After a slew of interviews with head coach and GM candidates, the Detroit Lions have their eyes set on another guy — that guy being Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowles.
As Super Wild-Card Weekend gets underway around the NFL, the Detroit Lions will have their eyes on one game in particular. According to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, the team has submitted a request to interview Todd Bowles for its head coaching vacancy. The interview won’t be scheduled until after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator coaches Saturday night’s wild-card game against Washington, but Bowles is expected to speak with Detroit in the coming days.
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Bowles’ resume isn’t going to excite Lions fans and quite frankly I’m not sure why the team is interested in him other than it would be a complete Lions move to bring him aboard as a head coach. He’s spent the last two seasons as Tampa Bay’s defensive coordinator where he’s been able to orchestrate a top 10 defense this season (sixth overall in the NFL).
That’s fine and all but there’s also probably enough to form a pretty sober minded opinion of him as a head coach.
From 2015 to 2018 Bowles served as the head coach of the New York Jets where he compiled a record of 24-40. He was also briefly the interim head coach of the Miami Dolphins where he went 2-1 in 2011.
Other than that, Bowles has been a longtime defensive assistant having stop with the Cowboys (2005-2007), Dolphins (2008-2011), Eagles (2012), and Cardinals (2013-2014).
Conflicting reports on the Robert Saleh interview
There have been conflicting reports regarding just how well the Lions’ interview went with 49ers defensive coordinator and Michigan native Robert Saleh.
According to certain sources, Saleh’s interview it the team didn’t go well and he’s “not a shoo-in to get the job.”
On “The A-Team” podcast with Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler, Arron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle—who we interviewed about Rick Smith here—dropped a big piece of news regarding the Lions’ coaching search and their pursuit of 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh.
“Saleh didn’t do very well in the Detroit interview, I was told, and is not a shoo-in to get the job,” Wilson said.
Pride of Detroit
Meanwhile, Lions beat reporter Dave Birkett tweeted that his sources have told him that Saleh’s interview with the Lions went “great”.
Gun to my head I’d probably trust Dave Birkett more so than what Arron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle says but who really knows at this point. What still gets me is the team seems okay with hiring a head coach without hiring a GM first.
Other than all of that, there’s said to be some interest within the Lions organization in Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald and that the team “came away impressed” with former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis. Blah.
