Detroit Lions team president Rod Wood met with the media on Tuesday morning, and the primary topic of conversations in the cordial press conference was the process of hiring a new GM and head coach for the team.
Wood was fairly candid in his answers, and one of them stood out to me. When asked about the timeframe for hiring a head coach, Wood noted the competition with other teams fighting for the same candidates.
“We’re in competition with other teams who are going to meet with some of the same people, and it’s important I think to get the right coach, and if that means we have to hire a coach first, that’s what we’ll do,” Wood said when asked if the decision to hire a head coach before hiring a GM remained a possibility.
As for the timeline on the GM search, Wood indicated less urgency. He said there is “no deadline to our process” in finding the right GM, even if it means waiting until after the Super Bowl concludes. Several GM candidates are part of teams in the playoffs, including Terry Fontenot with the Saints and Ed Dodds with the Colts.
Wood’s more in-depth explanation,
“What we’re looking for is people that can work together and be partners, and not one working for the other necessarily. So, it doesn’t require us to hire a general manager first. It may work out that way because we’re a little bit ahead of the general manager search relative to the head coaching search, but if we find the perfect head coach and we’ve not yet found a general manager, we’re not going to wait on the coach. We’re in competition with other teams who are interviewing some of the same people, and it’s important, I think, to get the right coach. If that means we have to hire a coach first, that’s what we’ll do.”
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