. Maybe the OL coach should get credit? Even credit Stafford. But I'm not keeping a guy based on one game. Of course, the Fords probably just see the W's.

 

[papacrick]

Still only scored 18 points, twice, against teams not really known for their defense. Maybe the OL coach should get credit? Even credit Stafford. But I'm not keeping a guy based on one game. Of course, the Fords probably just see the W's.

That 18 points scored in the Oakland game is misleading. They had more sustained drives and less 3 and outs and Ebron dropped a perfectly placed TD pass whereas they couldn't even get across midfield let alone the red zone in Lombardi's offense. And last but not least they took a knee on the one yard line in the last possession because they didn't need to score any points and managed to chew up 7 minutes of clock, ending any hope of a comeback by keeping the ball out of Carr's hands. I'd say that's quite an improvement over any game under Lombardi's offense. They didn't even have drives like that when they won 11 games last year. The offense has been horrible every game and he should've been let go at the end of last season regardless of how many games they won. The defense carried them to the playoffs.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Agreed on raiders game being more impressive.

Tough to fire someone after an 11-5 season after one year in a scheme. The offense had problems but showed enough flashes down stretch for lombardi to return

How about now?

 

[Mitchrapp]

Talking Joe lombardi?

23 is ok. Green Bay has a solid defense. It did take a face mask and hail Mary for their 27

I thought you meant Caldwell. My mistake.

 

[Mitchrapp]

Of course if you take the 23 points against the winners of today's ball games, Detroit goes 2-9-2.

 

[kalinecountry]

http://www.mlive.com/lions/index.ssf/2015/12/column_jim_bob_cooter.html#incart_river_index
Lions OC Jim Bob Cooter has done enough to warrant consideration for return in 2016.
Mlive

 

[zyxt9]

What none of us know is what influence Caldwell has on the coordinators. It seems to me his preference for playing overly conservative resulted in them changing to a more conservative attack when they went up 20-0. In fact, that mindset would point to the Stafford fumble as a reason not to try being aggressive and score more points. The defense had been playing well but a sack fumble put them in a bad spot whereas if they had run the ball and punted the D would have prevented them closing to 20-14 and having opportunity to make a comeback.

Would not surprise me at all to know that is how Caldwell reacted to that, so instead of being aggressive, the O becomes more conservative. Being up 20-0 playing conservatively should win the game, except it doesn't. Going up 27-0 still would not have sufficed. Gotta bury teams when given the chance, otherwise the opponent has a chance. You don't let off the gas until it is impossible for the opponent can make a comeback. If that means rolling up 40+ point leads, so be it. Killer instinct is missing in most NFL coaches these days.

 

[brewer229]

What none of us know is what influence Caldwell has on the coordinators. It seems to me his preference for playing overly conservative resulted in them changing to a more conservative attack when they went up 20-0. In fact, that mindset would point to the Stafford fumble as a reason not to try being aggressive and score more points. The defense had been playing well but a sack fumble put them in a bad spot whereas if they had run the ball and punted the D would have prevented them closing to 20-14 and having opportunity to make a comeback.

Would not surprise me at all to know that is how Caldwell reacted to that, so instead of being aggressive, the O becomes more conservative. Being up 20-0 playing conservatively should win the game, except it doesn't. Going up 27-0 still would not have sufficed. Gotta bury teams when given the chance, otherwise the opponent has a chance. You don't let off the gas until it is impossible for the opponent can make a comeback. If that means rolling up 40+ point leads, so be it. Killer instinct is missing in most NFL coaches these days.

You're making it sound all too simple. It's not like the Lions could of scored 40+ and chose not to. They got outplayed after the 1st quarter. They were breaking off 5, 10, 30 yard runs. They were hitting people in stride, they were making people miss. They were outplaying their opponent.

Green Bay's defense stepped up. Lions players were going down at first hit, missed open WRs, and were not winning their battle at the line. I didn't see a fundamental change in the offense, it just saw players not executing.

I don't see how anyone could watch the 2nd-4th quarter and be confident in passing to win the game and run out the clock. They had to go 79 yards in 23 seconds with no timeouts. I'll take those odds any day. Can you imagine the outrage here if we threw in incompletion and gave them a minute +. People would get screaming how you need to run the ball and give them as little time as possible.

 

[Mitchrapp]

What none of us know is what influence Caldwell has on the coordinators. It seems to me his preference for playing overly conservative resulted in them changing to a more conservative attack when they went up 20-0. In fact, that mindset would point to the Stafford fumble as a reason not to try being aggressive and score more points. The defense had been playing well but a sack fumble put them in a bad spot whereas if they had run the ball and punted the D would have prevented them closing to 20-14 and having opportunity to make a comeback.

Would not surprise me at all to know that is how Caldwell reacted to that, so instead of being aggressive, the O becomes more conservative. Being up 20-0 playing conservatively should win the game, except it doesn't. Going up 27-0 still would not have sufficed. Gotta bury teams when given the chance, otherwise the opponent has a chance. You don't let off the gas until it is impossible for the opponent can make a comeback. If that means rolling up 40+ point leads, so be it. Killer instinct is missing in most NFL coaches these days.

The big lead only to play it safe has been going on for as long as I can remember. That's on the coaching staff. Couple that with the defensive play in half number 2.. again on the coaching staff. Caldwell, Austin, Cooter - they're all to blame. Someone better clean house.

 

[mhughes0021]

Cooter has got us all excited then ended up pretty average. Pretty much sums up most cooter.

 

[biggunsbob]

Yeah he is just a tad better then Lombardi. .. we still have no coach that knows how to put a team away...
Oh well just another lions give away last Thursday in a game we had won..

 

[sggatecl]

Cooter has got us all excited then ended up pretty average. Pretty much sums up most cooter.

 

[Mitchrapp]

When one OC gets fired it's natural to see a scoring spike. But Cooter hasn't done anything to warrant him staying.

 

[mhughes0021]

Lions played 8 top 7 defenses in first 12 games
3-1 with shootout loss in other games. Last four against lesser defenses though rams is 12th.

In the end it's up to new gm. 50 percent of time they keep coach. 3-1 finish could save Caldwell if new gm likes philosophy character and the coordinators

Maybe they were all top 8 defense because they played our shitty offense. Seattle had no problem making Minnesotas defense look like garbage.