Millen "Disciple" Mayhew a Self-Learner

As a pro football player, Martin Mayhew, being a defensive back, became used to going to work every Sunday trying to succeed with one arm tied behind his back.

Don’t let anyone tell you that the rulebook doesn’t play favorites.

In the NFL, receivers are given more benefits of the doubt than the teacher’s pet. The rules are tilted away from the defender and toward the pass catcher. It’s not enough that receivers are taller, faster, know where they’re going, and are running forward.

The pass defender is shorter, slower, has no clue which way the man he’s covering is going to juke and jolt, and he has to run backward, to boot.

Then the guys in the zebra stripes, not content with such a disadvantage, are prone to clutter the football field with yellow laundry if the defender so much as breathes on his opponent.

It’s poker with a marked deck; a carnival-midway pyramid of milk cans.

Playing defensive back in the NFL is a weekly, soul-sucking, often losing battle, mitigated only by the nirvana of defying the odds and batting a football away or, if the quarterback and the receiver are on Venus and Mars, respectively, actually intercepting a wayward pass.

Mayhew, the Lions general manager, played this game of loser’s poker for eight years in the NFL. He knows a little about working when the rules are not on your side.



It hasn’t gotten all that much fairer for him as an executive.




First, he learned the GM business by working as an underling of Matt Millen’s, which was like learning how to move a piano from Laurel and Hardy.

For years, Mayhew was Millen’s second banana, his silent partner. We knew only that Mayhew was in the organization; we didn’t really know what he did, nor did we pay much attention to him. We only thought that we knew one thing: if he was a Matt Millen hire, then how good could he really be?

Then one October day in 2008, Lions owner Bill Ford Sr. made the most overdue mercy killing since ABC canceled “Happy Days.”

Ford fired Millen, and shoved Mayhew into Millen’s seat as team GM.

Martin Mayhew! Another “MM” guy, to go along with Matt Millen and Marty Mornhinweg.

I hope we were all forgiven in our skepticism.

The tabbing of Mayhew was accepted cautiously by the fanbase, because they figured his ascension to Millen’s throne would be interim, that very sports word for “keep renting your house, don’t buy.”



Surely, the fanbase convinced itself, the Lions will wait until the end of the season and bring in a “real” GM—preferably a guy with a big name.



Bill Parcells, et al.



Now, back in the fall of 2008, the idea that Mayhew could be the long-term answer for what ailed the Lions’ front office was considered folly. Worse, it was considered incompetent and malevolent toward the fans.

The Lions were in the middle of a 0-16 season when Mayhew replaced Millen. To not go after someone outside the organization was looked at as a big old nose-thumbing by Ford to his patrons.

Yet just days after taking over from Millen, Mayhew fleeced Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys of a first-round draft pick in exchange for uneven receiver Roy Williams.

It was David fooling Goliath; some kid chess player placing Bobby Fischer into checkmate.

Beginner’s luck?

The Lions played out their winless season, and then the fans rubbed their hands together. Despite the fleecing of Dallas for Roy Williams, there still wasn’t much excitement at the thought of Mayhew staying on as GM.



Not with Bill Parcells out there!

Ford did another end around, as has been his wont as Lions owner. He went against public sentiment—another Ford trait—and hired Mayhew permanently, ripping the interim tag off him like a decorated officer losing one of his stripes.



Only this was in reverse—a promotion based on little more than faith, hope and loyalty—again, another Ford-ism.



Well, guess who’s pretty good at this GM thing, after all?

Mayhew had it all going against him—just like he did every Sunday lining up against the Jerry Rices and Cris Carters of the world—yet here he is, continuing to show deftness as an NFL executive.

Mayhew had his pedigree (Millen) going against him. He had his inexperience with contract negotiations going against him. He had the Lions’ losing culture going against him.

Mayhew as brand-new GM was like one of those disadvantaged kids who is born poor to bad parents, in a home situated in a bad school district.

Perhaps Mayhew took everything he saw and heard from Millen and pretty much started doing the opposite. Whatever, it’s working.



As a player, Mayhew lived for the fall and early winter. Once, his challenge was the quick slant; now, it’s the salary cap. As a GM, this is his time to shine—his time to set the pins up for coach Jim Schwartz and his players to knock down.

From the Super Bowl in February until training camp starts in July, the NFL general manager rides a greased slope. This is the time when guys like Mayhew truly earn their bread.



The Lions are no longer stained with 0-16. They have progressed nicely under Schwartz, going from 0-16 to 2-14 to 6-10 to 10-6 and the playoffs. Just like that—like a checker traversing from one end of the board to the other.



Almost—the Lions haven’t been crowned yet.

But with every step of success comes another hurdle. The further the Lions get from their inglorious decade of the 2000s, the closer they get to the pitfalls and land mines that must be navigated through in order to make the leap from a one-week playoff run to playing in February—and I don’t mean the Pro Bowl.

Martin Mayhew seems to be the guy that can take this thing from 0-16 to the Super Bowl. He has done a marvelous job of drafting, trading, signing and re-signing.

The latter—re-signing—has been far more important to the Lions’ future than any free agent from outside the organization they’ve signed in recent years.



Mayhew wanted to keep his own free agents in the fold, and rework the contracts of some of his star players to create the financial space in which to do all that re-signing.

His off-season, thus far, has been A+.

Mayhew reworked the contracts of QB Matthew Stafford, WR Nate Burleson and DT Ndamukong Suh. He then gave WR Calvin Johnson a contract extension that makes Johnson the richest receiver in league history.



Mayhew kept LT Jeff Backus and backup QB Shaun Hill.

And, very importantly, Mayhew managed to keep MLB Stephen Tulloch for four more years, preventing him from signing with another team.

All this and it’s not even April yet.

That’s when the draft happens.

Another area in which Mayhew excels.

Who knew?

Lions' Playoff Loss is Mayhew's Mulligan

They say you should never bring a knife to a gunfight.

Well, the Lions didn't; they brought a shotgun. Trouble is, the New Orleans Saints have a howitzer.

The Lions, 45-28 losers on Saturday night in New Orleans, didn't get blown out because they don't have a good offense. The Lions lost big because the Saints' offense is better, and the Lions' defense is still a work in progress. If the Lions defense was a freeway, three lanes would be shut down and it would be filled with orange cones.

Did you notice any glaring differences between the Lions and Saints, when it came to having the football?

Don't look at the quarterbacks; Matthew Stafford and Drew Brees are pretty comparable.

Don't look at the receivers; the Lions have the best one on the planet, but the Saints have a cache of good receivers in their own right.

Did you happen to notice that the Saints have something called a ground game?

Oh, what the Lions offense could look like, if they had someone to run the football with any consistency.

My kingdom for Stephen Jackson of the St. Louis Rams.

But we'll just have to settle for a healthy Jahvid Best and Mikel Leshoure; which should occur next season, if Mr. Outside and Mr. Inside recover from concussion and Achilles injury, respectively.

The Saints gashed the Lions' supposedly dominant defensive line with the run all evening, as if Brees needs any help.

And as if the Lions' could have stopped him, even if your Aunt Mary were running the football.

Brees' surgery on the Lions secondary was complete. The Saints quarterback wielded his scalpel to the tune of 466 yards passing and three touchdowns. He left the Lions looking like Gerry Cheevers' goalie mask.

Now it's up to GM Marty Mayhew to make sure another scene of carnage never happens again to the Lions in a playoff game. This was Mayhew's Mulligan. He's allowed this implosion, because his team is still just three years removed from 0-16.

But next year, and the year after, and the year after, it will no longer satiate the fan base to simply qualify for the playoffs. We've fallen for that once before, in the 1990s, when the Lions went one-and-out in the post-season five out of six seasons in the decade.

That won't cut it, with a franchise quarterback and an All-Universe Receiver.

Mayhew's charge, in a way, gets simpler with the more success the Lions find, yet it also gets harder.

It gets simpler because the holes are fewer on the roster, thanks to Mayhew's astute drafting and slick trading and signings.

Yet it also gets harder because expectations have now been ratcheted up.

The Lions got carved up on Saturday and 626 total yards later, they were nothing but a carcass, the bones licked clean by the Saints' well-balanced offense.

Mayhew has to draft for secondary help this spring, and he needs to find a new center and left tackle, to be on the ready when Dom Raiola and Jeff Backus retire.

There needs to be more roster massaging before the Lions can truly call themselves Super Bowl contenders. No one gets bumped out of the playoffs in the first round, as soundly as the Lions did, and comes back with the same cast and crew and expects to make progress.

This was no fluke loss. You can't blame this one on the crazy bounces of an oblong pigskin.

The Lions were beaten, and beaten good, by the Saints, who are legitimately elite. The Saints are what the Lions would like to become, in short order.

The Lions can now check off "Make the playoffs" on their to-do list under the Mayhew/Jim Schwartz regime.

Next is, "Advance beyond the first round."

The biggest challenge yet for Maywartz.

If the Lions Want to Stop Stinking, They Must Stop Stinking at the Top

Leo Durocher said it, though they got The Lip's word cockeyed a little bit. Still, the spirit is there.

You probably think that Durocher, the legendary baseball manager, said, "Nice guys finish last."

Not quite.

Leo, managing the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time (1946), was talking about his cousins from Manhattan, the New York Giants. Leo noted that the Giants were full of nice guys, like Mel Ott, but that they'd finish last anyways, as was their wont in those days.

"Nice guys," Durocher said of the Giants. "Nice guys; finish last," he added.

Thus was born "Nice guys finish last."

But I digress---as is MY wont.

Lions coach Jim Schwartz is, by all accounts, a nice enough fellow. So is his boss, Marty Mayhew, who hasn't done or said anything to indicate that he's anything but a decent sort.

I'm sure the Lions players are a bunch of dudes that you wouldn't mind hanging out with. There don't appear to be any bad apples among the bunch. The police blotter doesn't contain any of their names.

Yet they'll finish last in their division this year, as they pretty much have done this entire century.

It's easy to pound away on a keyboard and dictate who should stay and who should go when the subject is any professional sports organization.

So I shall, but I don't take this lightly.

There's evidence now, in the wake of the Lions' latest Thanksgiving Turkey, that there is discord among the troops. There seems to be two factions, based on the post-game comments from players uttered after the 45-24 loss to the New England Patriots.

There's the "We are tough and we'll bounce back" group, and their counterpart, the "Some guys need to get called out and take this more seriously" circle.

Two high profile Lions spoke words similar to those after the game: QB Shaun Hill, of the former group, and DT Corey Williams, of the latter.

This is all understandable, of course. The Lions have perfected losing football since 2001. They have that down pat. What they're having a hard time getting a hang of is this business about winning.

I've been a big supporter of Mayhew, the Lions' aggressive, means-well GM. He's had a couple of nice drafts in two years, and despite being the understudy for one of the worst sports executives of all time, the village idiot gene hasn't been absorbed by Mayhew through osmosis, thank goodness.

But the frustrated comments of Williams and the counterpoint by Hill indicate that the losing is taking its toll, even on an organization that's trying desperately to shed its old skin.

Truth?

This "losing culture," a term that has been affixed to the Lions for the past 10 years like Velcro, can only be disposed of if the man on top of the mountain has been, well, to the top of the mountain.

No, I'm not talking about owner Bill Ford Sr.

The Lions have been a franchise that's subscribed to the "blind leading the blind" method of operating for too long. It's a twist, actually; the modus operandi with the Lions is more the "losing leading the losing."

Mayhew is a fine man, but he hasn't won in the NFL, wearing Armani.

Schwartz had never been a head coach before being hired by the Lions.

The team's stalwarts---basically players who've been Lions longer than this season---have never won on the field with anything close to consistency.

My opinion: the Lions, if they ever hope to truly shed their losing skin, must bring in a high-profile man upstairs with a reputation of getting it done. Williams, among his words of anguish, cited a lack of accountability in his diatribe.

The Lions don't win, haven't won, because they have no winners in the two positions where it matters most: in the executive's chair, and wearing the headset of the big cheese on the sidelines.

You can shuffle players in and out all you want; you can even have some nifty drafts, on paper.

It won't mean a hill of beans if there isn't anyone in the Ivory Tower who exudes accountability, winning, and success.

There are men like that who are out there, available---who could be coaxed.

A couple of years ago, Bill Parcells reached out to the Lions, i.e. Ford. Parcells wondered if his expertise might be welcome in Detroit.

Ford blew him off.

I think Mayhew has a nice eye for football players coming out of college. He hasn't hit on all his draft picks, but who does?

If the Lions looked---and they wouldn't have to look too hard---they'd find some folks who'd drop what they're doing and fly to Detroit to have a chat with Ford, who has a reputation among the NFL's circles for being one of the finest men you could ever work for.

That's one of the reasons why Parcells dialed up Ford; The Tuna knows a good owner when he sees one.

Ever since the hiring of rookie GM Millen in 2001, it's been the blind leading the blind.

Millen hired a rookie head coach, Marty Mornhinweg. Then, whether due to hubris or stupid pride, Millen failed to bring in a seasoned NFL personnel guy to help him with his first few drafts.

Those guys were out there, too---and they would have come to Detroit in a heartbeat, for this was way before Millen's stock plunged like Enron's.

But that's all water under the proverbial bridge.

I'm not calling for the firing of Mayhew. I'm not even asking for Schwartz's head. Not yet, anyway. Ford hates firing people, I know.

If Bill Ford Sr. could somehow be convinced that bringing in a top-notch NFL man who's had a history of building winning football teams would be a neat idea, then the Lions might have something.

Let Mayhew run the draft. Give Schwartz another year, at least, to see if he has the chops to be a quality NFL head coach.

A winner at the top who is teeming with success, accountability and no regard for the losing history in Detroit would be the best thing to hit the franchise since Bobby Layne stumbled here with whiskey on his breath in the 1950s.

Parcells, by the way, was recently quoted that he feels he has one more rebuild in him.

And he's not the only one who could make a difference with the Lions. Nor is he the only one who would love to come to the Motor City. Turning the Lions into a winner is the white whale that several quality NFL men would dearly love to slay. That individual would be set for life, whether with the Lions or any other franchise.

To be known as the Man Who Made the Lions Into Winners Again is a delectable prospect for the right guy.

That man is out there. The Lions just have to ask.

Mayhew Commits Yet Another Robbery at NFL Draft

NFL general managers, beware: you can't stop Martin Mayhew, you can only hope to contain him.

Mayhew, the Lions' football brainiac, reminds me of those chess experts who can play multiple opponents at once, because he's staying one move ahead of his brethren.

His latest heist was the trade he made last night during the first round of the NFL Draft, when everyone thought Mayhew's work was done with the selection of Nebraska DT Ndamukong Suh with the second overall pick.

Mayhew's never done. You can't drop your guard for one second with this guy. He'll fleece you in broad daylight---in front of your family, your friends, your fans. He doesn't bother to wear a mask. None of the great bandits did---just the amateurs who are afraid of being caught.

Mayhew obviously couldn't care less who sees his face. He's Jesse James, Clyde Barrow and John Dillinger, all rolled into one.

Mayhew picked Suh, as pretty much expected, then he went back to his chess board.

Later in the evening, the announcement came: the Lions had swapped with the Minnesota Vikings---a division rival, mind you---so that the Detroiters could get themselves a second first round pick. They bumped themselves up four picks, from 34th to 30th, and nabbed California running back Jahvid Best.

Mayhew is leaving a trail of victims in his wake.

It all started in October 2008, when Mayhew was on the job only a few weeks, when he played coy and gave misdirection about wanting to trade WR Roy Williams at the upcoming trade deadline.

His patience and savvy fooled Jerry Jones into surrendering a first round pick for the underachieving Williams.

It was then that I thought the Lions might have something special with this Martin Mayhew guy.

And it wasn't beginner's luck. Mayhew first perfected the art of the low-risk, high yield move. Now he's flat out picking other GM's pockets in full view of everyone.

In between there was his fine 2009 draft, from which the Lions got several starters.

I get the feeeling that Mayhew loves this stuff. Some executives become intoxicated by the art of the deal. Pistons GM Jack McCloskey comes to mind.

But Mayhew isn't making trades and signing free agents just for the sake of it. His every crime has designs. He's his own, one-man Mafia.

The impressive thing is that Mayhew seems to have this knack for making the other teams see things through his prism. I don't know how he does it---charm, guile, intimidation---but he gets what he wants because he brainwashes the other guy into thinking that it's for his own good, too.

Mayhew is the mugger who convinces you that you didn't need all that cash and jewelry after all.

And the NFL's GMs have to still suffer through a couple more days with Mayhew at the draft. They'd better watch their wallets---not that it would do them any good.

They say 40 is the new 30. Mayhew is the new Joe Dumars.

Remember when we gushed about Dumars? I was guilty of it. I was hardly alone.

Dumars is out; Mayhew is all the rage now.

Someone mentioned to Mayhew recently that he and the Lions have had a pretty good off-season.

"You don't know if you have a good off-season until you play the season," Mayhew said he responded.

Gee, all that and he has common sense and wisdom, too?

And to think that he served under Matt Millen for all those years. Millen was the goose who laid the Golden Egg (Mayhew) and no one knew it until the goose was run out of town.

The Lions had a good draft yesterday. Already. They're Barry Sanders with two carries for 80 yards and 55 minutes still to play.

Pity the rest of the league.

Ford's Loyalty Finally Worked When it Comes to Mayhew

If there’s anyone who knows the double-edged sword of Bill Ford’s loyalty, it’s Joe Schmidt.

Joe was to middle linebacking what Thomas Edison was to electricity. And when you invent a position, you’re excused if you feel some bravado.

Schmidt, from the University of Pittsburgh, entered the NFL in 1953, the Lions already a winner—defending league champs. And they stayed that way, largely due to Schmidt’s brutality against opposing ball carriers. They won the championship again in Schmidt’s rookie season. Another world title followed in 1957.

They could have won at least a division in 1962, were it not for a boneheaded loss in Green Bay, thanks to a highly questionable pass play call late in the game that resulted in an interception. The old timers will tell you that the Lions never fully recovered from that loss.

Schmidt was a winner. And Ford, who took over as sole owner of the Lions in 1964, recognized that. He rewarded Schmidt with the head coaching job in 1967, two years after Joe retired.

It took him a couple years, but Schmidt started winning as a coach, too. The Lions were 9-4-1 in 1969. They went to the playoffs in 1970 with a 10-4 record. 1971 and ’72 produced winning seasons, too.

But Schmidt had another fight on his hands. This time it wasn’t Jim Brown or Hugh McElhenny or Paul Hornung who Schmidt had to stop. It was his own general manager, Russ Thomas.

Thomas was your father’s Matt Millen. He was as popular in Detroit as a foreign carmaker. If they had sports talk radio back then, hours could have been devoted to Thomas bashing.

Thomas was cheap. He treated players poorly. He never got the Lions over the hump. For most of Thomas’s tenure, the Lions were a mediocre team, bobbing above and below .500 every season.

Except when Joe Schmidt was the coach.

Schmidt was winning football games, and the more he won, the less tolerant he was of Thomas and the GM’s meddling.

There was a drink shared by Schmidt and defensive tackle Alex Karras, circa the late-1960s.

After listening to Schmidt bitch and moan about Thomas for several minutes, Karras had a suggestion.

“Joe, if it’s so bad, why don’t you quit?”

Schmidt, according to Karras, leaned in, sneered, and said, “That’s the dumbest blanking thing I’ve ever heard.”

So Schmidt, armed with four straight winning seasons, decided to take his personal war with Russ Thomas to owner Ford. This was January 1973.

It’s him or me, Schmidt basically told Ford.

Then Schmidt got sliced with the other side of Ford’s loyalty machete.

Schmidt underestimated the affection Ford had for Thomas, who’d been with the Lions organization since the 1950s himself, starting as a player—just like Schmidt.

Thomas stayed. Schmidt quit, after all. Apparently it wasn’t the dumbest blanking thing he’d ever heard anymore.

Funny, but as soon as Joe Schmidt quit in a huff, the Lions went down the tubes.

So you can forgive those who roasted Ford when he promoted from within last year at this time, elevating Martin Mayhew to general manager. Ford’s loyalty to coaches and executives, which had gotten the Lions into trouble many times before, was at work again.

Promote from within? After an 0-16 season?

Martin Mayhew? Wasn’t he hired by (gulp) Matt Millen?

Yep. And yep.

Mayhew (right) drives Ford around; it's only fair, since Ford has been taking everyone else for a ride for years

Oh-and-16 will live in infamy in Detroit, no matter how much winning the Lions might do in the future. I believe the organization will never fully rid itself of that stench. Ever.

But that’s water under the Ambassador Bridge. Mayhew got the job, another beneficiary of Bill Ford’s loyalty.

You think they’ll give the old man his props?

Mayhew was a splendid choice, as it turns out. He drafted better, in just one try, than his former boss, Millen, did in his eight drafts combined, just about. In October ’08, Mayhew, still interim GM, fleeced Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys in his first few weeks on the job, taking them for a first round draft pick for receiver Roy Williams.

Mayhew spent most of 2009 combing the waiver wires, trying gamely to bring the most talented players he could find—defensive backs, especially—to the Lions. Not all of his expensive free agent signings during the off-season worked out, but the draft is where you really build a team. And in that area, Mayhew did wonderfully.

I was one of those less than thrilled with the promote-from-within tact, a year ago December. Mayhew was a Millen guy, or so we thought.

Instead, it must have been on countless occasions when Mayhew—and you’ll never get him to admit to this—left meetings with Millen shaking his head, his advice either ignored or overruled.

Did Ford see this or did he just get lucky?

It must be the latter, because no one is giving the owner credit for making Martin Mayhew the general manager of the Detroit Lions. And they should.

So I will.

Congratulations, Bill—you got one right. Put this one in the left-hand column, for a change. I was wrong. You were right. You got a guy already roaming the halls in Allen Park, and for cheaper than you could have brought a big name guy in from the outside.

Mayhew is a fine general manager, me thinks. I think he’ll do alright, given a few more years—and drafts.

This time, “L” doesn’t stand for losing with the Lions. It stands for loyalty.

This time, it worked.

Even if you think Ford is a blind squirrel who found a nut, be happy that he found one at all. The Lions have a franchise quarterback, a young coach, and a blossoming general manager.

Now, compare that to last year around this time.

The Beatles got it right.

“I have to admit it’s getting better—it’s getting better, all the time.

It can’t get much worse.”

For First Time In Decades, Lions Seem To Have A Plan

It’s deliciously ironic that the last time the Lions had a semblance of a plan, it was designed by a moon-faced, cigar-smoking oaf of a coach.

One fall Sunday, back in 1988, owner Bill Ford levied one of the worst indictments any owner could on his football coach.

He had just seen his team get creamed once again, another mercy killing in a season careening out of control, and he gave the reporters a rare postgame analysis.

“We’re losing,” Ford said, “and we’re boring.”

It wasn’t long before the coach, Darryl Rogers, was shoved out the door.

The Lions of 1988 showed up at every Sunday gunfight with a penknife.

The offense was slow, plodding. The aerial attack was virtually non-existent, matched only by the nearly invisible running game.

It reminds me of a classic line by that crack-up/coach John McKay.

“We didn’t block,” he said about his Tampa Bay Bucs after another beatdown, “but we made up for it by not tackling.”

The Lions of ’88 couldn’t pass, but made up for it by not running.

Bill Ford was spot on: They were losers, and they were boring.

And the Silverdome was half-empty on Sundays, which also hastened Rogers’ canning.

Ford handed the keys to his Edsel to defensive coordinator Wayne Fontes with five games left in the wasted season.

After managing two wins in those five games—both against the nearly-as-woeful Green Bay Packers—Ford ripped the “interim” part off Fontes’ label and made him a full-fledged NFL head coach.

The jolly, maudlin Fontes may have projected a clown-like persona, but he had some ideas.

He had a plan, in fact.

The owner was right about the boring part, so why not un-boring things up a bit?

Fontes, during his five-week audition, managed to hire an offensive guru named Darrell “Mouse” Davis. Mouse espoused something called the Run-n-Shoot offense, in which anyone who wasn’t a lineman or the quarterback was a wide receiver.

Fontes’ order to Mouse was simple: Don’t be boring.

So Mouse scurried into town, his playbook and head filled with passing patterns and player movement and all those little receivers running all over the field.

It was a quantity-over-quality theory. The Lions weren’t blessed with talented pass catchers, but Mouse and Fontes (sounds like a vaudeville act) figured that if they sent as many of them into the secondary as the rules would allow, they might get lucky.

And the Lions, at least, wouldn’t be boring.

Wayne Fontes had a plan. For sure. He lucked into drafting the jitterbug running back Barry Sanders in his first draft. He picked up some more receivers, still not filled with talent but a little better than what he inherited from Rogers.

Then, in 1990, Fontes moved on to Phase II of his plan.

He had the run part down in the Run-n-Shoot offense with Sanders. He just needed a straight shooter.

Fontes chomped on his cigar and gave us that big Portuguese smile as he announced the drafting of Andre Ware, the gunslinger from the University of Houston.

Ware didn’t turn out to be a straight shooter, after all. His passes had a funny habit of drifting from their intended targets.

So Ware didn’t work out, but Mouse and Fontes plugged away. Eventually, Mouse left the Lions, mystified, but Fontes kept at the Run-n-Shoot, trying to emulate the success the Houston Oilers were having with it.

The Oilers, of course, had much better pass catchers. And a straight shooter, indeed, in Warren Moon.

That helped.

Fontes may have been a lot of things that weren’t so great, but he was the last Lions coach who had a plan and actually set about to implement it.

Until now.

The Lions' braintrust of (from left) GM Martin Mayhew, coach Jim Schwartz, and President Tom Lewand seem to have their ship headed in the right direction

There’s nothing clown-like or jolly or ostentatious about Jim Schwartz. He comes to the Lions with a defensive background, but that’s where the similarity to Wayne Fontes ends.

Oh, except in the plan-having department.

The Lions—and here’s where you need to fasten your seatbelt and make sure your tray is in the upright position—have a direction now. And it’s not just coming from the coach’s office.

It’s a cop out to say that, just because the Lions finished 0-16 last season, things simply can’t get any worse and that anyone would look better following such a lousy act.

To a degree, that’s true.

But Schwartz, the new head coach, and Martin Mayhew, the promoted general manager, are beginning to tantalize me with their approach to getting the Lions out of this sticky, gooey mess that they were served up upon their hiring.

Mayhew first impressed me last October, when as an interim (that word again) GM he fleeced the Dallas Cowboys—shaking them down for a first round draft pick for the confounding receiver Roy Williams.

He impressed me again when he nabbed All-Pro linebacker Julian Peterson for the overrated lineman Cory Redding.

The plan was simple, but not any less effective, if done right.

The Lions, Mayhew said, must get faster, stronger, and bigger.

So that’s what he’s setting about to do.

Aside from acquiring Peterson, Mayhew has smartly signed some free agents and made other, lower-profile trades. I say smartly because he’s not simply throwing money at his problem. He’s grabbing a mix of grizzled and younger veterans who fit into the overall scheme.

He’s doing it in lockstep with Schwartz, who displayed confidence in his job security by hiring experienced men to lead his offense (Scott Linehan) and defense (Gunther Cunningham)—two former NFL head coaches.

Mayhew was a Matt Millen disciple, which is like saying someone learned about racial equality from the Ku Klux Klan. But Mayhew is proving, to me, that he must have left Millen’s office rolling his eyes on many an occasion, overruled but not out-witted.

Mayhew seems to have a handle on this whole personnel thing. He made a couple of terrific draft picks—again, my opinion—in tight end Brandon Pettigrew and safety Louis Delmas.

He’s giving Schwartz, through other pickups, some halfway decent NFL players with which to work—enough, I suspect, to at least keep the Lions from being laughed at from sea to shining sea; until Mayhew can go back to the store and get some more provisions.

I haven’t seen this kind of level-headed, competent approach to putting together a Lions football team since Fontes tried the Run-n-Shoot to complement his hard-hitting defense.

Fontes’ teams won a little bit, and certainly weren’t boring. In that way, he accomplished his mission.

Schwartz and Mayhew. Doesn’t sound so much like a vaudeville act, does it?