You can try to pin down Lions coach Jim Schwartz on his team’s playoff chances next year, but you won’t succeed. He’s too smart for that.

Same goes with asking him if the Lions are close to overtaking the NFC North and making the playoffs next year. Green Bay plays at Atlanta Saturday night while Chicago is at home to the surprising Seattle Seahawks on Sunday afternoon.

"I mean, we’ll see next year. You can’t say that now. Those teams are still playing, we’re not. There’s a lot of offseason, there’s a lot of training camp, there’s preseason games, there’s all that different stuff. Our goals and things like that are not really important right now. But how we go in the offseason and how we develop and things like that,’’ Schwartz said.

While he’s not a big believer in carryover from one year to the next he does see value in ending the season with four straight wins.

“I think that we have set the table. Now it’s up to us to run that table rather than to just count on the momentum coming from the end of this year,’’ Schwartz said.

(Follow me on Twitter @PaulaPasche.)