Detroit Lions Clean House At The Top
Usually when a NFL football team fails to meet expectations the coach and his staff takes the fall. The Detroit Lions have been a disappointment lately but instead of targeting the coaching staff they’ve gone straight to the top firing General Manager Martin Mayhew and Team President Tom Lewand.
Team owner Martha Ford announced the move and expressed disappointment at the team’s 1-7 start to the season: “We are very disappointed with the results of the season so far,” Ford said during a 1 minute, 53 second statement Thursday. “And believe a change in leadership was necessary.” A week ago the team fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and offensive line coaches Jeremiah Washburn and Terry Heffernan but according to Ford there will be no further changes to the coaching staff including head coach Jim Caldwell. Ford spoke again of the need for top leadership: “I want to assure our fans that we intend to identify and hire the very best leadership in order to produce a consistently winning football team. Our fans deserve a winning football team. And we will do everything possible to make it a reality.”
The team will begin a search for a permanent replacement but have appointed interim replacements for the fired executives. Sheldon White, the team’s vice president of pro personnel, will be the interim general manager, while chief financial officer Allison Maki will be the acting COO reporting directly to Ms. Ford. Ford took no questions after her statement so the moves are unable to be put into a broader context. The team issued a release saying that White would be available to the media at some point next week.
Mayhew was hired in 2008 to replace the much maligned Matt Millen, who was fired during the team’s infamous 0-16 season. Mayhew hired coach Jim Schwartz and after he was fired in 2013 hired Caldwell. Mayhew’s biggest problem was building the team with young talent. He has a very poor track record in the NFL draft and that’s the only way to build a winning team for the longterm. You can expect the Lions’ next hire for the position to have considerable experience and success in building a team through the draft. For that reason, you can expect them to wait until after the season to begin the search for a replacement.