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Lions notes: Calvin Johnson's injury, stats on Jim Schwartz, more

Lions notes looks at Calvin Johnson's injury, various stats on Jim Schwartz's five years in Detroit and much more.

By Sean Yuille

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  • The Detroit Lions are scheduled to have a team meeting at noon on Monday, according to Albert Breer. I would imagine a decision will have been made on Jim Schwartz's future by that time.

  • It looks like Calvin Johnson, who missed Sunday's game, will in fact have surgery this offseason to repair his knee injury. Schwartz said on Sunday that the injury is "minor," but he admitted that surgery will likely be necessary. (Schwartz recently said that surgery wouldn't be necessary, so the situation has evidently changed since then.)

  • What was the Lions' biggest problem in 2013? Not being able to close out games. Case in point:
  • The Lions especially struggled with finishing games in the second half of the season, leading to numerous losses down the stretch. This is far from a new problem for the Lions under Schwartz. Also, the Lions have now gone winless in the month of December for two straight years. They've lost nine straight December games, and they haven't won a game in December since they beat the San Diego Chargers in 2011 to clinch a playoff spot.

  • Unsurprisingly, Schwartz wants to return for a sixth season because the Lions have "unfinished business" in his view. I think 2013 was a pretty good indicator that the "unfinished business" will remain unfinished as long as Schwartz is in charge.

  • According to STATS and via Yahoo! Sports, Schwartz's 29-51 record produces the worst winning percentage for any NFL head coach in his first five seasons since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' John McKay went 22-53-1 from 1976-80. McKay, by the way, was coaching an expansion team.

  • Amazingly, the Lions were the only NFC North team to finish with a positive point differential in 2013.

  • Reggie Bush and Joique Bell made some history on Sunday.
  • Dylan Gandy missed Sunday's game because of a pulled calf, according to Michael Rothstein.

  • Several Lions players and even Gunther Cunningham got some love in Bob McGinn's 2013 NFC North awards, which were voted on by executives from teams in the division.

  • Shaun Hill "wouldn't be opposed" to returning to the Lions next season, but it remains to be seen if the team will actually be able to afford him since he could be one of the top backup quarterbacks on the open market.

  • Adrian Peterson randomly showed up in the press box before Sunday's game. That had to have been an odd sight for members of the media.

  • The Cleveland Browns surprisingly fired head coach Rob Chudzinski on Sunday, bringing his tenure to an end after only one season. There's already speculation that Schwartz could be a candidate to replace Chudzinski if the Lions fire him given his ties to Browns general manager Mike Lombardi (they worked together in Cleveland in the 90s).

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