The mystery of Jim Caldwell's contract has finally been solved. 

According to ESPN.com, the Lions coach has signed a multi-year contract extension that will keep him in Detroit for the next few years. According to NFL.com, Caldwell actually signed the extension at some point in the spring, which means he's kept it under wraps for the past few months. 

Caldwell's contract status was a total mystery for pretty much the entire offseason. After the Lions collapsed down the stretch in 2016 by losing their final three regular-season games, there was some belief that the team might not want him back. However, the Lions shut down that talk in early January when they announced that he would be returning for the 2017 season. 

When Caldwell was originally hired by the Lions in 2014, he signed a four-year deal, which meant he was going into the 2017 season as a lame duck coach with no future contract. 

In the NFL, coaches don't generally go into a season without being signed past that year, so there was a belief that Caldwell would eventually get an extension at some point during the 2017 offseason. Caldwell was asked about his contract several times during the offseason, but he ducked the question each time. 

"We're not going to discuss anything dealing with the contracts (because) that doesn't matter," Caldwell said at the league meetings in March. "It really doesn't." 

Caldwell was also asked about his contract as recently as this week, and again, he gave a vague non-answer. 

"Just like I've said before, I'll say it a thousand times, I've told you guys I'll answer it the same way now and you ask me eight weeks down the road, I'm only concerned about a couple things -- it's my men and my mission," Caldwell said, via the Detroit News. "And our mission is to win. Everything else will take care of itself. And they aren't worried about anything else other than that. So, that's our focus."

The decision to give Caldwell an extension was probably an easy one for the Lions. The 62-year-old coach has led the Lions to two playoff berths in the past three seasons, which is the Lions' best showing since Bobby Ross led them to two postseason appearances between 1997 and 1999. 

Caldwell also has the Lions off to a 2-0 start this year for the first time since 2011. The Lions have also won both their games by double-digits, which marks the first time since 1980 that they've won their first two games in such dominant fashion. 

If Caldwell wants a contract for life, the next thing he needs to do is win a playoff game. The Lions have only won one playoff game since 1958, and that came 26 years ago following the 1991 season. It's the second longest playoff win drought in the NFL, trailing only the Bengals.