Quote Originally Posted by Thruster315 View Post
Hats off to Martin Mayhew for being savvy here.
I'm about as optimistic about the Lions and their plans as it gets but let's also be realistic in the sense that Martin Mayhew's next steps will be his toughest challenge. Yes, he's proven that he's not Matt Millen's shadow. Yes, he's proven that he can take an 0-16 team and get them to a playoff game. Yes, he's proven he can draft some quality players in the early rounds [[I think the jury is still out on some of his third round and later picks). And while the press corps might grumble a little bit because of the lack of information being "leaked", most of us fans respect that he's not going to manage via the press. Mayhew seems to have a very direct line to the players and isn't afraid to talk to them.

But what he has to do now is to take this team up another level for this upcoming year. Can he produce a team that can win a playoff game and maybe even threaten to make it to the Super Bowl? A lot of talented teams rise, challenge but end up slinking away because of salary cap issues, free agency, and just league parity.

Now if Mayhew can overcome this huge hurdle and somehow deliver us a championship, he'll be regaled as the Silver Savior. He'll definitely be bigger than Dumars, Dombrowski, and Holland. This town is so hungry for a Lions championship. We've placed a lot of hope into Mayhew and his brain trust. He's done a lot of things right and he's been forgiven for some of the lesser grievances, but let's not relax our expectations of the ultimate goal- a Super Bowl championship for this team of ours.