Martha Ford’s decision-making continues to pay off for the Lions
By Matt Urben
It’s been about a year and a half since Martha Ford made the first major move of her tenure as Lions owner. That move was to fire former general manager, Martin Mayhew, and team president, Tom Lewand.
Another move looking better over time was her decision to stick by head coach Jim Caldwell in the interim, although, she reportedly left the ultimate decision up to her new general manager. Ford voiced her support for Caldwell after Mayhew’s firing and kept him to finish out the 2015 season.
The Lions would go 6-2 over their final eight games in 2015, and then make the playoffs the following year, which bodes for Coach Caldwell, who could be up for an extension with another playoff season.
Ford wasn’t exactly praised for the hiring of Rod Wood as team president. He even admitted that the Detroit Lions were probably the only team he was fit to be president of. However, Wood deserves credit for doing everything in his power to help Detroit gain some respect around the league.
Wood brought on cheerleaders, something the Lions have needed for a long time, but for whatever reason could never seem to figure it out. He has publicly requested more Lions primetime games (and the team received three of them, according to the recent schedule release). He even attempted to have the Lions in the mix for hosting the NFL Draft.
Needless to say, Rod Wood has panned out better than anyone could’ve anticipated. His latest move involved helping the Lions get new, mostly well-received uniforms.
Something that Martha Ford deserves even more credit for, in my opinion, is her patient, informed hiring of Bob Quinn as new Lions general manager. There was pressure to give the job to interim Sheldon White, but Ford — with the guidance of Ernie Accorsi — chose to go outside of the organization and secure what looks like one of the best young football minds in the game.
Quinn had a solid first draft, but people around the league took notice when Detroit stole division-rival guard, T.J. Lang, from the Packers. Quinn also acquired the talented free agent right tackle, Rick Wagner, formerly with the Ravens.
As we are now a few days from the 2017 NFL draft, Detroit is in a fantastic position to build a playoff team for many years to come. Just don’t forget to give some credit to Martha Ford for being a damn good NFL owner thus far.
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