If you thought Martin Mayhew had a tough go around when he took over the team a couple of seasons ago, he will really begin to be tested as to whether or not he’s a top flight GM in the National Football League.
The test comes in terms of improvement and knowing which pieces to keep and/or let go.
But what about acquiring certain pieces via trade?
“We really believe in every avenue to improve, whether it’s trades, free agency, waiver claims, the draft,” Detroit Lions general manager Martin Mayhew said this week during an appearance on the “2 Live Stews” on 790 the Zone in Atlanta, per MLive.com. “We’re not focused on just one avenue to go out and sign players. We use everything that’s available to us, and the trades just sort of happen. We haven’t done any in a while, but we plan to be aggressive to do more trades this year too.”
Now that Lions have certainly tried to make deals under the watch of Mayhew. I’m sure all Lions fans can remember this past season when the team was set to acquire running back Ronnie Brown from the Eagles in exchange for Jerome Harrison. That deal however was nixed when it was revealed Harrison had a brain tumor.
Furthermore though before the nixed Brown deal, the Lions have been one of the more active teams when it comes to trades.
As noted by Brian McIntyre of Mac’s Football Blog, 22 starters on offense and defense, including Rob Sims, Tony Scheffler, Corey Williams and Chris Houston came to the Lions via trade. And let’s not forget how silly Mayhew made Jerry Jones look when he was able to sucker him into taking Roy Williams off his hands in exchange for a first round pick.
The Lions definitely have their fair share of holes to fill and it’s yet to be seen exactly which players are going to be on the block. However something Lions fans can probably be pretty comfortable with Mayhew’s trading skills.
Ref: ESPN.com, Mlive.com, 790 The Zone, Mac’s Football Blog, todaysdrum.com (image)
