The 2013 Rebuild Part II

Jim Schwartz has input into the draft, input into free agency, control on game day, is in charge of Linehan and Gunny (Gunther Cunningham) (the OC and DC) and all the other coaches, and is also in charge of the 53 on the roster and the practice squad. Ultimately, he is in charge of it all other then having the final say in draft picks.

When he throws a challenge flag on a play that can not be challenged it doesn’t matter who said what to him, he needs to know it’s a penalty and a loss of the challenge. When he plays the wrong guy he needs to be responsible for that action. When the coaches under him play it wrong, he has to own up to it. When his players play incorrectly he is directly responsible for it. When he says a loss is 100% on him, it is, every single time, including the times he doesn’t say it is. Players do not get to remain on the active roster if they continually make the same mistakes over and over and neither do coaches. Should Schwartz not understand what went wrong and should he prove incapable of correcting those mistakes, he is gone. He is not gone for 2013 however as he recently signed a contract extension and is going to be given every chance to show he can indeed fix what ails the Lions (and his own errors).

His (Schwartz’s) very first challenge in 2013 is to look very, very carefully at his OC, his DC and his special teams coordinator. A very important decision must be made as to whether he can improve those positions with other choices. Whatever his final choice is, success is required for his continued employment as the head coach. He has to live with his final decision and so do we fans. There really isn’t any room for error here; Lions fans have had nearly 4 losing seasons for every 1 winning season in the past 50+ years, Lions fans will turn on a dime if they realize the errors can be placed on one individual. At this moment, nearly everyone is confused as to what went wrong, so one more year is granted regardless, a second poor year will be viewed quite differently however, so making the correct choices now is extremely critical.

Time to swallow pride, time to forget friendships, time to make the hard choices, and time to improve the team no matter what it takes. Time to make the right decisions.

I am concerned (since I'm not behind the scenes I can not know the answers either), very concerned, about the ability of the OC and ST coaches to take this team back to the playoffs. I'm extremely curious to see what Schwartz thinks on these issues, not his public comments, but his true feelings on them, his decisions for 2013 will tell the tale.