Jim Caldwell Still Hanging in the Wind

Quinn fills a job that became vacant when the Lions fired president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew on November 5 after the team began the season 1-7.

Accorsi said the Lions wanted to conduct all interviews after the season – by rule, executives from other National Football League teams could not interview during the season – and in quick succession so as to easily compare candidates.

Add in a lopsided loss during Detroit’s 11-5 2014 season, and Caldwell is 3-4 against the Patriots as a head coach or coordinator.

Quinn said he won’t recruit Johnson back to the Lions right now, with the season still fresh, but it seems they’ll chat after some time passes. “(But) there are also some deficiencies, and I think one of the deficiencies is the overall depth.

“I only met Coach Caldwell for the first time a few minutes ago, and the meeting lasted about 30 seconds”, said Quinn, who was hired Friday.

“Of course I’m happy for Bob”, said Patriots coach Bill Belichick during a conference call on Monday morning. “Here, I’m going to be taking the cards off the board, but it’s going to be a group decision and the best decision for the Detroit Lions”. I was really impressed with her knowledge, with her interest, Accorsi said.

Quinn says it will be up to him to use every avenue available to bolster that part of the roster. “I think he’s the quarterback that we want here for the future”.

“As we went through this — we had two long sessions with him — the real audition is his body of work.