The Washington football team is hiring Martin Mayhew as the new general manager, a source told ESPN on Thursday, adding another experienced voice to help coach Ron Rivera.
Mayhew met with Rivera on January 16 and had long been considered a strong candidate. Among other known interviews, Washington also spoke with Ryan Cowden, vice president of Tennessee player personnel, Nick Polk, director of football operations in Atlanta, and JoJo Wooden, director of personnel personnel for the Los Angeles Chargers.
Mayhew had a longer career in the front offices and had also earned a reputation for knowing how to work with his head coaches. In Washington, Rivera has the power, so the CEO will inform him. He and Mayhew share the same agent, but Mayhew also brings great experience. He served as general manager of Detroit from 2008-15, after eight years in the Lions head office. Rivera said he wanted someone who could also take on the administrative functions of the site.
ESPN had previously reported that Marty Hurney was expected to be named the team’s new general manager.
Mayhew was named GM of Detroit in late 2008 after the Lions finished the season 0-16. Detroit went from 8 to 24 in its first two seasons. The Lions made the postseason in 2011 and 14, the only two years they had a record number of winners during their tenure. Overall, Detroit went 41-63 in its seven and a half seasons.
Mayhew hired Jim Caldwell in 2014 to replace the first coach he had signed, Jim Schwartz. Detroit fired Mayhew in the middle of the 2015 season. But his hiring of Caldwell paid off: Detroit finished with three winning seasons in Caldwell’s four years with two playoff appearances. It was the first time Detroit had won consecutive seasons since 1994-95.
One person who trained under Mayhew’s leadership called him “smart, analytical, level-headed” and someone who kept quiet. He was able to have disagreements without becoming a divisor. He also said that Mayhew sometimes lacked an intense feeling for the players, but considered that this problem could be reduced if someone else from his staff offered that quality.
Mayhew was the director of football operations for the New York Giants in 2016 before joining the San Francisco office a year later. He spent two years as a senior executive and the last two as vice president of player staff.
Mayhew played four years as a defensive defender in Washington, winning a Super Bowl in the 1991 season. His time in Washington was between one season in Buffalo and four in Tampa Bay.