If the Detroit media was as negative as coach Jim Caldwell thinks it is, they all would have been shouting down more than six years ago the decision to promote Matt Millen’s sidekick to General Manager. But that’s what the Lions did with Martin Mayhew, also giving Tom Lewand a promotion to CEO from the wreckage of the Millen regime.
Finally dumping them was the easy part. The hard part will be replacing them.
Owner Martha Firestone Ford said Thursday that the franchise will embark on a “national search for the best leadership to manage our team going forward.” It’s unclear whether that will be a G.M., a CEO, both, or perhaps neither. (In theory, the Lions could decide to go with a Belichick-style model that has the coach in charge of the organization, whether that’s Jim Caldwell or someone else.)
Proven leaders of football operations typically are already employed; the Lions will need to find: (1) someone who either hasn’t done it and possesses the ability to do it well; or (2) someone who has previously done it but then hit a rough patch and was fired; or (3) someone who has previously done it but then opted to resign.
It won’t be easy to find the right person, and technically there’s a chance the Lions won’t find someone better than Mayhew and Lewand. There’s definitely a chance they won’t find someone to take this team to the place it’s never been -- a Super Bowl.
Regardless, Lions fans deserve the opportunity to enjoy for a day or so that fact that the team will at least try to get better. Maybe, this time, the Lions finally will.