The first shoe drops in the aftermath of another disappointing Lions season, and perhaps the most anticipated.

According to published reports, the Lions have let special teams coordinator Stan Kwan go, leaving just two position coaches or coordinators — Sam Gash (running backs) and Shawn Jefferson (wide receivers) — held over from the Matt Millen-Rod Marinelli era.

The Detroit News’ John Niyo confirmed the move with a phone call to Kwan, who had been with the Lions for 10 seasons, including the last three in charge of special teams, after the retirement of his mentor, Chuck Priefer.

Lions head coach Jim Schwartz was asked about potential turnover on his coaching staff in Monday’s season-ending press conference.

“There are always changes in the NFL. I don’t want to lock into one way or the other because there are some things that happen for a lot of different reasons. That’s part of the evaluation,” Schwartz answered. “Right now we’re still working on players and things like that but there are a lot of stages to the evaluation of players and coaching staffs and scheduling and schemes and things like that. That stuff will come through.”

The rest of Lions’ staff is headed to Mobile, Ala., later this month to coach the North squad at the Senior Bowl. The Jan. 30 game will mark the eighth time — and the first since 2003 — that the Lions coaching staff has coached the Senior Bowl.

UPDATE: The Lions confirmed the dismissal of Kwan in an e-mail on Monday.

According to reports, Michael Crabtree has a stress fracture in his left foot that will require surgery and keep him out six to 10 weeks. Crabtree has long been considered the draft's top receiver prospect coming off an impressive season at Texas Tech. Now, it looks like he'll slide out of the top 10. First, he measured a shorter than expected 6-foot-1 at the NFL combine. Second, he probably won't be able to answer questions about his speed by running the all-important 40-yard dash (the draft is nine weeks from today)

So, if you're the Lions, would you take Crabtree with your second pick of the first round, No. 20 overall, if he's available?

That debate will play out in draft-prep meetings over the next two months. The Lions need a No. 2 receiver to pair with Calvin Johnson and assistant Shawn Jefferson spent time with Crabtree on Thursday. They also have a well-documented history of taking first-round receivers, missing on most of them, and have a ton of holes to fill elsewhere on the roster. Still, Crabtree is one of the top few talents in the draft based on what he did in college and might turn into a superstar.

I wouldn't take Crabtree over, say, USC middle linebacker Rey Maualuga, who would fit a big positional area of need. But depending on the way the draft shakes out, I think the Lions would have to consider Crabtree if he were there at 20. (If they draft him, it essentially goes down as Crabtree-plus-a-third-round-pick for Roy Williams trade.)

If the Lions are lucky, they could turn into big winners from Crabtree's misfortune. Some team won't be worried about his size or speed and will take a gamble on him in the middle of the first round. If he's there at No. 20, maybe someone's anxious enough to grab Crabtree they'd deal a 2010 first-round pick.

The Lions are simply doing their diligence. Unless Matt Millen returns as general manager, there's no way they take a receiver with the first pick of the draft. But receivers coach Shawn Jefferson did meet with the draft's top pass catcher, Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree, on Thursday.

“One thing he told me is he has a beast right now but he wants a beast on the other side,” Crabtree said Friday at the NFL scouting combine. “That's about all we talked about.”

Besides Calvin Johnson, the Lions have a bunch of No. 3 and 4 receivers on their roster. They'll look to add a true No. 2 sometime in the draft if they don't sign a quality receiver in free agency.

Add special-teams coordinator Stan Kwan to the list of returning assistants from last year's 0-16 team.

Kwan joins receivers coach Shawn Jefferson and running backs coach Sam Gash as known holdovers from Rod Marinelli's staff, a source said Thursday. He ran the special-teams units for the Lions each of the last two years after serving as an assistant special-teams coach for seven previous seasons spread over two stints.

The Lions ranked 24th in both kick- and punt-return average last year and allowed punt-return touchdowns against the Redskins and Buccaneers, but specialists kicker Jason Hanson, punter Nick Harris and long-snapper Don Muhlbach rank among the best at their positions in the NFL.

Hanson, a free-agent-to-be, made 21-of-22 field goals last year and went an NFL-record 8-for-8 on kicks beyond 50 yards. If they can't sign him to a long-term contract, the Lions likely will make Hanson their franchise or transition player later this month.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's comments on the Thanksgiving day game have me wondering if the Lions (and Cowboys) are headed for another showdown with the rest of the league when the owner's meetings convene two months from now in California.

The Lions successfully fought off a measure by late Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt to rotate the game a few years ago, and if you remember back to November there was some public outcry that the Lions, who've lost their last five turkey-day games by an average of 23.4 points, should give up their holiday tradition altogether.

Goodell said at his pre-Super Bowl press conference that the Lions will play on Thanksgiving next year, but didn't commit beyond that.

“It's a great tradition in Detroit and in Dallas,” Goodell said according to a transcript of the session. “It's something that our owners have raised from time to time. It will not change for this season. As to whether the ownership feels the same, we will discuss it as we get later into the year. We certainly will raise it.”

Certainly will raise it? That sounds ominous.

New Lions coach Jim Schwartz said at a town-hall meeting Monday that he intended “to put a barbed-wire fence around that Thanksgiving day game.” That jives with how the Ford family feels about a tradition that's sacred locally. But I wonder how much pull ownership will have now that its trump camp, Ford Motor Company's advertising budget, has been so dramatically affected by the economy.

Beyond the Lions' atrocious holiday play, there's also a feeling that teams the Cowboys benefit by, effectively, having an extra bye week built into their season. Schwartz referenced that benefit Monday as well.

I don't know if there'll be enough support to alter the schedule for 2010, but it could happen sooner than you – or Schwartz – think.

• ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert is reporting that “there have been recent indications that the Lions were focusing in on” former Jaguars executive James “Shack” Harris to be Martin Mayhew's assistant general manager (or some like title).

I left Harris a message a short while ago and he has not yet returned my phone call, but a person close to Harris said suggestions he could soon be a Lion “are not untrue.” I've written it before, but it bears repeating that I think Harris would be a wise hire. He's built the sort of teams Mayhew envisions in Jacksonville and Baltimore, and he has an eye for finding late-round talent in the draft. If it happens, Mayhew should be complimented for fortifying himself with one of the best available options for the position.

• Finally, following up on my report from earlier this week about Shawn Jefferson and Sam Gash remaining on staff next year, both men will coach the same positions under Jim Schwartz – receivers for Jefferson, running backs for Gash – that they did under Rod Marinelli.

The Lions haven't announced any assistant coach hires other than coordinators Gunther Cunningham and Scott Linehan, but several other assistants are in place.

A team source told me today that receivers coach Shawn Jefferson and running backs coach Sam Gash will be retained from last year's staff, presumably at their areas of expertise. Jim Colletto, demoted from offensive coordinator to offensive-line coach, will not be back. One name I've heard as his replacement is George Yarno, who was fired as an assistant offensive line coach in Tampa Bay earlier this year. Yarno coached at Idaho, where new offensive coordinator Scott Linehan played and coached (though at different times than Yarno), and worked on Nick Saban's staff at LSU. Jim Schwartz referenced Linehan's work under “a colleague of mine Nick Saban” when he announced his offensive coordinator's hiring.

Calls and/or emails to Jefferson, Gash and Yarno have not been returned.

Previously, reports indicated that the Lions hired former Tennessee assistant Matt Burke as linebackers coach and that ex-Broncos defensive coordinator Bob Slowik was expected to coach defensive backs in Detroit.

Update at 8:17 p.m.: A source has confirmed that Yarno has been hired as the Lions' new offensive line coach.

Just stepped off a plane back from Green Bay minutes ago, a thousand phone calls outstanding, but there has been fallout from the Lions' 0-16 season, the first in NFL history.

The Lions fired coach Rod Marinelli and most of his defensive staff this morning, including coordinator Joe Barry, and promoted Tom Lewand to team president and Martin Mayhew to general manager. Though they're inextricably linked to Matt Millen and the past eight years of failure, the promotions of Lewand and Mayhew come as no surprise in light of William Clay Ford's statement last week that both would be retained and assist him in the search of an additional personnel man. That hire, whenever it takes place, likely will be an assistant general manager or scouting director of some sort. It won't be a Scott Pioli type.

Marinelli, a good man who fell into a winless rut and finished 10-38 in his three years with the Lions, is expected to speak at a press conference later today. Along with Barry, secondary coach Jimmy Lake, defensive line coach Joe Cullen and assistant offensive line coach Mike Barry also were fired, and offensive coordinator Jim Colletto was re-assigned to the offensive line.

Under Barry, the Lions had the NFL's worst defense two years running. He and Lake, and to a lesser extent Cullen, were products of the Tampa 2 defense that may have seen its last legs in Detroit.

Assistants Kippy Brown (passing-game coordinator), Stan Kwan (special teams), Shawn Jefferson (receivers), Sam Gash (running backs) and others were retained and likely will be left for whoever the next coach is to pick over. None or all could return next year.

Every day during training camp, Lions beat writer Dave Birkett takes you inside practice at Allen Park with notes, quotes and observations of interest.

• It was a light day today with one practice and the second and third teams taking the bulk of the reps. As Rod Marinelli pointed out, that's who'll play most of Thursday's preseason opener against the Giants so that's who got most of the work Tuesday. To no one's surprise, a big emphasis of the game will be running the football. "We got to go out and see if we can get a few runs and see if we can execute them really well and just see where we're at in terms of pad level and getting off the ball," Marinelli said. "We should know who to block. My grandson might be able to know who to block by now. We've done this stuff every day, a million times, so now we just got to go out and execute and tee off."

• Rookie defensive tackles Landon Cohen and Andre Fluellen will get plenty of work Thursday with Cory Redding and Langston Moore out and Chuck Darby expected to play only a handful of plays. Both Cohen and Fluellen had their moments Tuesday. Cohen beat Dominic Raiola in one-on-one work with a quick first step, but got off balance and pushed to the ground. Marinelli said Monday he's been a pleasant surprise. Fluellen appears to my untrained eye to play with good leverage, but he needs to be more consistent. Still, he's a keeper this year.

• Rookie receiver Kenny Moore, a long shot to make the team, caught a quick slant route Tuesday. The ball hit his chest, and Mike Furrey, kneeling on the sideline, yelled for Moore to "get your hands out there." As Moore trotted back, receivers coach Shawn Jefferson stopped him and fired a pass into his hands. The next time he caught the ball, Moore kept the ball away from his body. "See what happens when you use your hands?" Jefferson said.

• If I've written this before, forgive me, the days kind of run together now, but Jefferson is a hands-on teacher who players seem to respond to. His drills are very pertinent to game situations, and he's big on the fine points like footwork. Calvin Johnson, for one, has said he's seen an improvement in his technical side of the game.

• No. 2 quarterback Dan Orlovsky pulled out of a center exchange shaking his hand at one point. He was fine and finished practice, but it's just another example of the snap problems Corey Hulsey's been having at backup center. If Raiola goes down, the Lions' already-suspect line is in deep trouble.

• Last thought for the day: Johnson slipped on the indoor turf trying to make a cut during the second-to-last team period. As talented as he is, it was the scariest moment of camp. Don't fret, though. He's fine.