No news yet of employment for Gunther Cunningham, the Lions defensive coordinator for the past five seasons.

Cunningham, who started coaching at Oregon in 1969, was let go after Jim Schwartz and offensive coordinator Scott Linehan were fired.

If his age — 67 — works against him that’s too bad. He might joke about being old, but he had a good connection with his players. He and Louis Delmas were close. It wasn’t unusual to see Cunningham walk out onto the practice field chatting with offensive players before getting down to business.

Cunningham led the defense to improvement in the 2013 season.

Schwartz has been hired as the defensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills. It’s a good spot for him. Remember he was the Titans’ defensive coordinator for seven seasons before moving to Detroit.

Wonder if Schwartz will bring Cunningham to Buffalo to coach linebackers or the defensive line. He has experience in both areas. In fact, Cunningham was the Titans linebackers coach for three seasons (2001-2003) while Schwartz was the defensive coordinator.

Linehan has been hired by the Dallas Cowboys as the passing game coordinator.

It’s a unique situation in Dallas (big surprise!) where Linehan will call the plays while Bill Callahan remains as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach.

He said last season he wasn’t ready to quit. Maybe the decision won’t be his.

New Lions coach Jim Caldwell hired Teryl Austin as the defensive coordinator and Joe Lombardi as offensive coordinator.

(Follow @PaulaPasche on Twitter. Order her book,  “100 Things Lions Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die’’ here. It’s also available at bookstores.)