Mount Rushless: Matt Millen of the Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions have been a laughingstock for nearly their entire existence. Perennial losers time and time again, I could’ve picked numerous eras to touch on.

But when Detroit hired former NFL linebacker, Matt Millen, to be their general manager in 2001, the team had truly stumbled upon some of its darkest years in franchise history. Stacked with numerous coaches, draft busts, and last-place finishes, the Matt Millen Era is a time Lions fans would love to forget. 

We’ll start this story during the 2001 offseason. Matt Millen had just been hired as the team president and general manager. His first order of business was to fire the team’s current coach, interim Gary Moeller, and hire a replacement.

He nabbed Marty Mornhinweg, a former offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach with the Green Bay Packers and San Francisco 49ers. The 2001 Lions started terribly losing their first 12 games of the season. Many expected the Lions to go winless before they escaped with their first win against divisional rival Minnesota Vikings in a mid-December contest. They would pull out a second win to finish the year, 2-14. 

In the 2002 offseason, the Lions would play their home games in the newly crafted Ford Field in Detroit. They were also awarded the 3rd overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft; a pick they would use to select University of Oregon quarterback Joey Harrington.

This start would also be a slow one with the Lions opening the campaign at 0-3. The Lions would claw their way to a 3-5 record by Week 9 before collapsing down the stretch - losing the final 8 games - to bring their record to 3-13. This would mark a second consecutive season of going winless in road games under the Millen-Mornhinweg regime. With a 5-27 record in his tenure, Marty Mornhinweg was fired after the 2002 season. 

For the 2003 season, Millen would hire yet another offensive mind from both the Packers and Niners in Steve Mariucci to replace Mornhinweg. The Lions would be near the top of the draft yet again, picking second overall due to their abysmal record.

To give the struggling Harrington some help, Detroit selected local star wide receiver Charles Rogers with their first pick. Rogers would have a promising start but was injured in the middle of the season. The Lions continued to struggle in 2003 but would improve a little bit finishing with a 5-11 record. 

That record landed the Lions the 7th pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. The Lions also had the 30th pick in the first round as well. With the 7th pick, Detroit selected Texas Longhorn wide receiver Roy Williams to take some of the pressure off last year’s top pick, Charles Rogers.

The 30th pick sought to add more firepower to the offense in Virginia Tech running back, Kevin Jones. The 2004 season started off promising. Detroit defeated the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field snapping a 24-game road losing streak. This was the Lions’ first road win since 2000 and the first win under Millen. By Week 7, the Lions were a surprising 4-2 and things were looking up.

However, Detroit came crashing back down to earth soon after. The Lions would lose the next five games. After the losing streak, the Lions would only win 2 more games the rest of the season, finishing this season 6-10. 

During the 2005 season, the Lions were growing impatient with Joey Harrington and Charles Rogers. Veteran signal-caller Jeff Garcia was brought in to compete with Harrington while Detroit used their 10th pick on USC Trojan Mike Williams.

The Lions would again start the season with a statement divisional win, defeating the Green Bay Packers 17-3 in Week 1. By Week 5, Joey Harrington was benched in favor of Jeff Garcia. By Week 10, the Lions were 4-5 and in the playoff hunt but in typical Lions fashion, they blew it.

Detroit lost the next five games and were once again eliminated from the playoffs, making it their seventh straight season of no postseason play. After the Lions were throttled 27-7 on Thanksgiving, Steve Mariucci was fired and Dick Jauron would take the reigns as interim coach for the remainder of the season.

The Lions finished the season 5-11. With injuries and off-the-field issues getting the better of him, the Lions released Charles Rogers just before the start of the following season. Quarterbacks Joey Harrington and Jeff Garcia would also depart the team in the upcoming offseason. 

The 2006 season started horribly for Detroit. The Lions lost their first 5 games and were 1-7 by Week 8. The Lions went 1-6 against teams above .500 and lost seven straight after Week 10 to end the year. The fans had enough, chanting “Fire Millen” at games. Defeating the Bills, Falcons and Cowboys allowed the Lions to finish, 3-13. 

In 2007, the Lions finally began showing some promise. They would use the 2nd overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft to select Georgia Tech’s Calvin Johnson. To a team that desperately needed a superstar, Johnson’s presence was needed badly. The Lions started hot with a 6-2 record before pulling a Detroit, losing 7 of the final 8 games.

The 2007 Lions defense was historically bad, as teams finished with a 70% completion mark against them. The 7-9 finish of 2007 was the best season thus far of the Matt Millen era and there were finally cause for optimism in the Motor City; then 2008 happened. 

The Lions would select Gosder Cherilus with the 17th overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. Detroit would also select DE Cliff Avril and FB Jerome Felton in the 3rd and 5th rounds respectively, both of whom made the Pro Bowl in their careers.

After a 4-0 pre-season, no one expected this team to take such a nosedive. The 2008 Lions are not only considered the worst team in Lions history but they could be the worst team in NFL history. This year is when the wheels finally fell off the wagon, the nail in Matt Millen’s coffin. The dreaded 0-16, a perfect season in the worst way. With the Curse of Bobby Layne set to expire, the 2008 Lions didn’t win a single game in the regular season. The defense gave up 517 points in the season allowing 32 points a game.

The team was cursed at the quarterback position trotting out four different quarterbacks - Daunte Culpepper, Dan Orlovsky, Jon Kitna and Drew Stanton. None of the QBs had above a 60% completion rate, a QBR above 75, nor threw for more touchdowns than interceptions. Dan Orlovsky infamously ran out the back of his own end zone on a roll-out netting the opposing team a safety.

Two, both the offensive and defensive lines were long in the tooth. The offensive line lacked athleticism and quickness. The youngest defensive lineman was Corey Redding was 28. The defensive line suffered many injuries as defensive tackle Shaun Cody was the lone defensive lineman to start all 16 games.

The secondary was putrid, combining for just one interception all year. The exodus of players from the 2008 team was unbelievable, as over half of the roster was out of the NFL by 2010. 

Lions fans were done with the Matt Millen nightmare when he was relieved of his duties in September following a Week 11 loss that mathematically eliminated Detroit from the playoffs for the 10th straight season. Head Coach Rod Marinelli and most of his staff were fired at the end of the season as well.

At the end of the Matt Millen era, the Detroit Lions posted an atrocious 31-81 record, including a whopping 8-50 showing in road games. For context, Millen’s record is the third-worst winning percentage during that span in NFL history behind the World War II Chicago Cardinals and the 1980s Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Considered to be one of the worst GMs of all time; welcome to Mount Rushless, Matt Millen.