Martin Mayhew
Detroit Lions announced Thursday the firing of GM Martin Mayhew and team president Tom Lewand, who've had those jobs since 2008.
Following a surprising 11-win campaign last year, the Lions have encountered a disastrous first half of the 2015 season. They’ve won just once in eight games, fired multiple coaches on the offensive side, and now have started a massive overhaul of the team’s front office and executive branch.
Mayhew was originally the right-hand man for former GM Matt Millen. When Millen was let go after a painfully long eight years, the organization surprisingly decided to reward Mayhew, despite his having a hand in forming some of the least talented rosters in NFL history.
Martha Ford at press conference
Under Mayhew’s guidance, the Lions made the playoffs in 2011 and 2014, though an opening-round loss ended each try. Also, with Mayhew not investing draft picks or money on a promising backup for Matthew Stafford over the last several years, whoever inherits this job will be in quite the bind.
In another surprise, the Lions are keeping head coach Jim Caldwell. He came under fire this week for blasting the Detroit media as overly negative, chastising them for failing to find the silver lining in the team’s league-worst 1-7 record.
Ray Weidmann, a reader in Comstock Park, Mich., posts this on our Facebook page under a link to this article. Head coach Jim Caldwell is at center.
After a bye this weekend, the Lions' circus heads Nov. 15 to Green Bay, a house of horrors that has delivered them only losses since December of 1991. The last time the Lions won in Wisconsin, Michael Jackson and Michael Bolton were the top-selling artists of the day, and Kwame Kilpatrick was still just an innocent young college football player at Florida A&M.
"We are very disappointed with the results of the season so far," owner Martha Ford said at a 2 p.m. team news conference. “I want to assure our fans that we intend to identify and hire the very best leadership." She didn't take questions.
Can Deadline Detroit see the future?
Check this post from Tuesday.
Related coverage today:
Meet the Press, Sort Of: Martha Ford's Read-and-Go Event Is a Cue for Quips
