The Bar is: ??
February 3rd, 2010 | by detfan1979 |How can we forget the good old days of Marty “The Bar is High” Mornhinweg riding his Harley into the sunset? But that particular phrase has been making its way around the Lions community as of late in relation to Martin Mayhew. With the Superbowl coming up, it brings into focus what makes a GM successful? The reality is, the success or failure of a GM in the NFL is ultimately decided based on wins and losses – no matter what our wide range of personal feelings may be. How many wins and how soon? Was last season a success or failure? Why?
Maddening, isn’t it? So many perspectives, so little time…
- Was Mayhew a successful GM last season? Did his moves/wins equal an improvement for this franchise over where it was when he took over. (While I like his trade of Roy Williams, since I’m not pegging him with 0-16, I can’t give him total credit for that on his resume. Good and bad together…)
- What would it take in terms of wins, moves, etc. for you to consider Martin Mayhew as a good GM making progress in the 2010 season?
I’ve seen lots of reasons, ideas, and thoughts on this but wanted to get the take of you, my readers, as your ideas are typically relevant and well thought out. What do YOU think would equal success as the Lions progress through the ifseason and through 2010?? I’ll compile everyone’s ideas into a definition of “successful” with several subpoints, and then we will see how Martin Mayhew and Co. score at the end of next season. I’ll give you one of mine:
Fix the LG position. FA, Draft, doesn’t matter. Fix it. Yesterday.
This will be lots of fun to compile, and even better to look at next ifseason (good or bad). I haven’t forgotten about our “30 Locks” from last preseason — I’m actually going through them right now, and will be looking at them in relation to this year’s exected roster turnover.
By Lopper on Feb 4, 2010
For me, if Mayhew can get the team to 5 or more wins next season, then he is still on a successful pace. I’d really like to see them get at least 5 wins while starting 3-4 rookies to go along with the guys from last years draft.
By jreffy on Feb 4, 2010
Building a successful franchise has always had two main components in my opinion.
1) Aquiring talent
2) Developing talent
These roles are filled by a GM and a head coach. While the GM is responsible for aquiring talent, whether that be through Free Agency or the Draft, the coach (and his staff) is responsible for developing that talent into successful players.
This is why I believe we so often see players who look to be great talents in college, but fail to succeed at the professional level. Now, some of those instances can be explained by a player’s lack of committment or work ethic, and when drafting players, that needs to be part of a GM’s investigation and evaluation. Sometimes, it may just be that a player was so physically gifted in college, a lot of success was simply due to his size and athleticism (see: Williams, Mike), and not so much his technical skills.
Mayhew’s job is to evaluate players and bring them into the Lions organization. Sure, Schwartz will (and should) have some say as to the type of players he wants. For example, it won’t do the Lions any good if Mayhew drafts a top stud 3-4 OLB when the Lions won’t be able to utilize him in their defense no matter how gifted the kid is.
Contraversely, it’s up to Schwartz and Co. to put these players in a position to become top-level pros and squeeze every ouce of talent and potential out of them. This is why I believe you saw Schwartz throwing Delmas, Pettigrew, Levy, and Hill into starting roles, even though there might have been a veteran who was slightly more capable on the bench. With the Lions coming off that 0-16 record, the future is all that’s in Schwartz’s mind right now. He has to take his rookies and young players and give them as much experience as he can, so that they can develop into top-flight players.
So, with that being said, my personal feeling with the Lions is that, yeah, they need fixing at LG, but they also need “fixing” at a lot of other positions as well. Fixing a particular position is a luxury/problem that established teams do. Right now, the Lions need to be more concerned with flushing out their roster with more talent before they start focusing on a particular position.
My definition of “success” for Mayhew in 2010.
Find at least 3 more starters out of this Draft, plus 1 or 2 players who see rotational time (like A. Brown did this year).
….the bar is high
By Woody on Feb 4, 2010
Mayhew needs to have another excellent draft.
Last year he got 5 starters (Stafford, Pettigrew, Delmans, Levy, Hill). If he can get 5 more in 2010, and 5 more in 2011, he will have done an outstanding job. (And soooo much better than Millen.) The wins will come if Schwartz and Co. turn out to be a good-to-excellent coaching staff. Any good free agents will just be icing on the cake.
By detfan1979 on Feb 4, 2010
I agree with you Jreffy on fixing a position targeting it in the draft as a luxury — especially with all the needs on this team. What I’d like to see is a reasonable attempt, once again, to be sure every hole is filled.
They tried Loper and Ramierez last ifseason, and there should be some quality OG’s in FA and the daft this year — so I just don’t want to see the Lions ignore that hole totally. STill, I think I need to concede to you guys that it is filling holes with long term solutions — whatever the hole may be — that is more important than the individual need itself.
Going great guys — keep up the comments and keep them coming! What makes 2010 successful the Lions coaching staff and front office?
By KCLionFan on Feb 4, 2010
1. Was Mayhew a success last season?
Mayhew made a number of key decisions to start off his new era. For the most part, his decisions panned out well. Here’s a quick recap:
- Head coach choice: Looks like a good call so far
- Drafting Stafford: Looks VERY smart, given the crop of QBs available this year
- Addition of Foote and Peterson – Mostly good, improved the LB corps
- Overall draft picks – Very good with at least 4 very good picks, and no real busts yet
- WR Free agents: Oops
- Backup QB strategy – Oops
- Grady Jackson – Oops
My take on his moves is that he got the biggest decisions right, and made mistakes on some of the small stuff. The problem Mayhew faces is that the Lions have a lot of ground to make up, and his margin of error is razor thin.
2. What is success this year?
Very simple: Improve the Lions at a greater pace than the rest of the NFL. Mayhew needs:
1. One impact player pickup in free agency
2. Two great draft picks on Defense
3. Three O-Line: Impact LG, future LT, and improved RG
Honestly? I am looking for 5-11 or better to consider it “progress”. Not sure if that is entirely fair, but that’s where the line is drawn for me.
By Rob Stoker on Feb 9, 2010
Great thread,
There is one thing and one thing only I am looking for Mayhew to address this Off-Season.
And that is to find some way to keep Stafford on his feet more often.
Stafford seemed to show he has the arm and moxy to play QB in the NFL at a decent level. The cerebral aspect of the game is harder to judge and is probably masked by his gunslinger attitude. But he may have the potential to be a upper echelon NFL QB.
Couple this with the fact that I think Baltimore were the last team to win the SB without a high performing QB back in 2000.
So Mayhew needs to find a way to allow Stafford to reach this level (in one piece).
I know our defense is awful and will need to be addressed but next year Mayhew focus should be on ensuring that Stafford gets sacked ideally less than 20-25 times next season and likewise gets hit significantly less.
This means for me upgrade the O-Line (particular LG) and get Stafford another recieving outlet.
Ideally I would like to see three new O-Line players picked up (1 starter, 2 for depth) and 2 WR picked up through FA and draft.