Jim Schwartz, probably more than any other current NFL coach, uses advanced statistics to measure player performance. The former Georgetown economics major graduated third in his class, and he's a fan of Football Outsiders, basically the only site doing for football what Bill James did for baseball some 30 years ago.
Winning games comes down to more than running a few regressions and calling it a day; there's also the on-the-field stuff: blocking, throwing, tackling and, ultimately, coaching. Finding that balance is the key. And two days into the toughest gig in sports, Schwartz sounds like a man who knows what he's doing. Or at the very least, he's a fabulous salesman.
From the Detroit Free Press' Drew Sharp:
[Schwartz] must have mentioned the New England Patriots' head coach at least a dozen times during his introductory news conference ... Belichick was one of the first people Schwartz thanked.Schwartz was a scout for the Browns when Belichick was coaching that team into the ground. That said, there are worse role models. Like, say, anybody that was a part of the Lions front office during Matt Millen's reign of terror. Whatever your thoughts on the 'Spygate' allegations, Belichick has three Super Bowl rings this decade, and it had virtually nothing to do with the fact that he got caught doing what most NFL teams did on a weekly basis.
"I've been very fortunate to see how Bill Belichick has done things," Schwartz said. "Bill Belichick told me to identify the important stats."
Schwartz's biggest off-field obstacle -- at least according to Michael Rosenberg, Sharp's colleague at the Free Press -- will come from the new-but-not-all-that-new Lions front office. Millen was canned during the season, but his replacements, president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew, aren't likely to morph into Scott Pioli to Schwartz's Belichick anytime soon. Via Rosenberg:
Lewand was never, ever going to reach outside the organization for a strong-minded, experienced leader who could marginalize him. ...To be fair, Millen was that bad. Still, I take the point; Mayhew had a front-row seat for some fantastically dreadful football and he got a promotion out of it. In any event, Rosenberg thinks there could be some front office posturing, which nobody will care about if the Lions can muster a few wins next season. Just ask Jerry Jones, who was a fine GM when the 2007 Cowboys went 13-3 and something much less than that in 2008.
This, I think, explains why Mayhew is the general manager. Hiring Mayhew was absurd on the surface. He has been with the Lions for eight years - one of the worst eight-year stretches in league history. We all know Matt Millen was a horrible general manager, but was he so bad that he had a great general manager working for him and still went 31-97? Nobody is that bad. Not even Matt Millen.
For the glass-half-full set: Detroit isn't Dallas and, thankfully, Schwartz isn't Wade Phillips.
