Lions Ownership Discussing Firing Jim Schwartz

They're 4-11 right now. I'm assuming you're going with a loss to the bears today?



Not to mention all the injuries and inconsistent running game having an effect on the team.

Since when has a Ford made decision worked out for the Lions? Just sayin 

please may this happen, along with linehan and gunther and crossman going.,,,,keep shawn jefferson....cut raiola, peterman, backus, burleson. KVB, ...trade pettitgrew and titus young.....do not resign any free agent but sammie lee hill and franchise chris houston....

and mayhew and lewand both need to go as well

clean house

A firing?  Gee, I thought they'd be discussing contract extension.

/s (sort of)

Not sure why anyone thought anything would be different.

if the lions fired schwartz and hired o'brien, which would be a dagger in the hearts of the PSU faithful.

When will Lions ownership have discussions about firing themselves? The only common link in all of your dysfunctional relationships is you.

I wish Lions Ownership would be discussing firing Lions Ownership.

From the OP: "Mayhew put this roster together, and has to shoulder as much blame as anyone."

Sure about that? The Fords (as others have noted, the common thread in all the dysfunction of the past fifty years) are legendary for their micromanaging. Don't assume that they weren't calling the shots on some of the picks and roster moves. It has happened before (three straight WR as first round picks, etc.).

Fuck it. Hire Nick Saban. After he skullfucks Notre Dame, of course.

I don't think Schwartz is going this season. Next year, OTOH, the hot seat is going to burn his asscheeks off. 

I put the blame on Schwartz not Mayhew.  The Lions have playoff level talent (not Super Bowl talent, mind you).  There is no excuse for this team to be 4-11 and the amazing ways that they got to that record are mostly on Schwartz.  He has no control over his team.

I didn't liked Schwartz in the begining, but after last year I came around to thinking that he might actually be the guy to bring the Lions around to respectability.  Instead I sit here in Wisconsin and have to watch the Lions choke away another game against the Packers and have to listen to people bitch about the Lions being dirty. 

and see how he reacts. The Fords can afford this now.

In contrast to other years, are the Lions such a laughable product now?

* Have people at skill positions (running game not included)

* Have some pieces on defense (secondary not included)

* continuity in ownership (yeah, I know its the fords)

But compared to other slots that might be opening (NYJ, Cleveland, Jacksonville) and compared to previous years, coaching the Lions might be one of the better jobs out there.

NB: Sure, I'll do it. Sign me up.

Ya I agree it is time to get rid of schwartz, lots of terrible game management and an inability to get this team to the next level with all of our talent says a lot

That franchise hasn't made a wise or proactive decision in 55 years...who honestly believes that they will get this one right?

I'll miss seeing him punch the air after squeaking a win out.

Clean house and get bill cowher

Lions should at the least be looking for a new QB coach. Stafford's fundamentals, particularly his footwork and throwing motion, have regressed.

Fire Schwartz!

I want 0-16 again!!

People keep saying urban Meyer on the board my ? Is with his so called health issues what more stressful job nfl or OSU. He wouldn't need to recruit or travel much in the nfl which would have to please him. I wonder if he would consider it for the right money?

It's not Schwartz, it's the max contracts of Suh, Stafford, and Johnson combined with Avril's franchise number. Lions had 3 expensive players from the last 3 rookie drafts without the new cap. Oops. It's hamstringing the franchise.

I'm a giants fan so I don't have a horse in this race...but I just don't get the desire to fire a coach a year after the team's first playoff appearance in years. The league reacted and the Lions struggled this year. At the very least Schwatrz deserves one more year (maybe with some coaching changes and a new GM).



Detroit sports fans seem to expect the world every year and overreact when they don't get it. In fact, I remember several people on this board (and several friends) telling me the Tigers would sweep the World Series and when they lost I heard about the significant changes they needed to make. And that's coming from a New York sports fan.

I would usually defend a franchise's "off year" based on all the injuries the Lions have suffered. But, after seeing the kind of talent the Packers have drafted and picked up off waivers the last couple years, and seeing undrafted linemen hold their own week after week, it's obvious the Lions have no clue how to stack a 53 team roster. They are pretty good in their 1-deep, but after that you are one injury away from scrambling to find a starter (this year they started practice squad guys at CB, S, WR, TB and all but for Bell are busts)

It's not Schwartz. It's the Fords. The Lions desperately need new ownership, something which will unfortunately never happen.



The only plus the Fords have to their name as far as owners go is that they drafted Sanders and Megatron. Other than that, it's nothing but decades of futility.

Can we the people fire the owners?

Hire Reid!

Does anyonone have a link to watch the game?

I hear Pat Shurmur will be back on the market real soon.

Clean house and rebuild the right way, not just promoting a Millen student and picking a rookie head coach.

Get an assistant GM from a recently dominant team, get a proven coach, and will someone please wipe out the entire scouting dept.? Our drafts have sucked. I think we have a talent scout who has been with the team since the 80s.

I would say get rid of the Fords but that's very unlikely unless the old man croaks soon and Jr. takes over which I think would improve the organization somewhat.

A fish rots from the head down. As long as Ford owns this team don't expect any miracles. When I was in high school circa 1980, the team's slogan was "Restore the Roar." I can't believe I'm talking about this 30 years later.

people need to quit GOING TO THESE GAMES every week. make them play with the stadium 3/4 empty. until the Ford's see their profits drop significantly we're gonna have this BS every year

You might as well get rid of Schwartz too. Even if he survives this season, next year would be his last if we didn't make the playoffs. No coordinator would come if he knew he might be out of job after one year.

CBS did a nice little write-up regarding this - (LINK)

Among some of the more illuminating statements -

"It'd be hard to blame that lack of regard for the team and the law solely on Schwartz. Of course, Schwartz also is probably the easiest person to blame in this situation." - when discussing discipline issues

If the Fords are disillusioned with the culture in the locker room, then it is not entirely clear that firing Schwartz totally resolves this particular issue, although it is easier to replace the coach and potentially certain members of management than let go of otherwise talented players. For a family that dabbles in a top ten Fortune 500 company, they don't seem to understand this aspect of leading change very well. 

Even if you have a roster that is strong enough to at least do respectably in the league, if you feel as if you cannot count on your teammates to keep the team in mind and put the team in a position to win, then even your best and most well-meaning players will be reluctant to give 100%, especially if the issues are allowed to linger.

I have to believe that, despite the head-scratching drafts of the Lions (and these definitely contribute to the lack of depth at key positions), part of the problem is cultural. It might very well be that Schwartz, in the end, is not the person to lead such a charge, but it is something that needs to change or it will likely be the case that anyone who is hired will have more trouble winning consistently in Detroit than they might in other places. 

As many have said, the team has done nothing since William Clay Ford Sr. bought the team in '63.  Their last championship was in the 50's.  It's been a long time but we wont have to wait another 50 years for the team to either be sold or pass to William Clay Jr.   Since Jr. seems to be doing a decent job with the car company (I believe he's due some credit for turning it around and for steady leadership through 2008), there's hope he'll do the right thing by either turning the franchise around or selling it to someone who can.

Until the change of control happens there is no hope for the Lions. 

I would say that Mayhew has had more hits than misses, but not nearly enough hits as an elite GM in the league.  You need at least one more year to get the Millen years behind 'em.

That being said, I believe Swartz needs another year to truly determine if he is a good coach.    Their record is much worse than the team is.  However, I also thought RR needed one more year, which obviously was dead wrong.

I sure hope I didn't misspell a word, eliciting a handful of ridiculous replys that judge far less than the content of my post.

I'd be looking at Mayhew before Schwartz.  How can a guy get away with the weak drafts...Best (a concussion question coming out of college), Titus Young (an attitude question coming out of college) and Broyles (an injury problem coming out of college). How you can you gamble with so many high round draft picks, especially when representing a talent poor organization with little room for error.

Going into this year, I would have thought firing Schwartz for a sub-.500 season would be ridiculous but 7 (8?) straight losses and 0-5 (0-6?) in the division is awful, not matter how strong the NFC North looks. Losing to Houston, Indianapolis, and one each of Minnesota and Green Bay were inexcusable, and the Arizona and Tennessee games were just embarrassing.

Time for new blood, but if Schwartz is fired, I think the Detroit job has to be one of the better ones that will be available this year and with the team that is in place right now (minus the secondary and receivers) is certainly much better than walking into one of the Millen teams.

Until they get competent ownership nothing else is going to matter. The Ford's need to fire themselves !!!!

Michigan fans vs Lions fans.

Michigan fans win. 

One side One team 

Hey guys I have an idea no one else has thought of yet:

The Fords should fire themselves.

LOL wtf was that dance??

Does he know his team is 4-11?  What a chode.....

after all the previous 31 losing seasons under Ford ownership. It doesn't fundamentally matter whether Schwartz or Mayhew are fired; if they are, the Fords will hire two more incompetent underachievers in their place. If the Fords had been in charge of the U.S. military in 1862, they'd have kept McClellan in place and forced Grant out of the service.

Not with Matt at QB. There's no way I would clean house unless you could get a top of the line coach (which the Lions cant). So stay the course and hope for DB's in April and a healthy team next fall.

I refuse to follow the lions until junior sells the team. The only constant for the last 50 years had been the Fords incompetent ownership. Go Pats.

Speaking of Schwartz - shouldn't he have gone for 2 there?

Roughly 6:40 left and the TD pulls us to within 3 points...he kicks the PAT to be down 2 points....

What is the benefit of that?

Seems to me that the PAT doesn't make much of a difference between getting no points and the 2 point conversion if good would allow your D to give up a TD and still be down a score (8 points).

He's a hothead and a mediocre coach.  Especially if the Lions are able to get Bill O'Brien, Bill Cowher, Nick Saban, Andy Reid, Chip Kelly, or anyone in the ballpark of those names, they need to let Schwartz go, and also learn how to make character as much or more of a priority as talent.  The Lions are really making it hard to root for them at this point.

If only the NFL could fire an owner...

Both the GM and Coach should be shown to door for an 8 game losing streak. The lions do have talent at QB and WR. Also, the DL on paper is as talented as any in the NFL. LB are average. DB are poor...but still this team should have finished with 7 or 8 wins. This is a big drop off from their lucky season last year but there is no hope for this bunch going forward.

Here is my reasoning why Schwartz should not be fired.   Going into the 2012 draft the Lions had some huge needs.   In my opinion they needed a shut down corner, another safety, a run blocking guard, and a pass rushing DE.   Instead they drafted an offensive tackle with their 1st pick and a injured wide receiver with their 2nd pick.   This was puzzling since Backus and Burlson were not going anywhere.  The only thing I could think of is that Mayhew was conceding 2012 and playing for 2013.  Both Burlson and Backus will be gone and then the picks make sense.

Now we can argue whether playing that far ahead is a good idea.  If the consensous is that is a terrible idea then we can talk about Mayhew being fired.   The bigest problem with the Lions  in my opinion is horrible play in the secondary.  3 10+ 2nd half leads were lost and multiple other games lost because we did not have a corner who could cover a dead opposum.  That was not Schwartz's fault.

Maybe Schwartz is a terrible coach after all for other reasons.   But he can only work with the players given to him by the GM.   And yes, the Fords have no clue how to be competent owners of a NFL franchise.

Clearly every coach has been influenced by the GM. They must not feel in control. I have no other reason to assume why our lack of discipline has existed for years. I get players screw up but wow are these guys a mess. Fire every single decision maker in the building. When we took broyles over a solid DB that sealed it for me. Done with this franchise.

They can fire all of the coaches and GM's they want, but until they fire the owners, nothing good is ever going to happen for the Lions.  Though he didn't own it until 1964, WCF has been running the team since 1958.  He took a team had won three NFL Championships in the 1950's and turned it into the worst franchise of the last fifty years.  

Even Tampa Bay had seven good years and won a Super Bowl.  The only thing the Lions have shown themselves to be able to do consistently and effectively is break the hearts of everyone who has ever been a Lions fan.

Whaaa? Fire Gym Shorts?

I'd avoid the Lions like the plague. Since Ford assumed total ownership in '64, not a single solitary full-time head coach that Ford has hired has ever gone on to be a HC for any other NFL team. Considering the number of head coaches in the NFL since 1964 who have been with more than one team, that's a remarkable achievement (Dick Jauron coached the Bills after he left the Lions, but he was an only an interim Lions HC for five games in 2005 after Mariucci was booted).

Put it this way: Detroit is a coaching graveyard. That's where your head coaching career goes to die. When you're done coaching the Lions, your reputation is so damaged that nobody is going to think of you as anything other than an assistant.