Administration

Martin Mayhew, now in his 11th season with the Lions, was promoted to general manager December 29, 2008 and reports directly to Mr. Ford on all football matters.

Mayhew, the team’s executive football decision-maker, is building the Lions through a plan that focuses on developing a physically-tough football team. Mayhew adamantly believes that the players that will lead the Lions will be smart players with great football character.

The process of improving the Lions success on the field began to take shape in January 2009 with the team’s search for a new head coach. Along with President Tom Lewand, Mayhew searched for the right coach who shared his philosophies with the following characteristics: strong communication and leadership skills, a track record of success in the NFL, demonstrated ability to overcome adversity, the right mixture of youth and experience, and a coach with enthusiasm and energy for the challenge ahead.

The search concluded with the hiring of Jim Schwartz, who served eight years (2001-08) as the Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator before coming to Detroit. Schwartz is unique because he brings tremendous experience as a coordinator and position coach in the NFL, but he also previously worked in player personnel when he began his NFL career. These attributes appealed to Mayhew, and both have worked in concert on free agency and the draft—critical areas that will significantly impact the Lions’ success.

Along with the coaching staff, Mayhew re-organized the team’s player personnel department. From the start of the 2009 off-season, the team set out to add a personnel executive who was successful in overseeing both pro and college scouting in the NFL. That was completed with the hiring of James “Shack” Harris, who now has worked 24 years in scouting including the six seasons as Jacksonville’s vice president of player personnel. Along with the hiring of Harris, the Lions’ player personnel department, under Mayhew’s direction, underwent a geographical realignment that improves the team’s scouting operations.

In his role as general manager, Mayhew oversees the player personnel department, including college and pro scouting, and plays an integral role in the coordination of the team’s salary cap objectives and negotiation of player contracts. Mayhew and Lewand collectively work on all team matters pertaining to the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement and League policies and procedures.

Along with free agency and the draft, Mayhew utilizes every resource, such as trades and the league’s waiver wire process, year-round to improve the team’s roster from top to bottom.

Proof of Mayhew’s approach is the change to the team’s roster over the past two years. The 2010 opening day active roster included only 14 players (74-percent turnover) remaining with the club from two years prior, including four regular starters.

For the organization, adding productive leaders to both sides of the ball remains a top priority. This past season, key signings for the Lions included unrestricted free agents DE Kyle Vanden Bosch and WR Nate Burleson. Their contributions on the field were quite notable last season, and what they brought to the team’s locker room was immeasurable. Vanden Bosch was voted the team’s defensive captain last year, and he was a key component to the Lions much-improved defensive front. He finished the season with 49 tackles and four sacks before missing the final five games with a neck injury. On offense, Burleson added an additional play-making threat opposite Pro Bowl WR Calvin Johnson as he caught 55 passes for 625 yards and recorded six touchdowns. He also used his experience and guidance to help improve the team’s offense. The abilities and leadership of Vanden Bosch and Burleson will be valuable assets for the Lions in 2011.

In Mayhew’s first 31 months (October 2008-April 2011) after assuming the role of general manager, he completed 19 trades for personnel or draft picks, including 10 in 2010.

Several veterans acquired by Mayhew via trade have contributed to the Lions as starters or improved the team’s depth, including: DT Corey Williams, QB Shaun Hill, CB Chris Houston, DE Lawrence Jackson, G Rob Sims, TE Tony Scheffler and CB Alphonso Smith. Hill, Sims and Scheffler were all signed to contract extensions in 2010.

Two of Mayhew’s trades generated additional first round draft picks in 2009 and 2010. It marked the first time in franchise history that the Lions have made two selections in the first round of the draft in back-to-back seasons. Those additional picks allowed the Lions to draft TE Brandon Pettigrew with the 20th pick in the 2009 NFL Draft and RB Jahvid Best with the 30th pick in the 2010 NFL Draft.

Acquiring talent via trade in the early portion of the draft did not stop in 2011. In the second round of this April’s draft, the Lions traded picks to re-enter the second round of the draft to select RB Mikel Leshoure with the 57th overall pick. He was added to the top of the Lions 2011 draft class that included DT Nick Fairley (13th overall selection) and WR Titus Young (44th overall selection).

The team’s 2009 and 2010 drafts under Mayhew’s direction have generated highly productive classes that include eight players (2009: QB Matthew Stafford, Pettigrew, S Louis Delmas, LB DeAndre Levy and DT Sammie Hill; 2010: DT Ndamukong Suh, Best and S Amari Spievey) who each have started at least nine games over the past two years.

The Lions 2010 draft class was highlighted by both Suh and Best. Suh made an immediate mark on the NFL during his rookie season by being named AP Defensive Player of the Year, All-Pro and voted as a starter to the Pro Bowl. He set a Lions rookie record with 10 sacks and became the second rookie defensive tackle to register 10 sacks in the NFL since 1982. His impact was not only felt due to his individual production, but by the improvement of the team’s entire defensive line. Best, though he battled through toe injuries throughout his rookie season, led the team in rushing, set a team rookie record for receptions and became the first rookie to score five touchdowns in their first two games since RB Billy Sims in 1980.

Mayhew maximizes his resources in an effort to not only strengthen the team by improving individual talent, but by strengthening each position unit top to bottom. This process is exemplified by the continued development of the defensive line. The Lions front four were not only the most improved in the NFL last year, but have become a position of force for the franchise.

The team’s defensive line unit in 2010 accounted for 39 of the team’s 44 sacks. They garnered 23.5 more sacks in 2010 than in 2009, and the unit was critical in the entire defense allowing 46.9 yards less per game (highest improvement in NFL) and 125 less points (highest improvement in NFL).

Mayhew bolstered that unit last year by adding veterans Vanden Bosch (unrestricted free agent) and DT Corey Williams (trade) as starters. Suh’s addition sent the overhaul over the top with the addition of his skills and production. The four starters, including DE Cliff Avril, were joined by additions from the past two seasons: DE Lawrence Jackson (trade), DE Turk McBride (waivers) and Sammie Hill (draft). While much of the attention was on the production of Suh and leadership by Vanden Bosch, four others (Avril, Jackson, McBride and Hill) all set career high in sacks. During this year’s draft, Mayhew added Fairley, the winner of the 2010 Lombardi Award, a consensus All-American and AP SEC Defensive Player of the Year, to that group creating a formidable unit that should make an impact during the 2011 season.

In addition to his duties as general manager, the coordination of all football operations, managed day-to-day by Vice President of Football Operations Cedric Saunders, is under the direction of Mayhew. This includes team travel, training camp operations, security, medical staff, equipment operations, video department and cafeteria staff. Mayhew also works on many of the Lions’ football-related legal matters.

In February 2001, Mayhew joined the Lions’ front office as senior director of football administration/staff counsel. After illustrating his talents and work ethic for two years, Mayhew was promoted February 3, 2003 to senior vice president of football administration/legal affairs. On October 14, 2004, he was appointed senior vice president and assistant general manager.

Throughout his journey leading up to his current post, Mayhew has kept an eye on the future and has always thought one step ahead, as evidenced by his strategic exposure to several jobs and internships while earning his law degree from Georgetown’s Law Center (2000). He is one of two Lions’ front office executives with law degrees.

During the 1999 NFL season, while attending law school, Mayhew served a nine-month internship in the Washington Redskins’ pro personnel department, which exposed him to the responsibilities of an NFL scouting department. While with the Redskins, he scouted NFL players and late NFL cuts and also assisted in the evaluation of college players for the 2000 NFL Draft. Mayhew also had two separate internship stints with the NFL in both the labor operations and legal departments. In labor operations, Mayhew worked closely with NFL executives on issues involving player contracts and the salary cap. With the legal department, Mayhew assisted the NFL’s in-house labor counsel by researching legal issues, digesting cases in preparation for arbitration hearings and drafting legal memoranda related to player injury and non-injury grievances. He also was exposed to corporate law while working for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld, L.L.P. in Washington D.C., one of the NFL’s primary firms used as outside counsel. At Akin Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld, he researched legal issues, wrote legal documents and assisted firm associates and partners in preparation for litigation.

Mayhew played nine years in the NFL as a cornerback for Buffalo (1988), Washington (1989-92) and Tampa Bay (1993-96). He was the Bills’ 10th-round selection in the 1988 NFL draft and was a starter on the Redskins’ Super Bowl XXVI championship team.

He entered the league after graduating from Florida State with a Bachelors of Science degree in business management. While at FSU, he was a National Merit and Achievement Scholar and earned GTE CoSida Academic All-America honors. He was also a two-sport athlete, lettering on both the Seminoles’ football and track teams. Between graduation and the draft, Mayhew was a corporate trainee at First Union National Bank in Charlotte, N.C.

Mayhew has also been extremely involved within the community throughout his professional career. In 1993, while playing for Tampa Bay, Mayhew was given the Chelo Huerta Community Service Award, and the following year he was a nominee for the True Value Hardware Man of the Year. From 1995-96, Mayhew was the Bucs’ United Way Spokesperson.  Mayhew is a member of the Florida Bar and the Sports Lawyers Association. Additionally, Mayhew is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

For the past three years, he has hosted the Martin Mayhew Youth Football Coaching Academy for approximately 100 coaches from Think Detroit PAL. The purpose of the camp is to provide additional teaching and training tools for coaches so they can continue having a positive and long-lasting impact on the young lives they touch through youth football.

 Mayhew and his wife, Sabrina, have a daughter, Sierra, and two sons, Ryan and Justin.