:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/45967026/usa-today-8389597.0.jpg)
Detroit Lions general manager Martin Mayhew finally broke his silence on a variety of topics while at the NFL owners meetings on Monday. During a session with the Lions' beat writers, Mayhew addressed losing Ndamukong Suh to the Miami Dolphins, his past mistakes and what lessons he's going to take from them going forward and a variety of other topics. Below is a recap of what he had to say.
On the timeline of losing Suh and trading for Haloti Ngata:
Martin Mayhew said he was told Sunday before start of free agency that Suh would sign with Miami
— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) March 23, 2015
Mayhew said Lions made their $102 million offer around the start of the negotiation period, but wouldn't/couldn't specify further
— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) March 23, 2015
Mayhew said he called Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome Monday before FA to ask about Ngata's situation. Next day, trade happened within 2-3 hours.
— Josh Katzenstein (@jkatzenstein) March 23, 2015
On what he would do differently or the same in the Suh negotiations:
Mayhew on whether he has regrets over Suh negotiations: "There are about 1,000 things I would have done differently."
— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) March 23, 2015
Mayhew admitted he would have done things differently with Suh. Said he's learned a lot from it.
— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) March 23, 2015
Mayhew said he didn't regret tabling negotiations with Suh before 2014 season because he doesn't know how talks might've affected season.
— Josh Katzenstein (@jkatzenstein) March 23, 2015
On why the Lions didn't try to outbid Miami:
Mayhew said negotiations "got to a point where economically in terms of building a sustainable quality football team it didn’t make sense"
— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) March 23, 2015
On the Lions' cap situation without Suh in the picture:
Mayhew on Suh: "Longterm we're going to be glad we don't have that contract on the books."
— Tim Twentyman (@ttwentyman) March 23, 2015
Mayhew said the tag wasn't an option in the end because the Lions wanted to get their cap situation under control & stop the restructures
— Dave Birkett (@davebirkett) March 23, 2015
On past draft mistakes:
Mayhew acknowledged he was "over aggressive" in 2011 draft. "I learned a lot from that."
— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) March 23, 2015
On the age of the Lions' defense:
Mayhew said he's concerned with the age of his defense, but also said he's mostly interested in good players. Likes Ngata, Mathis, etc
— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) March 23, 2015
(Side note: There were a couple of tweets about how Mayhew said that the Lions didn't misjudge the negotiations with Suh and how he's confident in the decisions the team has made. That sounds extremely contradictory to some of his other comments, but without the full context, it's unclear what exactly he meant. Also, Mayhew touched on some other topics on Monday related to Haloti Ngata, Riley Reiff, Rob Sims and Kellen Moore; we'll be focusing on those comments in separate posts later this week.)