ALLEN PARK – Rod Wood confirmed that Lions interviewed Marvin Lewis last week. He confirmed that Lions interviewed Eric Bieniemy on Monday night and would interview interim coach Darrell Bevell on Tuesday. He also confirmed that Lions interviewed seven candidates for general manager, and the eventual hiring will likely come from a group of 12 candidates who have already gone public.
But he did not say whether Seahawks’ general manager, John Schneider, was indeed on the Detroit list.
“I’m not going to comment on anyone that we haven’t interviewed,” said Wood. “I’m certainly not going to comment on who has a contract with another team. There are many rumors out there. I don’t know where they started, but I have no comment on that. “
That rumor started on the NFL Network, which reported over the weekend that Lions were “planning a possible highly successful move” for the former Seattle chief. Schneider has led this organization alongside Pete Carroll since 2010. But he also has no final control over personnel movements – Carroll does – and that means he can be interviewed for positions that would give him that control.
NFL rules prohibit teams from blocking interviews for job promotions.
Schneider avoided a question about the report when questioned over the weekend.
“My wife and I love it here, obviously,” he said. “Great team, great property, coach Carroll, the city, the 12s (Seahawk fans), everything. I know when you and I count this week – you can get tired of me talking about it, but just like going to court 53 that weekend, this is the worst weekend in the National Football League because you have so many friends and so many contacts around the league that, among all the families involved, people losing their jobs or people who are going to move, people talk about it on TV shows and everything today about who is going to be fried, who is going to be hired and everything else that kind of thing.
“This lends tons of rumors. We have to remember that this is an entertainment business, obviously, but it also has a personal side. So, it’s a bummer on the one hand. On the other hand, it’s been a lot of fun in the last few weeks with teams that have vacancies to be able to talk about the guys on our team and people who are looking at our coaches and people who are looking at our people, and guys who are going to do job interviews too. This is exciting, but, yes, that’s about it. They were good. “
Schneider is one of 12 people linked to the job of Lions general manager. The club is due to interview Saints’ assistant vice president / general manager for professional staff Terry Fontenot on Tuesday, having already spoken with former Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff, former Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli, former Texans general manager Rick Smith, ESPN analyst Louis Riddick and internal candidates Lance Newmark, Kyle O’Brien and Rob Lohman.
Detroit also scheduled interviews with Rams College Scouting Director Brad Holmes, Vikings Assistant General Manager George Paton and Saints Assistant General Manager Jeff Ireland, according to several reports. Holmes and Paton are due to do an interview on Wednesday, followed by Ireland on Friday.
As for the head coach spot, the Lions spoke to Bevell on Tuesday, after interviewing Bieniemy on Monday night and Lewis last week. The Lions also asked to interview 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, Saints assistant coach Dan Campbell and Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, according to several reports. Saleh’s interview is on Thursday, while Campbell and Smith will go next week.
Wood said that Lions are interested in creating a “partnership” between their new general manager and the head coach, rather than the coach reporting to the general manager. Any hiring can come first.
“We have developed very specific criteria for both positions that we seek and that are unique – not entirely unique, but we think that in some cases, they are very unique to our situation,” said Wood. “I’m not going to share all of them with you, but I would say that they focus on leadership, culture, teamwork, awareness of each other’s strengths and weaknesses and what we really seek is a culture that is open, inclusive, where everyone is coming together as a team and, in a word, communication is key and everyone is doing the right thing for Detroit Lions.
“The people we look for and the people we bring in to interview, I think, exhibit these characteristics. As we progress through the interview process, we hope to find people in whom we are 100% sure that they will be the right people for the organization. And as I said in one of the previous calls, it is very different from how we approached the search for Bob (Quinn) and Matt (Patricia), where we were more focused on the candidates because of their achievements as opposed to the criteria they had been established before we start interviewing them. “