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ALLEN PARK – Jim Caldwell has been pretty quiet since the Detroit Lions fired him after the 2017 season. In fact, apart from once joining former security Glover Quin for a conversation on Instagram, Caldwell didn’t at all spoken publicly of his time in Detroit.
On Tuesday, he broke that silence during an appearance on the Adam Schefter podcast. And while he never uttered the words “Matt Patricia”, it wasn’t hard to deduce why he thinks it didn’t work for his successor in Detroit.
“This is what has always guided my whole coaching philosophy,” Caldwell told Schefter. “You have to tailor your attack to your staff, okay? Hope you get the kind of guy you want, but you have to adapt. For example, when we went to Detroit there was a pretty good core of players there. So why should I go in and change the kernel? You have Ndamukong Suh, who is a force, no, inside? Who played in this particular position in 4-3? We had come from Baltimore, (defensive coordinator) Teryl Austin and I, and Teryl had organized that kind of 3-4 mix that Baltimore does. And so I said, ‘Hey, listen. We are not going to do this. We’re going to change that, and we’re going to make sure we’re running 4-3 and using the staff that we have. It suits us. We had Stephen Tulloch, we had so many guys running out there doing a great job, and all we had to do was give them some direction.
“Offensively you have a quarterback like Matthew (Stafford), you have to find out what he does best. It took us a little longer than I would have liked to figure out where it is best, but it is a bit more suited to these extended crimes. A little more to a fullback, he’s not great – when I say he’s not a good two-way guy, he can play anything, anyway, in terms of his attacking pattern – but I think that it is most effective when you distribute people for it. He was extremely effective for us when we finally split them up a bit more, and he played extremely well.
“So the point is, I’m going to adapt to the people we have access to, and I think that’s what you have to do. A lot of times you have trainers trying to ride a round peg and a square hole which for me is you wasting a lot of time. And not only that, you are going to get fired in a very short period of time. It’s a win-now league. “
There is a lot of truth in what Caldwell said. When he took over the Lions in 2014, he inherited a team that had won just 11 games the previous two seasons combined. But things weren’t all bad. There was talent in defense, especially with Suh and a young Ezekiel Ansah anchoring that front, plus a franchise quarterback under center and the best receiver in franchise history on the Calvin Johnson perimeter. That’s more than a lot of freshman coaches to work with, and Caldwell didn’t try to reinvent what they were doing. He just tried to change them, to bring discipline and order to an organization that had just spent five years riding the ups and downs of the Jim Schwartz era.
It worked. The Lions had one of the best defenses in the league that year – statistically, it was one of the best in franchise history – and won 11 games. This matches their winning tally from the previous two years combined and remains the second best regular season in team history.
Of course, things would never get better for Caldwell than that, and he’s held for that as well. He struggled to beat the right teams, had issues with managing the clock, was knocked out with his first offensive coordinator (Joe Lombardi) and stayed too long with an assistant head coach / offensive line coach hated by gamers (Ron Prince). He has also played shorthanded a few times, only nine times.
He never won a playoff game, never won a division title, never organized a playoff game. He went 36-28 in four seasons at Detroit, giving him the highest winning percentage of any head coach in team history. But let’s not romanticize his years either. He never managed to convince the Lions, and former general manager Bob Quinn fired him for it after the 2017 season.
There is nothing wrong with wanting more from Lions than what Caldwell gave them. The problem is, Patricia was worse – well, much worse – and the fall started immediately. He thought the Lions were gentle under Caldwell. He thought the Lions sucked when he arrived. He told the players that to the face, and often. While many people saw a team win three winning seasons in four years and thought Detroit was about to compete, Patricia saw a weak organization, didn’t know how to play football the right way, and had to be torn apart.
So he started to tear things apart, kicking off a long-term rebuild that few saw coming. And he never figured out how to put it all together. Patricia only did 6-10 this first season, and things never got better for him. He was fired on Saturday with a 13-29-1 record in Detroit, one more loss than Caldwell in 21 more games.
A lot of players hated playing for Matt Patricia, we’ve heard it over the years, and you’ve seen it become very public the day after he was fired. Several former players have openly celebrated the passing of their former coach. Caldwell, on the other hand, controlled his dressing room until his very last day, and his players are still going to beat him for him three years later.
“I think leadership is far too underestimated in terms of leading teams, especially in the National Football League,” he said. “There are a lot of people who are caught up with these individuals who might try to impress you in terms of what they might know in terms of knowledge of the game, from an offensive or defensive standpoint, ‘gurus’ and have been labeled as such. But nevertheless, it comes down to being able to lead a team, and not everyone can. I believe that more than anything else, you must lead by example. There is a great book that says, “Lead by example, and when all else fails, use words.” And I believe it.
Again, no mention of Matt Patricia. Again, he seems to make a very clear distinction between himself and a guy like Matt Patricia.
It didn’t work for Caldwell in Detroit, but he clearly did some things right. He has spent the last few years trying to improve on his weaknesses and at 65 he hopes to have one more chance at a head coach gig. He has studied offensive and defensive tendencies, the third attack (especially Deshaun Watson), late-half / game situations and has been keeping a close eye on how Arizona uses Kyler Murray. He worked as a consultant for the Minnesota Vikings, where he saw so much of Mike Zimmer’s schedule that he felt it wouldn’t have been fair to consult with other teams and gave up additional opportunities. He also accepted a job with the Miami Dolphins as an assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach last year, but was forced to take some time off to resolve a health issue.
Caldwell told Schefter that a physical exam revealed a worrying amount of calcium in his body, and he stepped away from training to focus on better health. Now he has lost 30 pounds, feels healthy, and hopes to land another chef position. Detroit, Atlanta, and Houston all have openings so far, with more likely to come next month.
“I bring the ability to bring the guys together, to get them in the right direction,” Caldwell said. “I’m one of those guys that people will often tell you I’m blunt about. I treat them with respect. But I am also demanding. And I think we get the most out of our guys. So I think that’s what we bring to any organization, it’s leadership and direction, and it’s the things that I think consistently win.
“I think the right situation, the right organization, that would absolutely interest me. I still have a lot of things left. You know, most people say, “You’re 65! Yeah, well, we have two guys – a guy who’s president of the United States right now who’s 74 I think, and we have one who’ll be 78 when he takes office, right? And it is the most important job in the world. And the guys who’ve won the last two Super Bowls have been won by guys over 65. So I think there is a place for a guy like Jim Caldwell.
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