The Washington football team is hiring Martin Mayhew as its new general manager, a source told ESPN on Thursday, adding another experienced voice to help coach Ron Rivera.
Mayhew interviewed Rivera on January 16 and was long considered a strong candidate. Among the other well-known interviews, Washington also spoke with Ryan Cowden, Tennessee’s vice president of player staff, Nick Polk, Atlanta’s director of football operations and JoJo Wooden, the director of player staff at Los Angeles Chargers.
Mayhew had a long history in the front offices and also gained the reputation of knowing how to work with his head coaches. In Washington, Rivera has the power so that the general manager will report to him. He and Mayhew share the same agent, but Mayhew also offers a wealth of experience. He was general manager of Detroit from 2008-’15 – after eight years in the Lions’ front office. Rivera said he wants someone who can also handle the administrative duties of the post.
ESPN reported earlier that Marty Hurney is expected to be named as the team’s new general manager.
Mayhew was named Detroit’s GM in late 2008 after the Lions finished 0-16 that season. Detroit was 8-24 in its first two seasons. The Lions made the post-season in 2011 and ’14, the only two years in which they had a winning record in his tenure. Overall, Detroit won 41-63 in its seven-and-a-half seasons.
Mayhew appointed Jim Caldwell in 2014 to replace the first coach he signed, Jim Schwartz. Detroit fired Mayhew halfway through the 2015 season. But his rental from Caldwell paid off: Detroit ended with three winning seasons in Caldwell’s four years with two playoff games. It was the first time Detroit had placed consecutive wishing seasons since 1994-95.
One person who coached under Mayhew calls him ‘smart, analytical, even-tempered’ and someone who stayed calm. He could have disagreements without becoming divisive. He also said that Mayhew sometimes does not have the gut feeling for players, but that the issue can be reduced if someone else in his staff provides the quality.
Mayhew was the New York Giants’ director of football operations in 2016 before joining San Francisco’s front office a year later. He has spent two years as senior executive and the last two as vice president of player staff.
Mayhew played four years as a defender in Washington and won a Super Bowl in the 1991 season. His time in Washington was between one season in Buffalo and four in Tampa Bay.