All eyes on Jim Caldwell as Lions close disappointing season vs. Packers

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Dave Birkett and Carlos Monarrez give their predictions for Sunday’s season finale between the Lions-Packers game. Dave Birkett/Carlos Monarrez/Detroit Free Press

Jim Caldwell was a few months into his first season as Lions coach when he asked safety Don Carey for an impromptu meeting in the defensive backs room.

Caldwell, in the process of getting to know his new players at the time, heard about Carey’s interest in real estate, and as a mini mogul himself wanted to see if he could help.

"We go into the DB room and he asks me for my business plan, and I start spitting it out to him proudly and he has a little smile on his face and tells me I’m doing it the wrong way," Carey recalled this week. "Not that there was anything wrong with what I was doing, but he just knew a better way. So we spend about 45 minutes to an hour on the dry-erase board going over the mechanics of real estate, from his perspective."

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Carey tweaked his plan of buying, selling and owning homes to conform to the blueprint Caldwell, an avid real estate investor, shared with him that day. Now, three and a half years later, Carey said he’s worked on 20 or so properties using Caldwell’s method with great success.

"It’s been very lucrative," he said.

For Carey and many other Lions, Caldwell has been more than just a coach these past four seasons.

Tight end Eric Ebron said Caldwell was one of the first people he called when he found out he was going to become a first-time father earlier this year.

Defensive end Dwight Freeney still smiles at the thought of a young Caldwell sitting in his living room trying to recruit him out of high school — and the banter they share about that experience to this day.

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And cornerback Darius Slay said he holds Caldwell up as “a great role model” for the way he wants to parent his children.

"I think he means a lot to a lot of folks around here because it’s more than football to him,” Slay said. "He always gives out a good message of being a man, and a family man at that and a godly one. So he puts a lot of good perspective in your life with him being a young — well, not young no more — but him being what his age is and very successful at what he does outside of football. He made it clear that football ain’t always guaranteed, so he lets you know that you can do a lot more outside of football."

If the Lions make a coaching change after Sunday's season finale against the Green Bay Packers — general manager Bob Quinn has not tipped his hand on what he plans to do, but many across the league suspect a change is coming — Caldwell’s legacy in Detroit will go beyond wins and losses.

The Lions are 35-28 in the regular season under Caldwell’s watch, but 0-2 in the playoffs.

They lost division-deciding Week 17 games to the Packers in 2014 and again last year.

And this season, they were eliminated from the playoffs with one game to play despite the NFC North being thrown up for grabs when Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone in October.

Still, it’s tough to find anyone in the locker room who speaks ill of the job Caldwell has done as coach.

"I took a lot of heat from some guys on Twitter cause they were saying Caldwell was the issue. I’m like, ‘Bro, Caldwell’s not the issue,'" Carey said. "And that’s cool. Fans are going to respond the way they do. They’re hurt, they’re pissed off like I am, like we are, but at the end of the day we see things they don’t. From our perspective, I don’t think anyone in that locker room thinks Coach Caldwell’s the issue."

Whatever percent of the blame Caldwell deserves for the Lions’ shortcomings this year, he is ultimately the man in charge of a team that even he admits hasn’t won enough football games.

The Lions, from a record standpoint, peaked in Caldwell’s first season in Detroit when they went 11-5 and lost in controversial fashion to the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs.

Caldwell refused to entertain the idea Friday that things might be different had he won that game, and he shared a sentiment earlier this week that sums up his four seasons in Detroit.

"The great thing about the National Football League,” Caldwell said, “all you have to do is look at your record and we’re just a little bit above average and a little bit above average is not good enough."

Since that 2014 season, the Lions have gone 7-9 and 9-7 with a chance at another 9-7 finish today.

They haven’t had back-to-back winning seasons since 1994-95, but they also haven’t had a playoff victory since 1991 and are just 4-23 against teams that finished with or currently have a winning record under Caldwell.

"That’s part of our business. That’s every year, right?” Caldwell said of being on the hot seat. "I told you guys the story a long time ago about Marty Schottenheimer got fired at 14-2. So anything less than the Super Bowl, obviously it can happen."

Caldwell, who received a contract extension with one guaranteed year through 2018 before the season, declined to say Friday if he’s been told what his status is for next year.

Players in the locker room said Caldwell didn’t make mention of his future during team meetings this week, and even though most are staunch Caldwell supporters — "That’s my guy," Ebron said — all understand the win-or-else business they’re in.

"We’re grown men," Slay said. “We ain’t babies. But everybody knows what it is. We wish the best for him, we know he’s going to be a great coach if he’s here or not. But that ain’t our concern, really. We’re going in to go whoop some ass. That’s what our goal is, to go whoop some ass Sunday."

Contact Dave Birkett: dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Download our Lions Xtra app for free on Apple and Android!