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One thing you can count on with the Detroit Lions is that they are never, ever boring. Follow the latest news including injuries, roster moves and more here daily from Oakland Press beat writer Paula Pasche. Plus you'll find regular commentary about the team.

9/25/2008

Mayhew "a Millen guy"; Lions focused on Bears

General manager Martin Mayhew and executive vice president Tom Lewand, the new, temporary management team atop the Lions organization, met with beat writers Thursday. Here's some highlights of their session:

• Mayhew, who takes over Millen's duties as the Lions' chief personnel man, did not try to distance himself from his predecessor. "I'm 100 percent a Millen guy," Mayhew said. "But that doesn't mean that Matt and I think the same way about everything, and Matt and I have disagreed about a lot of things. And I think one thing Matt appreciated about me was that we could disagree, we could make a decision and then that was our decision and we just move forward. Matt and I have different viewpoints on a lot of things about football, but I'm a Millen guy because Matt is one of my guys."

Mayhew said he and Millen have known each other for 18 years. They won a Super Bowl together as players with the Redskins.

• Both Mayhew and Lewand, who's handling the day-to-day business operations of the franchise, disputed public perception that Rod Marinelli is a lame-duck coach. "Rod Marinelli is here for a reason and those reasons haven't changed one bit," Lewand said.

• When it comes to playing Drew Stanton, Jordon Dizon and other recent draft picks currently sitting the bench, Mayhew said, "that's a coaching decision how much those guys play. And the objective is to win games."

Lewand said the goal is to win now and the organization's decisions will reflect as much. "Rod's ultimate goal is no different than Martin's and it's no different than mine and it's no different than the Ford's," he said.

• Mayhew said he doesn't "anticipate trading anybody or making any calls or getting any calls" about receiver Roy Williams before the October trade deadline. He also acknowledged he would like the general manager job full-time and supported the job scouts have done in gathering information for the draft. "I think we need to make better decisions," he said.

• Asked what the plan is moving forward, Lewand said, "To beat Chicago."

"This is about beating the Chicago Bears and then going on the road to beat the Minnesota Vikings and then the next game and the next game and the next game," he said. "For everybody — myself, Martin, Rod Marinelli — are all in complete lockstep that we are going to create a culture immediately to support the coaches and players because we have a lot of football to play this year and my time horizon and my expectations are the same as Martin's and they're the same as Rod's. This is a 13-game season for us and we're going to make the most out of it."

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What else do you expect these guys to say?

If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, its a duck ... as in lame duck.

2:53 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the more things change, the more they stay the same. we're screwed until ford sr is no longer in charge.

4:14 PM 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

May-pew, MIllen, what's the difference?

11:43 PM 

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