What Mayhew has done so far has been very compromising to what Millen did with this team in his 7 years as GM (obviously). Martin Mayhew in his 1st year so far has drafted young talent and has addressed team needs unlike Millen of course. I mean in h
is 1st year he drafted the Lions QB of the future in Matthew Stafford, his bright young target for a tight end in Brandon Pettigrew, Louis Delmas a hard hitting safety and Ernie Sim's replacement (who got traded to Philadelphia by the way) in DeAndre Levy. Mayhew acquired all of these players in the first four rounds of the 2009 NFL Draft and each one so far has made an impact this past season. Especially Stafford and Pettigrew who connected a game winning TD against the Cleveland Browns to give the Lions their 2nd win of the season last season.That trade where Mayhew traded Roy Williams for a 1st and 3rd round pick shows how much he robbed the Cowboys as the Boys had to draft Dez Bryant this year in the 2010 draft who is most likely taking Williams spot since Williams
is not panning out they wanted him to in Dallas. Obviously that 1st round and 3rd round pick they received for him turned into Brandon Pettigrew and DeAndre Levy 2 promising players that made an impact right away for the team when they could. Then Mayhew now in his 2nd season as GM made possibly one of the biggest moves that might impact this city and team for years to come and that was taking Ndamukong Suh with the number 2 overall pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. Since Suh is just known as being the ultimate beast at defensive tackle one of the best ever seen at that position in a while it was quite difficult for Mayhew to pass him. Not enough can be said about Suh but don't sleep on the other pick Mayhew made to trade up to get his man Jahvid Best with the 30th overall pick who has size and speed that can possible be compared to Barry Sanders as he has similar speed and swiftness.The only major issue with Best his durability issues, if Best can stay healthy all season there is a chance he could have a really good season maybe even better than Kevin Jones in his 1st season as a Lion (Jones was a running back who had durability issues as well which was the reason why he couldn't pan out).Mayhew also addressed the need for a corner in a player called Amari Spievey from Iowa who can be physical as heck. Now of course Mayhew has had moves that have kind of failed like Bryant Johnson who dropped pretty much every big pass
thrown to him as a number 2 wide receiver which was just unacceptable. It will remain to be seen how well his replacement Nate Burleson does but a couple things we know for sure is he has better hands and is much faster as well the real issue he is kind of injury prone, so like Best if healthy all season could make another major impact and perhaps finally be the wide receiver to compliment the greatness that is of 6'5 Calvin Johnson. Signing Kyle Vandenbosch in the offseason could also payoff especially now with the drafting of Suh as you now have Corey Williams (acquired from Cleveland), Cliff Avril, Kyle Vanden Bosch and of course Ndamukong Suh.With all this being said the Lions might really have a decent defensive line and honestly guys when was the last time we had Lions, decent and D-Line in the same sentence? Exactly so lets take a look at the Lions needs now and how Mayhew has filled most of them. At QB check Matthew Stafford should be a stud, Shaun Hill is a good backup and Stanton will serve well as the 3rd string QB, finally Culpepper is gone. So at RB check you got Best who can come in challenge Kevin Smith for the job, Smith who probably won't be healthy for the start of the season anyways might very well lose his job either way with Best, Smith and Morris it might make for a nice change of pace at the tailback position. Not to mention at WRs check they should be ok especially with Calvin Johnson aka Megatron of course, Nate Burleson who if healthy can be decent at least way better than Bryant Johnson who dropped every pass his way pretty much and Derrick Williams who might step up and become maybe even more than a decent number 3 wide receiver. Mayhew addressed a need a blocking need for Stafford by trading Ernie Sims to Philadelphia in a 3 team deal with them and Denver to get Tony Scheffler a tight end from Denver who can block and protect Stafford on his side of the line and may possible open up routes for the yo
ung stud in Brandon Pettigrew.The blocking from the TE and the effectiveness from Best could help Stafford as well but obviously the O-Line still has holes however since the Lions have less holes to address O-Line will be the #1 priority with their 1st round pick next year. The true difference for me this year with the Lions is that Stafford a Lions QB going into his 2nd year will possibly have a defense who will give them a chance to win. Jason Fox the Lions pick out of Miami at offensive tackle could make an impact if he works out in weight room more and may possibly take Backus's position in the near future as well. Anyways at offensive line Dominic Raiola is still the starting center, Jeff Backus and Gosder Cherilus are still the offensive tackles and Stephen Peterman and Manny Ramirez are still the offensive guards. So with that being said the only thing that hasn't changed from last season is the main offensive line which did show somewhat improvement last year but not really that much.
Now the defensive line of course consists of Kyle Vandenbosch and Cliff Avril at the ends, Corey Williams and of course Ndamukong Suh at the tackles. Suh to me since being added might open holes for Avril, Vanden Bosch and Williams making that defensive line even more dangerous since I think Suh will be getting to the QB constantly already in his 1st season as a Lion he is just too good. At linebackers you have DeAndre Levy of course, Julian Peterson and now Jordan Dizon who will need to step up now with the departure of Larry Foote, however each one thanks to Suh may see holes to run through and blitz and get after the quarterback as well. At safety of course you have Louis Delmas who is already made an impact as being one of the hardest hitting safeties in a while for the Lions secondary and Daniel Bullocks who could make a return take over the other safety position as well. Obviously the corners are the main issues obviously, but with the drafting of Spievey it might be very possible he takes the number CB spot with all the guys the Lions have at the cornerback position now, while the 2nd cornerback, nickelback and dimeback may be up in the air.
1st game of the season is against Chicago in Chicago I predict the Lions win this game thanks to fired up Suh ready to take down Cutler and force him into throwing picks giving Stafford and the Lions a chance to win the game. With the Eagles no longer having McNabb at start
ing QB and Vick as the number 2 QB instead of the starter Suh and the Lions will take advantage of this by having a sackfest and having Stafford exploiting their weaker secondary for 2-3 TDs. The 3rd game at Minnesota the Vikings Suh gets to Favre sacks him a couple of times but Favre exploits that Lions secondary again like he always did in the past, an instant loss. 4th game is no different as Aaron Rodgers has his way with the Lions secondary as he did last season, another instant loss Lions are now 2-2. 5th game Suh gets his revenge on the St. Louis Rams sacking their number 1 overall draft pick Sam Bradford 3 times also forcing him to throw 3 picks in an instant 3rd victory for the Lions.Lions against the Giants in New York is just the first of 2 games the Lions have against New York teams but this one being the weaker one as Suh gets to Manning a couple times sacking and pressuring him and Stafford finds Calvin Johnson a couple times thanks to the Giants weak corners for two TDs, Best exploits the Giants loss of Osi Umenyiora for a 150 yard game, Lions win and are now all of a sudden 4-2. After the bye week, the Lions face the Redskins at Ford Field where McNabb and his new team come in and like Favre and Rodgers he exploits their secondary for 3-4 TD in an instant loss for the Lions as they fall to 4-3. The following week the Lions face a loaded Jets team who come in storming as Mark Sanchez finds Detroit native Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes each for 2 TD resulting in a blowout loss for the Lions they fall to 4-4. In the 9th game of the season Suh and the Lions take advantage of that team who didn't draft a starting QB and sack and pressure Trent Edwards constantly turning into an instant Lions victory as they rise up to 5-4. In the 10th game of the season the Lions head to Dallas where Tony Romo like Sanchez, Rodgers and McNabb exploit that Lions weak secondary throwing a pass to Austin, Bryant, Witten and former Lion Roy Williams each for a score resulting in an instant Lions loss as they fall to 5-5.
On thanksgiving day and in the Lions 11th game of the season as they finally look to end the losing streak on Turkey Day it doesn't however its a close game this time as the Lions defense keeps them in the game but the Patriots defense is better as it sacks Stafford constantly not giving him to find any of his receivers most of the time resulting in a loss, Lions fall to 5-6. In the 12th game of the season Jay Cutler and the Bears get their revenge on the Lions and come up with a victory causing the Lions to fall to 5-7. Now on the 13th game of the season Lions face the Packers who come into Ford Field and the Lions get their revenge on them as they finally beat Aaron Rodgers and the Packers for the first time ever causing them to rise up to 6-7. In the 14th game of the season the Lions travel down to Tampa Bay where new QB Josh Freeman has a breakout game against their secondary throwing for 5 TD definitely resulting in an instant loss for the Lions as they fall to 6-8. Staying in Florida as the Lions travel to Miami for their 15th game of the season they face a red hot Chad Henne whom like some other QBs they face that year exploit that secondary as he throws 3 touchdowns to his main target Brandon Marshall resulting in a win for the Dolphins and a loss for the Lions as they fall to 6-9.
Now in the final game of the season the Lions face Brett Favre and the Vikings at Ford Field for one last time and they make it a memory to never forget as Suh and the Lions line sack Favre for a total of 6 times causing him to throw 3 picks, Stafford has a good game as he throws a TD to Johnson, Pettigrew and Burleson and Best goes over 1200 yards in the season as he rushes for over 100 yards against the Jared Allen and that Vikings defensive line Lions finish at 7-9. Stafford in his
2nd season shows improvement throwing more Touchdowns than Interceptions in his 2nd year and throws for almost 4000 yards, Best stays healthy has an electric first year rushing over 1200 yards and taking Smith's position right away, Johnson has over 1000 yards, 13 TD season, Pettigrew catches 8 touchdown passes and also has a 1000 yard season becoming one of the league's brightest young tight ends and Burleson does his part catching 6 touchdown passes, returning 1 back as a kick returner and going over 800 yards receiving as the 2nd receiver. Suh's impact on the NFL is felt right away has he not only wins defensive rookie of the year but overall rookie of the year as well. Stafford still gets sacked a number of times but the offensive line does show improvement, the secondary however still needs improvement after the season. Then it will be expected they address their main 2 needs in the offensive line and the cornerbacks and when those are addressed that will be when they make the playoffs and Matthew Stafford is a Pro Bowler but that's another year from now so you are left with this for now. What I have done here is gone over the moves Mayhew has made in his past seasons as GM of the Detroit Lions. Not to mention I've also even gone through their schedule for this upcoming year believing that defense will be the key to winning these games since they added Suh. As in they'll win some games that they aren't supposed to win as well win the easy games they shall win like against St. Louis for example. So with that being said I'll be happy to answer any questions and comments you have for my article.
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