Jim Caldwell walked down a hallway in the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix this week during the NFL owners meetings when someone started speaking with him.

In the midst of the conversation, the unnamed person asked the Detroit Lions head coach if he needed his quarterback, Matthew Stafford, to “take off” this season.

Caldwell disagreed.

“I looked at him and said, ‘No, we don’t need him to really take off. He’s been doing well. He’s improving steadily,’” Caldwell told reporters at the owners meetings Wednesday. “Things in this league don’t happen that way. No one makes a meteoric jump. It’s gradual. It’s too competitive. There are too many good players.

“It’s a tough league, and I do think he’s making really good progress. I think I said this last year. In this stage, there are usually years five, six, seven, there is growth in development.”

Stafford enters Year 7 of his NFL career when he returns to the Lions facility for offseason workouts on April 20. The 27-year-old has had an interesting arc. He posted his best numbers since 2011 last season in completion percentage (60.3 percent) and quarterback rating (85.7) along with a career low in interceptions (12) over a full season.

Despite those numbers being better for Stafford, his passer rating was 21st in the NFL, his completion percentage 25th and his interceptions tied for 16th. He ranked in the top 10 among quarterbacks in three categories -- attempts (602), yards (4,257) and interception percentage (2.0). Yet his yards and attempts were his lowest since 2010, when he missed most of the season due to injury.

So figuring out Stafford’s season -- and his progression as a quarterback -- can be a bit difficult. He improved on the metrics most important to Caldwell, completion percentage and limiting turnovers, but in comparison to his peers he’s still in the middle of the NFL -- at best.

Caldwell, though, remains undeterred about Stafford’s progress and that he’ll end up being more successful in 2015, when he will be in the second year of offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi’s system and, the Lions hope, hit much less than the career-high 45 sacks he took in 2014.

Part of Caldwell’s confidence in Stafford’s growth comes from his performance in the Pro Bowl, an exhibition where Stafford and receiver Golden Tate were named to the game as replacements after other players pulled out. Stafford ended up winning the offensive MVP award.

A good chunk of Caldwell’s confidence in Stafford comes from the intangible qualities he has shown -- “work ethic, intelligence, toughness” -- and what he has been able to do late in games, when he led the Lions on multiple game-winning drives in the fourth quarters during Caldwell’s first season.

“Those are the things that I think are the most important qualities. It would be different if we were talking about a guy who was deficient in terms of arm strength or didn’t have the ability to carry out some things on the field that he can do,” Caldwell said. “He can do a lot of things. He can bide time. He can make big plays for you. He does not flinch in tough times, where those games are tight at the end, this guy is as calm, as direct, as focused as you can be. I’ve been impressed with that aspect of it.

“He does not shrink or shy away from big moments, and I think that’s an important quality for a guy. All of those things wrapped up together, he’s going to continue to get better, and his future is bright.”

While Caldwell might not think he needs his quarterback to “take off” for the Lions to have a successful 2015, they will need him to continue to improve. Caldwell, like everyone else, knows it.