Now that the Matt Cassel-for-Jay Cutler, Detroit-Denver-New England threesome has fizzled out and Cassel is a Chief, two questions remain: Why didn't the Lions want Cassel, and who will be under center when Detroit opens the season next year?

The Lions have been mum on yesterday's trade news, but reading between the lines it's clear they weren't enamored with Tom Brady's pressed-into-action backup. Kansas City acquired Cassel for the 34th pick in the draft, the Lions own No. 33 (plus two first-rounders), and it's reasonable to assume they could have outbid the Chiefs had they wanted Cassel bad enough. For those who say KC got a steal because of new general manager Scott Pioli's relationship with Patriots coach Bill Belichick, a) that's not how it works in the ruthless NFL, and b) what about new Lions coach Jim Schwartz's ties with Belichick? Wouldn't it have made more sense to move the quarterback to another close friend outside the division (even if he wouldn't have been able to stick it to another Belichick disciple, Broncos coach Josh McDaniels, twice a year)?

To be fair, Tampa Bay, it seems, was willing to outbid both the Lions and Chiefs for Cassel in an effort to ship him to Denver for Cutler, who in my eyes is neck-and-neck with Matt Ryan for the best young quarterback (three years or less) in the league. But back to Cassel for a minute, the fact that he went for less than the going rate – Matt Schaub cost two second-rounders and a swap of firsts two years ago – suggests teams weren't anxious to pay a possible one-year wonder franchise money.

Cutler, meanwhile, is now the hottest commodity on the market even though Denver insists he's staying put. He's 25, has all the requisite tools, and his relationship with McDaniels and the Broncos is strained at best. So what are the chances the Lions land Cutler? In a straight-up swap, probably not good. It'd be suicide for Denver to deal Cutler without getting a quarterback in return, and now that Cassel is off the market there aren't many options. Matt Stafford I guess would qualify, but Mike Shanahan wasn't fired so the Broncos can rebuild.

For now, Daunte Culpepper remains the starter in Detroit and the failure of this deal leads me to believe he'll be there when the season begins. Dan Orlovsky is likely headed elsewhere in free agency, Drew Stanton isn't in the mix, and as of Saturday the Lions hadn't set up visits with available signal callers like J.P. Losman, though they'll surely add a veteran this offseason if Orlovsky doesn't re-sign.

Stafford and Mark Sanchez remain in the mix as first-round draft picks, and now that Kansas City's acquired its quarterback there's a chance one could slide to 20 if the Lions pass on both at No. 1. Even if it's not in the first round, I'd expect Detroit to take a quarterback somewhere in April's draft.

In the bigger picture, it'll be interesting to see where Cassel and the Chiefs go from here. Remember, Lions owner William Clay Ford promoted Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand after the season without so much as interviewing outside candidates. Pioli should have been in the mix. Now, he's made the biggest splash of the offseason while the Lions are still charting their course at quarterback.

Jim Schwartz broke into the NFL as an unpaid intern under Bill Belichick in Cleveland whose duties entailed picking up players from the airport and making cigarette runs for secretaries.

“That was my tuition to be exposed to the happenings that were there and to be able to learn,” Schwartz said. “And it was obviously well worth it.”

One of his first days on the job, however, Schwartz jokes that he almost got fired. The story:

“I'd been hired for a job that paid zero,” Schwartz said. They gave me an apartment and I could eat food in the office. They always had stocked kitchens and things like that. Well, they brought me up for a mini-camp. What happened is Bill did the old NFL trick of, hey, if you have a good practice on Thursday I'll give you off on Friday. Well, my plane ticket didn't go home until Friday so he gave the team off and all the coaches and players were out of there.

“Well, I don't have anything to do for a full day so I'm around the office literally like the entire day and don't see another soul and I'm waiting for my flight that's leaving at like 6 o'clock, so I go in and grab some lunch and I use the rest of the turkey and eat it. And I'm literally getting some crackers and I take a bite of the sandwich and in walks Coach Belichick. And he had been working out and he's rooting through the refrigerator, looking for a bunch of stuff, and I'm eating. And he looks over at me and he said, 'Have you seen the turkey?' And literally I had used just the exact last thing. And I got like a mouthful of turkey and I was like, 'Um. I just used the last …' And he was like, 'Oh, what the …'

“And really that was my first meeting, so I called home and said this might be a one-way ticket home.”

Now, of course, Schwartz considers Belichick one of his closest friends and coaching mentors.

"Probably had more to do with my development than anything," Schwartz said.

New Lions coach Jim Schwartz didn't commit to running a particular defensive scheme at his introductory press conference Friday. As defensive coordinator in Tennessee the past eight years, he said he used multiple looks depending on his personnel.

“We never really pigeon-holed ourselves that way,” Schwartz said. “We said we're going to do what the players do best, we're going to try to custom-build this every year and every year it's going to be a little bit different.

“In the division we played in we had Indianapolis, which was a great passing team, (and) Jacksonville, which was a giant, power-running team. We had to have the ability to be able to change during the season. I think the same principles apply here. I've been very fortunate, like I said, to have seen the way that a Bill Belichick has done things, Jeff Fisher, Marvin Lewis when I was in Baltimore, and what it's done is, I've developed my own style so-to-speak and am not married to a blueprint.”

General manager Martin Mayhew said when the Lions set out to hire a coach they initially wanted someone with background in a 4-3 defense. Then they interviewed candidates like Dolphins assistant head coach Todd Bowles and Cowboys offensive coordinator Jason Garrett and became believers the 3-4 could work, too.

“If you look at it really from a scheme, X-and-O standpoint, it's not that big a difference,” Mayhew said. “It makes a difference in terms of personnel, who's on your team, how many D-linemen you have, how many linebackers, but it can be very similar.”

I wrote earlier this week that most every player worth keeping on the defensive side of the ball could fit into either scheme. That's true still (though I think Ernie Sims is much better suited for the 4-3 because of his size and some of his struggles in pass coverage), but the Lions were built with the 4-3 in mind and that seems to be the quickest road back to respectability. Recent draft picks like Andre Fluellen and Landon Cohen wouldn't go to waste, and Cliff Avril could stay at defensive end where he showed promise and wouldn't be as big a liability in coverage.

Mayhew said he'd like a final decision in place by February's combine, when teams start delving deeper into the background of potential draft picks. My guess is the decision's already been made, that Schwartz will stick to his base 4-3 but continue to shape and mold it as he sees fit.

“They (did) a lot of different things in Tennessee,” Mayhew said. “They play zone, they play man, they zone blitz, they play (cover) 2, they do it all. That's what I like about him.”

More from Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz's press conference today. Schwartz was in town for his second interview with the Lions. He's been reported as the leading candidate to replace Rod Marinelli and is the first person to get a second interview. Chargers defensive coordinator Ron Rivera is expected in town on Tuesday, according to an NFL.com report, and Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier also could get second interviews.

• On his defensive philosophy: “The best way I can describe our defensive philosophy is multi-dimensional, do what it takes to win that week. ... This came from (Patriots coach) Bill Belichick my first years in the NFL, he always talked about making an opponent play left-handed. If a racquetball player has a good forehand, well make him hit his backhand. Our philosophy is sort of the same way. If it's a good run team, force him to throw the ball to win. If it's a good pass team, force him to run the ball to win. In order to do that you have to have multidimensional players. We'll do what our players do the best.”

• Disputing the reputation that he doesn't like to blitz: “We blitzed quite a bit back in 2002-03. Our team was a little bit different. I think one of the most important things in coaching is putting your players in the right positions for a chance for them to be successful. Quite honestly, our front four could get pressure without blitzing (this year) which allowed us to do a lot more in the back end. If our front four wasn't as good, we would have probably blitzed more. I think the only person that wanted to see Albert Haynesworth dropping back on a zone dog or Kyle Vanden Bosch dropping back on a zone dog was the opposing quarterback. And we tried not to let that happen very often.”

• On whether he has a staff picked out if he gets the Lions job: “I haven't been presumptuous enough to have a pocket staff, so to speak. There's some people I highly respect in the NFL, some people that time would be of the essence, but I'd rather not get into any more of that.”

• On how much his background as a scout – he worked three years in the Browns' personnel department – has helped him as a coach: “Probably the most. I think any coach should probably start in scouting because a coach's focus is so short term. We're worried about winning the game on Sunday and experience in scouting, you learn the long-term picture, you learn how the team's built.”

• Describing his relationship with Patriots VP of player personnel Scott Pioli, who's a candidate to take over as GM in Kansas City and likely would have Schwartz on his short list of head-coaching candidates: “Scott and I cut our teeth together in Cleveland. At the time we didn't realize it, but that was an all-star cast, guys working 100 hours a week, living in crappy apartments, making no money. But that made us all who we are in the NFL and back in '93 or '94, and we all have Bill Belichick to thank for that.”

• More on the importance of having a good quarterback: “Quarterback is the trump card of all positions in the NFL. If you have a good quarterback you can cover up a lot of other areas on your team. If you don't have a great quarterback you have to be really good in a lot of other areas. If you ask anybody in the NFL, most important position, it's going to be quarterback.”