Michael Rothstein, ESPN Staff Writer 10y

A part of how Detroit Lions' draft will work

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- It's a process with many people, seemingly endless stops all across the United States and weeks and months to analyze, analyze and then, with two more weeks added on this year, analyze some more.

In the end, one person is making the educated call on who the Detroit Lions will draft and on Monday he made his knowledge of that clear.

"Ultimately, it's my decision who we take," Lions general manager Martin Mayhew said. "You don't want to hear coach wants this guy, this guy wants (this guy). It doesn't matter because I have to decide who it is and my name gets attached to that guy, which I found that out.

"No matter who that guy is, that's the guy I drafted. Not the guy somebody else drafted. So we'll make sure we draft the right players and guys that I like."

This will be Mayhew's sixth draft with his name attached to it as the general manager of the Lions and he's had experience in almost every category of success and failure. There were the obvious hits of Matthew Stafford in 2009 and Ndamukong Suh a year later. There were the high-and-mid-round finds in defensive end Ezekiel Ansah and right guard Larry Warford last season.

There were even the late-round smart picks like defensive end Willie Young and the plethora of young cornerbacks Detroit has on the roster.

But he also understands the failings – most notably the 2010 and 2011 drafts that saw the Lions draft running back Jahvid Best, who had to retire due to concussions, and receiver Titus Young, who had a multitude of legal issues and is out of the NFL.

There were also a bunch of other hits-and-misses on smaller scales throughout his five years, but it taught him every pick comes back to him.

That doesn't mean he doesn't seek insight.

"That's what the draft process is for us. That's the grading process. Our coaches are involved every step of the way," Mayhew said. "So we're in the draft room and we've got number grades on guys. I may have one. Scotty (McEwen) may have one. The offensive coordinator has one, the receiver coach has one. Scott will put a grade on that player based off the room.

"So we'll put a group grade on him and get a feel for what the coaches plan on doing with him. That's the way we go about it."

The Lions also changed some of how they implemented things in the past few years. They brought in senior personnel executive Brian Xanders before the 2013 draft and he helped implement a database that streamlined information for Detroit, taking them out of "the dark ages, technology-wise," according to Mayhew.

He also shifted some roles, including hiring Shack Harris in 2009 and promoting Sheldon White to vice president of pro personnel the same year. They, along with the coaching staff, comprise the brain trust that will make decisions for Detroit this week.

Those are the people Mayhew has to trust to inform his decisions, because as he said Monday, he can listen to opposing general managers all he wants, but the number that he trusts is less than small.

"None," he said.

Mayhew's goals, though, have not changed. Neither has his evaluation of it: Find good players as often as possible.

"We go into every draft, and we talk about this in our personnel meetings, we want to find three starters in every draft," Mayhew said. "We want to find three guys that contribute in every draft and three developmental guys.

"So that's our goal going into every draft. It's been that way since 2009 when I first got here. That's what we seek to achieve."

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