Martin Mayhew is the master of pressure

There is no doubt about it; I am becoming a Martin Mayhew fan boy. This guy is incredible, he learns the front office from the dumbest General Manger in the history of Detroit Sports Matt “the idiot” Millen. Of course his education there may have been how not to run a NFL franchise. Since Mayhew has taken over in 2008 many decisions have been made, and while they were not all hits he has successfully avoided the catastrophic ones. Jamie Samuleson wrote a blog this week for the Detroit Free Press talking about how well Mayhew reads the market for free agents. I think Mayhew is a master of applying pressure to free agents and getting them to sign on the dotted line for the right price.

David Hawthorne and Stephen Tulloch were the most recent victims of Mayhew’s pressure. Now with the signing of DE Everette Brown Mayhew may be looking to apply pressure to one Cliff Avril and get him to sign a long term deal at Mayhew’s price. When Tulloch was apparently dragging his feet on signing a new deal with the Lions and asking for six million bucks a year, Mayhew scheduled Hawthorne for a free agent visit. Before Hawthorne could arrive in Detroit Tulloch had signed. We should note that Mayhew did something similar in 2011 and got Tulloch signed then as well.

Now he has signed Brown to a one year deal. Brown is a 24 year old former second round pick who has never lived up to his potential. If the Lions coaching staff can motivate him properly he could be the pressure used to walk away from Avril in 2013 (according to NFL rules another franchise tag would cost the Lions north of 12 million dollars for Avril then), or the pressure if Brown can produce to get Avril signed long term. Of course this could be just a depth move, or a move to find a one day replacement for Kyle Vanden Bosch.