According to MMQB’s Albert Breer, the Detroit Lions are set to wrap up their first round of coaching — and general manager — interviews with Todd Bowles, Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defensive coordinator, on Friday.
Once the Bowles interview is complete, the Lions will have interviewed seven potential candidates for their head coaching vacancy.
The Lions opened their coaching search by interviewing coaches that were out of the league, out of the NFL playoffs, or on a bye week. That list included Marvin Lewis, (Former Bengals HC, currently an assistant at Arizona State), Eric Bieniemy, Kansas City Chiefs’ OC, Darrell Bevell, Lions’ OC, and Robert Saleh, San Francisco 49ers’ DC.
This week, they brought in candidates whose teams were in last weekend’s NFL playoffs including New Orleans Saints’ tight end coach/assistant head coach, Dan Campbell, who interviewed on Monday, Tennessee Titans’ OC Arthur Smith on Tuesday, and Bowles will wrap up the group on Friday.
The Lions general manager search is also phasing into stage two, with 12 interviews completed and Rams director of college scouting Brad Holmes kicking off the second round of interviews today. The second round of interviews is believed to be in person at the Lions Allen Park training facility whenever possible.