Lions coach Jim Schwartz joked Thursday that one of the few people whose first NFL job entailed more menial tasks than his was Falcons general manager Thomas Dimitroff.

“I joke around about how low I started, but I also sort of tip my cap to Thomas Dimitroff and (Browns coach) Eric Mangini because they were below me,” said Schwartz, whose unpaid internship with the Browns in the early 1990s involved clipping newspaper stories and making cigarette runs for secretaries. “Thomas was cutting the grass and rolling tarps outside and Eric was a P.R. intern.”

Dimitroff said Friday that Schwartz proved then why he'll be a successful coach today.

“As we all know he's an incredibly intelligent guy,” Dimitroff said. “Very, very focused, hard-worker, he's very detailed and we saw that when we were all young and in the building together. It's quite interesting to see how he's evolved and I knew it was just a matter of time. Last year, I didn't personally get an opportunity to interview him (for the Falcons job) but I knew it was going to be very quickly before he had an opportunity to be a head man and I think he'll do a nice job there. He's a driven guy and his combination of drive and intelligence is going to really help that program.”