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More news for former Ravens coaches around the league, as Detroit Lions Head Coach Jim Caldwell received a stay and will be back for his 3rd season at the helm. Caldwell joins former Ravens defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano, who coaches Caldwell's former team as head coaches who were close to getting fired but managed to hang on for another year.
The Lions finished 7-9 this season, although they finished the year an impressive 6-2 and was a hail mary away from another win over the rival Packers. This marks the second straight season Caldwell has finished the year strong, which likely is a strong factor in him keeping his job. Per Peter King:
Interesting point from @MikeOHaraNFL: Caldwell’s 4 half-seasons as Lions coach: 2014: 6-2, 5-3. 2015: 1-7, 6-2.
— Peter King (@SI_PeterKing) January 15, 2016
Caldwell will have to deal with some turnover though. The man who kept him on board is new, recently hired General Manager Bob Quinn. Quinn was the Patriots’ director of pro scouting for four seasons, and worked in the personnel department for the Patriots for 16 years. Quinn had nice things to say about Caldwell:
Quinn on retaining Caldwell: "it’s clear to me that this team believes in him and responds positively to his leadership."
— Detroit Lions (@Lions) January 15, 2016
Another possible defection may be defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, who has been a popular interview around the league, although he hasn't gotten an offer yet. However, his options look to be drying up, with only the Tennessee Titans job still open after several hires were made in the past 36 hours. The Titans just hired a new General Manager, so they should make a hire in the next week. Current interim head coach Mike Mularkey is in the running, and Josh McDaniels, Patriots offensive coordinator is known to have interest, although he has yet to interview. So it looks likely at this point that Austin will be back.
Caldwell must figure out what went wrong in the first half of 2015 if he wants to keep his job. Haloti Ngata poor performance was likely a factor- the veteran was supposed to mitigate the losses of Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley, but only tallied 24 tackles and 2.5 sacks after missing the preseason.