Jim Schwartz was among the coaches let go on Black Monday after underachieving and missing the postseason despite the Green Bay Packers playing Scott Tolzien, Matt Flynn and Seneca Wallace at quarterback for 40 percent of their games, and Jay Cutler missing several weeks for the Chicago Bears.
Part of the reason was maddeningly inconsistent play at times from Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, who couldn't make the playoffs despite throwing to the NFL's best wide receiver. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Lions are eyeballing former Arizona Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt to remedy the situation.
Whisenhunt worked with Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald in Arizona, leading them to a Super Bowl berth, and this season has presided over the Philip Rivers revival in San Diego. The Chargers' passing offense was ranked second in the league according to Footballoutsiders.com, with their best wide receiver being rookie Keenan Allen.
Stafford's racked up major yardage in four of his five NFL seasons, but has never thrown fewer than 16 interceptions in a year that he started 10 or more games. In 2011 he had a monster season, throwing 41 touchdowns against 16 picks, but his high touchdown total outside of that season is 29. He set that mark this season, and accompanied it with 19 interceptions, 11 of which were thrown in the final six games of the regular season.
Whisenhunt seems to have worked wonders for Rivers in San Diego. After two subpar seasons Rivers re-emerged as one of the league's top quarterbacks, racking up 32 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions; in the previous two seasons Rivers was picked off a combined 35 times.
The 2014 draft is widely considered to be plentiful in wide receiver talent as well, which would provide Stafford with even more ammunition. Despite the presence of Calvin Johnson, Detroit has long had issues finding a reliable No. 2 option opposite Megatron.
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