Lions change much of their coaching staff

Steve Mariucci's coaching merry-go-round for the Detroit Lions has been busy since the regular season ended. He wants to get his own staff in Detroit to work with, which is very important to him.

It is too bad he had to waste a whole year of football before he made these changes though. I realize that some of these coaches that have been hired were not available, but many of the ones that are leaving should have left before last season.

Hopefully, Mooch makes the same wholesale changes on the player side.

The biggest change that should impact the Detroit Lions is the hiring of Dick Jauron as the defensive coordinator.

Jauron knows the NFC North having coached the Chicago Bears over the last few seasons. Before the Bears, he was defensive coordinator in Jacksonville where he helped get the Jaguars to playoffs in three out of four seasons, one of which was when the Jags made it to the AFC Championship game.

The Lions defense was 24th in the NFL this season, so there is a lot of room for improvement. I think this is a great hire. Jauron might not have been the best head coach, but coaching defense is where his talent should come through.

Anytime you can get a coordinator with head coaching experience, it is a plus for your team. At least, in the Lion's case, Jauron should be a major upgrade.

In other coaching moves so far, wide receivers' coach Bobby Williams and defensive line coach George Dyer were fired, offensive line coach Carl Mauck did not have his contract renewed, while secondary coach Ray Horton announced that his resignation.

Assistant coach Bobby Williams was let go, and why he was even hired as in the first place is beyond me. He was a terrible coach at Michigan State, and the last thing the Lions needed was another bad coach.

The defensive line was spotty at best. If they didn't anticipate the snap count, they could not get enough pressure on the quarterback to help out the secondary. Robert Porcher was notorious for jumping offsides, and they all had trouble stopping the opponent's running back at the line of scrimmage.

The "big uglies" on the offensive line were not too bad at pass blocking. Unfortunately, they pass blocked on running plays too. They really need some guidance on run blocking.

Greg Olson, the quarterback coach of the Bears, was hired as an offensive assistant. He coached Jeff Garcia in 2001 when the San Francisco 49ers had a 12-4 record with Garcia passing for 3,538 yards and 32 touchdowns. Having worked with Mooch before in San Francisco made him a good fit for the Lions. Olson also had a hand in developing Drew Brees at Purdue. I believe this to be another good hire.

Mariucci hired another one of his buddies, Patrick Morris, to coach the offensive line. He was a 49ers assistant for seven years. During that span, the running attack for San Francisco has had the second highest rushing total at 135.5 yards per game and has had five seasons of 2,000 yards.

Mariucci, Morris, and running back coach Tom Rathman, have all worked together before and should be on the same page. If the Lions can average around 110 yards a game or so, it would be a great improvement as the Detroit ground attack was non-existent this year.

There is no way the passing attack can do anything if the rushing attack is not there. Morris should be a huge upgrade this year and has to work this offensive line very hard to teach them how to run block.

Stan Kwan has been hired to be an assistant to the special teams coach and an offensive assistant coach. He has been in Detroit before, working with Bobby Ross and Gary Moeller and he worked with special teams coach Chuck Priefer before. I really can't say if Kwan will be any kind of a factor in improving this team, but I trust that Mariucci hired him for some reason.

I like all these coaching changes, however, these moves were needed last year, as I said before, but I guess it is better late than never.

The bottom line is that coaches can influence wins and losses, but players actually win and lose. If Mariucci gets the right players in the right places who are coachable, the Detroit Lions will be successful. However, if he thinks this same cast of characters will lead them to the playoffs, Mooch is sadly mistaken.

Although Mariucci has a couple of more openings to fill, he has done a good job so far. Lions fans can only hope this new coaching staff, along with some player moves, can get this team five more wins and a playoff game or two.