After losing six out of their last seven games and not qualifying for the playoffs, the Detroit Lions fired head coach Jim Schwartz. Lions president Tom Lewand said simply “we didn’t win enough football games.” So true. Not only did the Lions not win enough games, the Lions should have won a lot more games. The next Lions coach will inherit an underachieving team stacked with talent. The Lions are a sleeping giant just waiting for the next coach to take them to the Super Bowl.
The Lions have an offense that seemed unstoppable at times with great players at all the skill positions. Matthew Stafford at quarterback. Calvin Johnson at wide receiver and Reggie Bush at running back. The defense is quite strong as well with Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley on the inside with promising rookie Ezekiel Ansah on the end.
The Lions have such an explosive offense and a stout defense that it is hard to understand how they managed to fall apart for the second year in a row and missed the playoffs. The Lions were undisciplined under Schwartz and seemed to beat themselves with untimely penalties and mistakes.
If the next coach can corral all the Lions talent and stop the mistakes, the team could become very good, very quickly. Current San Diego Chargers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt is rumored to be the top choice for the Lions job.
Whisenhunt revived quarterback Philip Rivers career this year in San Diego. Previously, Whisenhunt took the Arizona Cardinals to their first Super Bowl appearance in his second year on the job. Whisenhunt narrowly missed beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. The irony was that Mike Tomlin had been chosen over Whisenhunt for the Steelers head coaching position.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals struggled once Kurt Warner retired and Whisenhunt was fired after the 2012 season. However, with the talent on the Lions, Whisenhunt could be just what the Lions need to wake up this sleeping giant.
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