Lions' Mayhew: 'It is on me what has happened'

HERTFORDSHIRE, England -- From Jim Caldwell to Joe Lombardi to Matthew Stafford, plenty of people have come under fire for the Detroit Lions' disappointing season.

And general manager Martin Mayhew said today that he should be included on the list.

"Everybody's involved in what has happened thus far this season, especially myself," Mayhew said. "I'm responsible for our football operations, so it is on me what has happened this season. So it certainly is not those three guys (that were fired) are not the problem, they're not the sole problem. There's a lot of things we need to do to get better."

The Lions fired Lombardi and offensive line coaches Jeremiah Washburn and Terry Heffernan on Monday, hours before they left for this weekend's International Series game against the Kansas City Chiefs at Wembley Stadium (9:30 a.m., Fox).

Mayhew detailed why those three coaches were let go in a morning interview today with beat writers and the team's website.

"After every game, I talk with Jim about the game, how the game went, share my thoughts with him, my observations," Mayhew said. "There are times, I think, when, based on that, there have been action. Sometimes he listens to what I say, and there is no action. So that has happened throughout the entire season.

"And there's been an ongoing evaluation of our staff and our players. It happens every single week, and last week was not different at all. In fact, I talked to him Sunday night. We talked on the phone about the game. We talked about our offensive staff. That's one of the things that we talked about, and we agreed to go in and look at the film and see what the film told us about our offensive performance. We reconvened in the morning and talked about our staff again, and then probably around, I think, 11 or 12, around midday, Jim made that decision to make a move."

Mayhew told reporters a few hours later that his meeting with Caldwell was at 1 p.m. Caldwell met with reporters for his usual news conference at 12:30 p.m. Monday.

Mayhew said he was in "100% support" of Caldwell's decision, but the choice to part ways with Lombardi, Washburn and Heffernan was Caldwell's alone.

Jim Bob Cooter was promoted to offensive coordinator in place of Lombardi, and tight ends coach Ron Prince took over as offensive line coach.

"I've heard the speculation that it wasn't from him, it was from somewhere else," Mayhew said. "If you think that Jim Caldwell was influenced into doing something like that, you don't know Jim Caldwell. It's his responsibility, it's his staff. He's been coaching a very long time. He knows exactly what he's doing. He knows it's his call on that, and he decided to make that move."

The Lions, owners of the NFL's fourth-worst scoring offense, were coming off of a 28-19 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in which Stafford was sacked seven times by six different people.

Mayhew said that performance was not the tipping point for the moves, and he declined to share his internal evaluation of what has gone wrong in the Lions' 1-6 start.

Along with the team's offensive struggles, the Lions lead the league in turnovers and are suffering from a lack of playmakers on their once-ferocious defense.

"I think there'll be a time to evaluate and analyze all of that stuff," Mayhew said. "At this time, we're focused on beating the Chiefs and playing really good football, and that's how we want it. The season's not even halfway over yet, so all that analysis and end-of-the-year stuff -- I remember, last year, we sat here and we kept talking about, you guys were talking about the playoffs, and I'm saying, 'Hey, we got to beat the Atlanta Falcons.' This is no different. We got to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, and that's where we're focused right now."

Mayhew, in his seventh full season as Lions general manager, said he's not concerned about his own future with the team, though he did not answer directly when asked whether he has been given any assurance about his future.

"I'm the GM right now," Mayhew said, looking at his watch for effect. "And we're going to go play Kansas City, and I'm going to keep working until somebody tells me to stop."

As for Caldwell, who led the Lions to an 11-5 record and the playoffs last year, Mayhew he did not know whether the coach earned enough capital from last season to survive this season if things don't improve.

"That's a tough question," Mayhew said. "I don't know the answer to that. I don't know if I have enough capital from anything ever, so it's hard for me to start talking about other people's situation."

Even as the person in charge of the team's football operation?

"The only way to turn this thing around is to win football games," Mayhew said. "We got a football game coming up in a couple days, and so I think we're all focused on winning that football game. And I think it's, from your standpoint, obviously, you want to look out to what can happen and next year, what's this look like, and trade deadline and all that. We're focused on beating the Chiefs. That's the only way out is to start winning. And to win every game we have an opportunity to win. We have a chance to win this game on Sunday. We're focused on that."

Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.

Download our free Lions Xtra app on your Apple and Android devices.