ALLEN PARK — Rod Wood confirmed the Lions interviewed Marvin Lewis last week. He confirmed the Lions interviewed Eric Bieniemy on Monday night and would interview interim head coach Darrell Bevell on Tuesday. He also confirmed the Lions have interviewed seven general manager candidates, and the eventual hire would likely come from the pool of 12 candidates that have already gone public.
But he stopped short of saying whether Seahawks general manager John Schneider is in fact on Detroit’s list.
“I’m not going to comment on anybody that we haven’t interviewed,” Wood said. “Certainly not going to comment on anybody who’s under contract with another team. There’s lots of rumors out there. I don’t know where they get started, but I have no comment on that.”
This rumor got started at NFL Network, which reported over the weekend the Lions were “plotting a potential blockbuster move” for the longtime Seattle boss. Schneider has led that organization alongside Pete Carroll since 2010. But he also doesn’t have final control over personnel moves — Carroll does — and that means he’s eligible to interview for positions that would give him that control.
NFL rules prohibit teams from blocking interviews for job promotions.
Schneider sidestepped a question about the report when asked over the weekend.
“My wife and I love it here, obviously,” he said. “Great team, great ownership, Coach Carroll, the city, the 12s (Seahawk fans), everything. I know when you and I told on this week — you may get tired of me talking about it, but just like going to the 53 cut 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, between all the families involved, people losing their jobs or people going to be moving, people are talking about it on the TV shows and everything today about who’s going to get fried, who’s going to get hired and all that kind of stuff.
“It lends to tons of rumors. We have to remember this is an entertainment business, obviously, but there’s a personal side of it, too. So, it’s a bummer on one side. On the other side of it, it’s been very fun over the last several weeks now with teams that have openings to be able to talk about the guys on our staff and people that are looking at our coaches and people that are looking at our personnel people, and guys that going to interview for jobs, too. So that’s exciting, but, yeah, that’s about that. We’re good.”
Schneider is one of 12 people connected to the Lions’ general manager job. The club is expected to interview Saints vice president/assistant general manager for pro personnel Terry Fontenot on Tuesday, after already talking to 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 has scheduled interviews with Rams college scouting director Brad Holmes, Vikings assistant general manager George Paton and Saints assistant general manager Jeff Ireland according to multiple reports. Holmes and Paton are expected to interview on Wednesday, followed by Ireland on Friday.
As for the head coaching vacancy, the Lions spoke with Bevell on Tuesday after interviewing Bieniemy on Monday night and Lewis last week. The Lions also requested to interview 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, Saints assistant head coach/tight ends coach Dan Campbell and Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith according to multiple reports. Saleh’s interview is on Thursday, while Campbell and Smith will go next week.
Wood said the Lions are interested in creating a “partnership” between their new general manager and head coach, rather than the coach reporting to the general manager. Either hire could come first.
“We developed very specific criteria for both positions that we’re looking for that are unique — not totally unique, but we think in some cases very unique to our situation,” Wood said. “I won’t share all of them with you, but I would say they focus on leadership, culture, teamwork, awareness of each other’s strengths and weaknesses and what we’re really looking for is a culture that is open, inclusive, where everybody is pulling together as a team, and in one word, communication is paramount and everybody is doing the right thing for the Detroit Lions.
“The people that we’re looking for and the people that we’re bringing in to interview, I think, exhibit those traits. As we go through the interview process, hopefully we find people that we’re 100% confident will be the right people for the organization. And as I said in I think one of the previous calls, that’s very different than how we approached the search for Bob (Quinn) and Matt (Patricia), where we were more focused on candidates because of their accomplishments as opposed to criteria that had been established before we started interviewing with them.”
