Mayhew and the NFL Drafts: How Good Is He?

In 2009, Martin Mayhew and Jim Schwartz began drafting for the Detroit Lions. Last year the Lions won 10 games and made the play-offs. But is their drafting a bit misleading?

2009 - The first year was easy for them. They took over a team with no talent and they went into the draft with one goal. Add star athletes, no matter their position. In came Matthew Stafford, Brandon Pettigrew, and Louis Delmas in the first three pick and two rounds. After that, they added DeAndre levy in the third, and Sammie Lee Hill in the fourth. With 10 picks in 2008, 5 of them are starter worthy and still on the team as strong contributors.   Grade = A


2010 - The Draft started off as easy as it gets. It was obvious the Lions had only one choice they could make with their second pick over all. If they would have taken anyone other than Ndomukong Suh, it would have been the worst pick in the draft. Suh was a once in a lifetime player to draft at DT and simply put, a no-brainer. When the Lions moved back into the 2nd round to take Jahvid Best, it was a gutsy move to get a superstar talent at RB. With his concussion suffered the year before, the pick was a little dangerous, but one that was worth doing at the time. In the third, they drafted Amari Spievey, knowing he was not going to be a very good CB. It didnt matter. They had intentions to turn him into a Safety. Spievey has shown some ability but has yet to prove he can be a worthy every day starter. This pick is still questionable. In the 7th round, they added Willie Young, who is turning into a decent contributor and someday may be a solid every down player.

With 2 players (Suh & Young) looking good, 2 players (Best & Speivey) who are questionable, and 2 other players (Fox & Toone) who look to be busts, the Lions draft was not as successful as the previous year. The only reason they get a good grade is because one of their good picks came late in the draft.
Grade = B-


2011 - The drafting of Mayhew and Schwartz took a bit of a down turn with this draft. The Lions defense had a very glaring weakness at CB and there were very good CB's available when their pick came. They ignored need and went with BPA to take Nick Fairley, a Defensive Tackle. With three good DTs on the team already, it was not a needed move and not a pick that would improve the team very much. The only reason they get a pass is because they did get a great talent... supposedly.  In the 2nd round, they took Titus Young, a WR to compliment Calvin Johnson and Burleson. So far this looks like it may have been the best pick of that draft. The Lions moved back into the 2nd round and once again, continued to ignore the weakness on the team at CB and took Mikel LeShoure, another RB.

So far, only Young has shown he can play. Fairley has seen little action due to an injured foot and LeShoure has yet to play due to a serious achilles injury and will miss games this year due to off field problems. The only other picks were LB- Doug Hogue, and OT- Johnny Culbreath, who was recently cut.
Grade = C-

2012 - Once again the Lions most glaring weakness was CB. Once again there were a couple very good CBs available when their pick came. Yet again, the Lions ignored the need. In the first round they took OT-Riley Reiff. Did the Lions need to start addressing the offensive line for the future? Sure. But they needed a CB far more than they needed a Tackle. When the 2nd round came, did they address the CB position? They took a Wide Receiver. With one of the best passing games in the NFL and three good receivers already on the team, they took another WR. That reasoning alone makes this pick very questionable. Add to that, the WR they took, Ryan Broyles, recently suffered a major knee injury and will not even be ready to play when the season starts, and it is not guaranteed he will ever be 100% again, this pick is nearly laughable. After that the Lions drafted three CBs and three LBs. This move screams a couple things to me. They knew very well how importantly they needed to address the secondary before, and chose to ignore it for BPA, and they do not have faith in any of these draft picks to start, otherwise they would not have drafted three of them.

With a slight improvement on the offensive line, they added an injured WR to a good WR crew, and tossed in three CBs and three LBs hoping they get lucky with one of them.
Grade = D-


My Opinion - Mayhew and Schwartz are good at picking talent. There is no doubt they know talent. So when the team was void of any talent, they had an easy time of drafting talent to add to it. Then the team got better and they had to pay some attention to making a good team better. It should have been time to let go of the Best Player Available draft theory and start finding the Best Players that fill Needs. They did not do that and their drafting has steadily gotten worse.  Because of this, the Lions, who won ten games last year, will be entering the new season, not with a better team than last year, and not with the same team, but with a team that is not as good. And they will be facing a tougher schedule.

Schwartz ans Mayhew know talent. What they have not shown however, is the knowledge on how to build a great team. They continue to draft talent and not care about addressing needs. So they continue to build up certain areas of the team while going into new seasons with the weaknesses getting worse.
Mayhew & Schwartz Grade = C

Mayhew Shows His Worth in 2012 Draft

In the first two days of the 2012 NFL Draft, Detroit Lions GM, Martin Mayhew, shows his knowledge of how to build a team. And I was less than impressed.

Okay, I guess I can understand the first pick of Reiff. A top ranked Left Tackle who fell into their laps, who can be Backus' replacement when he retires. A solid offensive lineman who can pass block and run block. It was a solid pick. I did not like it!

Even though I can understand the pick, I believe it was the wrong choice. There were plenty of good linemen available still. The draft was deep in the position. There was still a chance of getting one with the second pick. And it was not an emergency to upgrade the position. Let's face the facts here. Stafford threw for over 5,000 yards last year. You just don't do that unless the line is doing a decent job.  Does Reiff improve the unit? Yes. But they could have improved another unit immensely.

With several good linemen still available, there was another position that was in dire need of upgrading and only one top talent left to fill it. This should have been a no brainer pick. The Detroit Lions weakest link in 2011 was the secondary. In the off season, Wright left in free agency, making the secondary even weaker. With Janoris Jenkins still available, he should have been taken without hesitation. But rather than draft a player that would have improved your defense immensely, the Lions drafted one of many offensive linemen who will likely start but not make a huge difference.

Still, I can understand the desire to take a top left tackle, so I will give a little leeway and give this pick a C+.

Then day two rolls around and guess what? CB Janoris Jenkins is still available.  With Mayhew's ability to trade and move up to get players in the last two or three drafts, he needed to do it again and get Jenkins. Adding Jenkins and a top left tackle would have made this draft an instant success. He made no such move and soon Jenkins was taken. When it was the Lions turn to draft, there was another top player available who could have improved the Lions more so than Reiff will. C - Peter Konz would have given the Lions a boost in the running game where Raiola, who is undersized has been lacking. But no, Mayhew had another idea. He drafted WR- Ryan Broyles.

Yes Broyles broke the NCAA record for most receptions, but there were several reasons this was a bad pick.  First off, the Lions did not need another WR. The last I checked, Stafford threw for over 5,000 yards in 2011. That is something like the 6th best passing season ever. Do you truly believe adding another WR will improve that much?  The fact is, adding another WR, no matter how good he is, will not improve the Lions passing game by much. With the Lions, this was a wasted pick. But it doesnt stop there. Broyles is coming off a major knee injury. So the Lions just spent their second round draft pick on a WR (who they did not need) who is coming off of a major knee injury? Seriously? Yes. I am serious! And sad for it too.

For their third and final pick of the two most important days of the draft, the Lions drafted CB- Dwight Bentley. A player who was virtually a no name prospect until he had a good game in the senior bowl. He was considered a timid tackler until he had one good game. And he is only 5' 10" tall. I know, Jenkins was no taller, right? But Jenkins had #1 shutdown corner speed and talent. Bentley has none of that. He will be a success if he is as good as Wright, and that really was not that good.

The Lions, after the first three rounds, ended up with LT-Reiff, injured WR- Broyles, and CB-Bentley. They should have had, CB-Jenkins, C-Konz and anyone else you want to add who was available.

What they should have had and what they ended up with? This shows me one thing. Mayhew does not know how to build a good football team.  In the first few years, he took us from 0-16 to 10-6 and a play-off birth, but the Lions are not a good team. Until they can actually beat a good team, they are not a good team. Right now, they are an average team that had a good year due to a very weak schedule. Not unlike what the KC Chiefs did the year before. Mayhew has added talent to a desecrated team. That is not a big deal. With early draft picks, he has added enough talent to turn the Lions into an average team. But Mayhew and his ridiculous BPA draft strategy has shown me he simply does not know how to take an average team and step it into the good or elite realm.

How can I say that you ask? He has yet to show us a team that can beat good teams, and he insists on drafting players to add depth while ignoring where the Lions are weakest. Last year he could have had a top CB in Jimmy Smith and instead drafted  DT- Nick Fairley, when they were already solid at the position. Once again, this year, he had a chance for a shutdown corner in Jenkins, and again he ignored the position to take an offensive lineman. Then he turned around and took a WR, when the Lions have three good WR's already rather than move up for Jenkins or take Konz who is the best Center in the draft.

Mayhew has failed miserably this year and quite frankly, it does not matter what he does in rounds 4 through 7, this draft gets a low grade. "D". The Lions needed this off season to improve the team. They did not sign one good player in free agency, lost their second best CB and did extremely little to improve the team in the draft. I seriously could not have imagined Mayhew could have done a worse job if he took advice from Millen.

Mayhew's Worst Nightmare

Taking a last sip from his wine glass, Martin Mayhew holds it up and stares through the crystal at the reddish glow. The glass is empty, the glow coming from his high rise window. The red and orange hues of the deepest sunset he had seen in his entire life. Setting the glass gently on his desk, he turns his wrist so he can see his watch. Only quarter after five.

With a slight groan, he gets to his feet and crosses the room to the windows and stands by Williams Clay Ford senior. Neither man says a word for a long moment as they stare out the windows in resignation. The reddish glow is not from a sunset. It is from the thousands of torches being held by the descending Lions fans outside the building.

"It was a stupid mistake you know. You should have known better." Ford says just before going into a coughing fit as he clears a wad of phlegm from his throat.

The look that Mayhew gives the ancient man is one of pure hatred mixed with a shock of wonder. A stupid mistake? That bastard made the mistake! Mayhew wanted to do the sensible thing, but it was the old man who insisted on doing things his way. Mayhew considered the idea of throwing the old fart to the wolves. Let the fans below have the blood they want. If he thought it would save him, he would do it. It wouldn't though. The fans would never believe him. Turning back to the torch carrying fans below, Mayhew let his thoughts fall back to the moment everything went to hell.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had just scored a long touchdown after the Lions defense failed to put any pressure on the quarterback. Four seconds, five seconds passed by and the Bucs quarterback still had not had to scramble. Then he finally cocked his arm back and let the ball fly, forty-seven yards in the air to a wide open receiver who ran another twenty yards for the score.

Now it was the Lions chance to even things up and Matthew Stafford took the snap and dropped back in the pocket. Then the unthinkable happened.

Ndamukong Suh shot out of his stance like a blood thirsty beast and ran a stunt to the left side, put his hands on the chest of the Lions star rookie left tackle, Russell Okung, and shoved. The ease in which he tossed Okung to the side was as if he was handling an unruly child then he was into his sprint. In exactly one point five seconds Suh was driving his shoulder into the back of Matthew Stafford. One tenth of a second later the sound of the young quarterbacks back snapping echoed through the stadium.

As Ndamukong Suh jumped up and began waving the medical team over, the 55,000 fans went silent. Their highly loved franchise quarterback laid their unmoving because the player the Lions drafted could not stop the player who eighty percent of the fans had wanted.

Mayhew knew that Suh was the right draft pick. He knew that when he caved into Ford's pressure to protect his quarterback, the decision would come back to bite him. He just never imagined it would be a rabid wolf that bit him. In his wildest nightmares he never would have thought it would be nearly a million of those rabid wolves coming for him.

A commotion in the mob below drew his eyes and he watched with a solemn horror as the gates caved in and the angry fans surged into the building. It wouldn't be long now he thought. Looking at old lord Ford, he fantasized wrapping his hands around the old geezers throat. If he was going to die, maybe he should allow himself that one last pleasure of knowing it was him that finished the old fart and not the fans.

The sounds of the fans screaming for blood somewhere in the building floated to his ears. Giving the old man another tempting glare, Mayhew walked back to his desk and sat down. He did not blame the fans actually. They had gone so long without seeing a competitive team on the field and when they finally had signs of getting one, it all fell apart because of one bad decision. He should have taken Suh. Whatever the old man said, he should have taken Suh. He was the better player. He was the better choice for the success of the team. Suh was the right draft pick. But Ford wanted Okung and he had caved in to the old man's desires. Now he would die for it.

The screams suddenly grew much louder and he knew the mob had made it onto his floor. Mayhew hardly had a chance to rise from his desk before the doors crashed open and the fans came rushing in. They filled the room to bursting and he began to scream as their hands fell upon him. They pulled him in different directions and he screamed again as he felt his hair being yanked out of his head. Then his eyes fell on the old man.

Old Lord Ford was fairing no better, but Mayhew could not help but to wish he was doing much worse. "It was your choice old man!" Mayhew shouted. "Your choice! I should never have listened to you! Do you hear me? I should never have...."

Mayhew sat up straight in his bed as he screamed the last words. "... listened to you!" Realizing he was no longer being torn limb from limb he looked around. He was in his own bed, the sheets soaked with his own sweat. In his right hand he held a lock of his own hair.

Gathering his wits, Mayhew whispered a promise. "I won't listen to you old man!"