Commanders hire Lions 26-year front office executive

Detroit Lions executive Lance Newmark will be the Washington Commanders’ next assistant general manager.

The Washington Commanders have hired Detroit Lions senior director of player personnel Lance Newmark to be their new assistant general manager.

This is a pretty significant loss for the Lions, as Newmark had been employed with Detroit since 1998. He started as an assistant and worked his way up through the scouting program, officially holding the titles of area scout (1994-2004), national scout (05-07), assistant director of college scouting (08-14), director of college scouting (15-16), director of player personnel (16-21), before being named to his final position with the Lions.

Newmark was such a pivotal part of the Lions’ operation that he even interviewed for the team’s vacant general manager job back in 2021.

“Lance Newmark has been outstanding, all of the experience that he has,” Lions general manager Brad Holmes said back in 2021.

The Commanders have already announced this move as official, and now Newmark will reunite with former Lions GM Martin Mayhew, who now holds the senior personnel executive/advisor position.

Newmark has already offered an official statement about the move.

“I could not be more excited about joining the Washington Commanders organization,” said Newmark in a written statement. “I have tremendous respect for (Commanders GM) Adam (Peters), and believe strongly in him, and in his vision for this franchise. I cannot wait to join Adam, Coach (Dan) Quinn, and the rest of the organization this week in the DMV.”

This is already the second time this offseason that the Lions’ front office has been looked at by another team. Earlier, Lions COO Mike Disner was considered for the Carolina Panthers general manager job, but Disner removed himself from consideration for the opportunity.