Over the last few weeks, the Detroit Lions have lost several coaches and coordinators to different jobs. Lions head coach Dan Campbell has had the tough challenge of retooling his coaching staff, which will look completely different in 2025.
At the same time, Detroit’s front office has also lost some key members this offseason. First, the Lions saw Mike Martin, the director of scouting advancement, take a job in the collegiate ranks with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish as their general manager.
On Wednesday, the Lions are set to lose another key personnel manager to the college ranks. According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Detroit's Director of Football Compliance/Lead Football Counsel Jon Dykema will be hired by Michigan State.
Sources: Michigan State is set to hire Jon Dykema of the Detroit Lions as the executive senior associate AD/student-athlete management and assistant general counsel. Dykema will handle negotiating and managing contracts for Athletics. He was the Lions Director of Football… pic.twitter.com/gzhY67zPjd
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) February 19, 2025
Dykema is reportedly joining the Spartans as an executive senior associate AD/student-athlete management and assistant general counsel.
Dykema has spent 15 years with the Lions, including the last four years as the team’s director of football compliance/lead football counsel. The Michigan State alum initially joined Detroit in 2011 as staff counsel. He would stay in that role until 2014.
After that, Dykema was promoted to interim general counsel in 2015 and became the manager of football administration and lead counsel in 2016. Dykema stayed in that role until 2021 when he transitioned to his current title with the team.
Most casual Lions fans likely don’t know what guys like Dykema do inside the organization, but they play a notable role in the front office.
Over the last four years, Dykema has been tasked with overseeing the legal aspects of the Lions' football operations, negotiating player contracts, helping with salary cap planning and management, etc. All those things are very important to a football team and that’s not even everything that Dykema does.
The Lions will now try to fill those two spots in the front office ahead of free agency. Detroit hopes to be active and build off their successes over the last two seasons.