When Lions general manager Bob Quinn fired Jim Caldwell after a 9-7 season last month, he fired his offensive line coach, too. If second-place finishes weren't good enough, nor was the production he saw out of a unit he pumped first-round picks, trades and top-tier free-agent contracts into.
He said he'd find someone better, someone more qualified to make use of the resources at play around Matthew Stafford. He wound up with Jeff Davidson, a former Ohio State guard with Patriots connections and a long history in the area he's about to try to fix in Detroit.
The run and the pass are imperatives to the Lions success now that Stafford owns the richest contract in NFL history, is in his ninth year and has still never had a running game.