Saturday open thread: Which remaining coaching hire is most important for the Detroit Lions?

The Senior Bowl kicks off this weekend, with most players and coaches arriving in Mobile, Alabama on Sunday. It’s an incredibly important week for the Detroit Lions, as their coaching staff will have an up-close look at some of the best college players this senior class has to offer. They get a big leg up on the 30 other teams that can only watch from the sidelines while Lions coaches get to interact, chat and coach up their entire squad.

But, at least publicly, the Lions coaching staff is not quite full yet. As of Saturday morning, the team had not announced any hirings for the following positions: tight ends coach, linebackers coach, defensive backs coach and a new strength and conditioning team.

The Lions reportedly told Senior Bowl executive Jim Nagy that they’ll have a full coaching staff in place by the time the Senior Bowl began, but we are currently left in the dark about their selections.

So today’s Question of the Day is:

Which of the remaining coaching vacancies is most important for the Detroit Lions?

My answer: This is a challenging question, because a good case could be made for any of the four remaining vacancies. The secondary really struggled last year, and there’s a good chance they get much younger this year—making it necessary to get a good DBs coach. However, since their new defensive coordinator, Cory Undlin, comes from that background, I won’t say defensive backs coach.

Linebackers coach could be drastically important. The Lions haven’t gotten good play out of their linebackers in quite some time, and with both Jarrad Davis and Jahlani Tavai still on their rookie deals, it’s clear they could both benefit from a good coaching staff.

And with all the injuries the Lions had to go through last year, a new strength and conditioning staff could really help this team stay healthy and efficient all year round.

But I still think the answer is tight ends coach. T.J. Hockenson is expected to be a huge part of this offense for the foreseeable future, and his development is almost as important as anyone else’s on the team. Getting Jesse James more involved is also key, too, as he’ll be taking up a significant portion of cap space for at least the next year or two.

Tight end may not seem like that important of a position, but the Lions obviously believe otherwise. They want tight ends to be a feature of this offense, not a side dish. And so their hiring of the next TE coach may be one of the more important moves they make this offseason.

Your turn.