Detroit Lions Coach Jim Schwartz Avoids Pitfalls Of Previous Regime

In football, more than most sports, the head coach has a significant impact on what happens on the field.

In the case of the Detroit Lions, it has been years of futility in that department. This trend, however, appears to have been broken by current head coach Jim Schwartz.

When I think back to some of the things that Rod Marinelli used to say and do, it doesn’t surprise me that he led the Lions to the first 0-16 record in NFL history.

Here are some of the mistakes that were a staple of the Marinelli era that Schwartz has avoided repeating.

"You can put it on me"

While it is admirable that Marinelli wanted to protect his players in the media, the fact that he came out week after week and said “you can put it on me” became somewhat of a joke. If it were true that every Lions loss was his fault, he should have quit. Any man of honor, as Marinelli liked to be portrayed, would have removed himself from his coach’s position in hopes of being replaced by someone more capable.

Jim Schwartz, on the other hand, has been a bit more honest in his dealings with the media. Well, as honest as an NFL head coach is able to be. He sounds articulate when discussing what went wrong during losses and is able to interject subtle humor after a win. One can guess that Schwartz would like to practice that humor more than twice this year.

New players had to earn their practice time

This was, by far, the dumbest thing that Marinelli did. Time and again, when a new player joined the Lions through draft or free agency, he had to earn the right to practice with the first string. Even first round draft picks were subject to the same stubborn approach, eventhough they were significantly more talented than players already on the team.

Jim Schwartz does not subscribe to the same stupid policy. Ndamukong Suh was running with the ones the first moment he stepped foot in camp. This is the way it should be because if a player is practicing against weaker competition it stunts his development.

Overvaluing the love of the game

Marinelli had this belief that if a player was willing to work hard, he can be coached into a good player. Coach them up, he used to say.

This attitude, along with a couple of other issues, led to the Lions discarding their two most talented players on defense, Shawn Rogers and Dre' Bly. The rest, as they say, is history. The defense with all these players that “love the game” has been historically bad.

Schwartz understands talent, and more importantly, he understands that he needs players talented at what he needs them to do. This is how teams win football games.

Marinelli let his feelings about a player get in the way

Rod Marinelli and, as an extension, Matt Millen (sorry to bring that name up) would let their emotions get in the way of logic. Emotion does not have a place in football, at least not as long as there is a salary cap. Players need to produce and if they don’t, they need to be cut. On the other hand, a head coach doesn’t have to like a player if he is producing.

One gets the feeling that Jim Schwartz and Martin Mayhew would disown their children if it means they were more likely to win.

Marinelli was too stubborn

Millen allowed Marinelli to dictate personal moves. Marinelli had a big hand in what players were brought in. This in itself is a problem because head coaches are not personnel people.

What compounded this problem is that the Lions during those years would not realize their mistakes and move on. Instead, they held on to these players that were not producing and further eroded the talent pool.

Schwartz and Mayhew brought in many players prior to the 2009 season. Many of those same players are now gone.

A perfect example of this is how they dealt with the Larry Foote situation. Foote is beloved in Detroit and his popularity was never higher than when he made the final tackle in the game against the Washington Redskins. That tackle ended the Lions’ 19 game losing streak. Although Foote is a good player, he didn’t fit into the Lions’ 4-3 defense.

The Lions did the unpopular by not offering to resign him. They cut bait with a player that I am sure they liked because he wasn’t the best option for the team.

Jim Schwartz has not proven he can win yet. This season the Lions will not win many games. The defensive talent just isn’t there. Jim Schwartz will, however, have opportunities to influence game because he has an offense that is NFL caliber. He needs to show that he will make the right decision when it is called for.

In the mean time, the hope of Lions fans is that he will not become another Lion-ized head coach.

For those of you that don’t know what Lion-ized is, it is the disease that causes head coaches to say and do dumb things. I get the feeling that we will not hear things form Schwartz like “abandon ship wump wump wump,” “my pick is sharp and I’m just gonna keep on digging”, or my personal favorite of all-time, “I am the big buck, the target is on me.”