The Lions reached an agreement this afternoon for Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, 42, to become Detroit’s new head coach. Soon we’ll begin analyzing what Schwartz will mean for the franchise, but first let’s examine how the Lions’ management team of Martin Mayhew and Tom Lewand searched for and settled on Schwartz in the first place. It’s our first chance see how Mayhew and Lewand approach a big hire (and whether that approach differs from the Matt Millen blueprint).

First off, Mayhew and Lewand struck a balance between patience and urgency in their approach. After Schwartz interviewed for a second time on Monday, the Lions clearly knew they’d like Schwartz as a head coach. But instead of hiring him on the spot, they brought in Miami’s Todd Bowles for a second interview the next day, then interviewed San Diego’s Ron Rivera on Wednesday. In other words, even though they’d seen a candidate they liked, they stuck to their plan and continued the search. (Contrast that with Matt Millen, who moved (too) quickly to hire Marty Mornhinweg after a dazzling interview in 2001, and who made Steve Mariucci his only candidate in 2003.) Then, when the competition for Schwartz intensified — there were reports that Kansas City GM Scott Pioli had designs on hiring his former colleague — the Lions moved quickly to finish the job.

The Lions also kept quiet, like they said they would. We knew the list of candidates, but never heard — reliably, anyway — who was the front-runner, or what impressed or turned off Mayhew and Lewand about each candidate.

Mayhew and Lewand also seemed to have a plan. I say that because nearly all the candidates whose names surfaced fit the same profile: NFL defensive assistants looking for a first shot as a head coach. There were a lot names in the papers, but of the candidates with confirmed interviews, none are retreads and only one, Jason Garrett, has an offensive background. And as for Garrett’s inclusion and the reports last week that he was the front-runner (after prior reports that Garrett had withdrawn his name from consideration), it’s possible that the Lions were running a little misdirection, as they did before the Roy Williams trade.

Look. Maybe Schwartz will prove to be a hit; then again these are the Lions, so the odds aren’t with him. But the process by he was hired — logical, thorough, strategic, patient — marks a departure for this team, a welcome one.

Of course we’re all skeptics. And of course this isn’t exactly what we had in mind for the post-Matt Millen era. Seriously, you go 0-16, fire Matt Millen amidst public uproar, then hire his assistants? At least we can be certain that this was not a PR move. It sure seems like the smart move for William Clay Ford would have been to follow Mike Ilitch’s blueprint with the Tigers: Ilitch brought in a proven winner in Dave Dombrowski, then watched as the Tigers went from historically awful to the World Series in short order. But instead of hiring a Bill Parcells-type, Ford promoted Mayhew and Lewand.

But remember, that’s Ford’s sketchy decision-making, not Mayhew’s or Lewand’s. And based on what we’ve seen so far — the Williams trade, the Culpepper signing (not that it was a hit, but it made sense), and now this coaching search — I am opening my mind to the possibility that these guys may be more talented executives than the guy who hired them.

This hiring process is just a small, inconclusive indication of whether Mayhew and Lewand can produce a winner. But so far, things seem different. And better.