In the first part of this series of posts grading certain people involved with the Lions, the vote on Jim Schwartz was basically split between an A and B. As of the time of this post, 49% of the vote was to give Schwartz an A, whereas 44% was for a B. Only 4% was for a C, and there were only 10 votes scattered across the other two choices.
Next up in this series is Lions general manager Martin Mayhew. He took over for Matt Millen back in 2008 and has been making moves since then with the hopes of making the Lions a better football team. The nice thing about Mayhew is that every notable move seems to be part of a big picture type of plan. That was true when he sent Roy Williams to Dallas and got an absolute great deal in return, and that was just as true this offseason when he traded for Rob Sims or traded away Ernie Sims. Mayhew is a big picture guy, and this offseason especially he has made moves for a reason.
If you just take into consideration what Mayhew did since the end of last season, then I have to give him an A. If you go back to last year, the grade is still an A. And if you go all the way back to when he first took over, I still give him an A. Bringing Daunte Culpepper in does make me want to drop the grade down to an A- or something, but then I think about the fact that we now use the term "Mayhewing" to describe when one team seemingly gets a way better package in a trade than the other team(s). Considering that term first came about right after Mayhew took the job and traded Williams to Dallas, he deserves a nice-looking report card for what he has done so far.