In the ongoing negotiations, Lions general manager Brad Holmes clearly outperforms his colleagues.
The Detroit Lions are now a Super Bowl contender because to Brad Holmes’ rapid transformation, and his greatest achievement has come in the draft.
Brad Holmes was given the task of assembling a team from the scraps of the “Quinntricia” period when he was appointed general manager of the Detroit Lions in 2021. Additionally, he had a seasoned quarterback in Holmes, who, to be honest, deserved no part of another rebuild and expressed his desire to be dealt.
Holmes has always gone his own way, and his early responses to the Lions’ 2023 draft class were the clearest example of this. To positional value wonks and evaluators alike, selecting a running back and an off-ball linebacker in the top-20 overall was sacrilege, but it proved to be a wise move. The Lions drafted four players that contributed right away to their team’s march to the NFC championship game in the first two rounds of the previous draft.
Holmes made it plain in his season-ending news conference that he has retained some of those draft critique receipts from his first round as general manager of the Lions. Just among the 2023 draft class, Sam LaPorta and Jahmyr Gibbs were first-year Pro Bowl players.
In the draft, Brad Holmes has surpassed his contemporaries.
This information was revealed by ESPN’s Eric Woodyard in a report that examined last year’s draft class and gave a sneak peek at this year’s selection, in which the Lions own three of the top 73 picks.
“We should give Holmes and Campbell the benefit of the doubt. During his three years in Detroit, Holmes has selected five players (Amon-Ra St. Brown, Aidan Hutchinson, Gibbs, LaPorta, and Penei Sewell) for the Pro Bowl. ESPN Stats & Information says that’s three more than any other team throughout that time.
It is hardly shocking to learn that in Holmes’ three drafts, the Lions have selected five Pro Bowl players, at least one in each. More striking is the fact that it has selected three Pro Bowl players more than any other club during that time, and in a year, Alim McNeill may add another to the list.
Holmes has made it obvious that he is open to adding talent through the draft rather than just utilizing it to meet needs. It’s clear that what he’s doing is effective—over the course of his three finished drafts, he has chosen Pro Bowl players more successfully than any of his competitors.
