Jim Caldwell hints Calvin Johnson will play Sunday if healthy enough

-Team president Rod Wood said Sunday that the Lions’ next general manager will make a decision about Caldwell’s future. “But you see… that they can improve”.

Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson walks off the field after an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2015, in Detroit.

“I approach it just like I do any other day that I coached in my life (since) 1978 when I first started coaching”, he said Monday. Part of what has helped Stafford has been having sure-handed receivers like Golden Tate and Theo Riddick.

“We’re striving in the right way right now”, Johnson said Wednesday. Often, Stafford’s passes have been of the shorter – and safer – variety on underneath routes. Meanwhile, his 4.57-yard average length of completion is the second shortest in the NFL.

“I think Jim Bob and I are on the same page the majority, if not all, the time”, Stafford said.

Caldwell, perhaps coaching the Lions for the last time at home, called for a fake punt and the gamble paid off. Isa Abdul-Quddus took a direct snap to the upback and converted a fourth-and-1 from the Detroit 35. “Go out and play well hopefully, and hope for the best”. But they also weren’t as bad as they have been at times earlier in the season.

And as long as we still have the stats strapped into the chair with thumbscrews fully applied, here’s one more number: two. On the defensive side of the ball, the run defense has stiffened, but the Lions handed a game to Green Bay and Aaron Rodgers by failing to come up with an effective Hail Mary defense.

“We understand what it takes to win”, he said.

For the second half, it looked like the 49ers were on winter break, too. “In the second half, we’ve got to keep that ramping (up)”.

So it was a head-scratcher Sunday, when the San Francisco 49ers offense marched up and down the field easily in the first half. In the last seven games, he has a 108.7 passer rating, a 16-to-2 touchdown-to-interception ratio and is completing 69.7 percent of his passes. Their road games this month were against dome teams: the New Orleans Saints and St. Louis Rams.

“He’s really going to be pretty special”, Caldwell said. “According to if they are ready to play, they are going to play”. Johnson has 78 receptions for 1,077 yards and eight touchdowns – solid numbers but below his usual standards.

“Yeah, man, I love him”, Johnson said of Caldwell. “All three of them have had really good years”. – Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson, on not needing offseason surgeries.

If everything comes to together this is a good football team, as we saw previous year, and I am under the belief that Stafford will continue to grow, so why waste another season of his prime under Caldwell when you can build towards the new regime this franchise is looking to implement?

“I’m just on auto-pilot, so it’s a shock to me, just as it is to you guys”. Sometimes that means the player – especially if they are a veteran or a star – will sit in Week 17 if there are no playoff implications on the line. Because Detroit gets consistent upfield push, the Bears will try to attack with short, quick passes.

■Briefly: Johnson (ankle), center Travis Swanson (shoulder) and defensive end Jason Jones (neck) did not practice Wednesday….

NOTES: The Lions promoted C Braxston Cave to the active roster from the practice squad….