NFL 2015 News, Rumors: Martin Mayhew Admits He Bungled NFL Draft in 2011
Martin Mayhew was once the protégé of Matt Millen, who is generally considered a bad NFL General Manger. Longtime suffering Detroit Lions fans were hopeful that Mayhew had learned the way to not run a football team, however, after almost eight years on the job, it is becoming increasingly clear Mayhew has many of the same defects that his former mentor had. Those defects stand out most notably in the NFL draft.
When Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley left the team in free agency it wiped out the 2010 and 2011 draft classes for the team. At the NFL meetings this week in Phoenix Mayhew admitted that he was "over aggressive" in the 2011 draft. That class has been marred by gambles taken by the Lions that were destined to fail.
It seems like a good idea to draft Fairley to play next to Suh. However, in four NFL seasons Fairley has never lived up to his potential. It is hard to fault Mayhew for that. But his second round selection of WR Titus Young looked so much like a Millen move that it is hard to conceive that story ending up in a different way that it has. Another Lions high round draft pick was taken out of the league and is now facing a lengthy prison sentence.
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Worse than that was the trade back up into the second round to draft RB Mikel Leshoure. The Lions traded away a third and a fourth round pick to take Leshoure and just three years later was buried on their depth chart. Four years later and he is out of the NFL entirely. That is three wasted draft picks that could have been used to infuse talent in the roster.
The Lions traded their sixth round pick hat year for Lawrence Jackson who is also out of the league and used their seventh round pick on Johnny Culbreath who they cut before he made his NFL debut. No other NFL team signed him.
