Mobile, Ala. — Matthew Stafford is readying to play in the Super Bowl, while his former team, the Detroit Lions, are coaching this week’s Senior Bowl after finishing with the second-worst record in the NFL.
Lions general manager Brad Holmes, who pulled the trigger on the trade that sent Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams for a trio of draft picks and quarterback Jared Goff, put it succinctly, “That’s the reality of where we’re at right now.”
Holmes doesn’t have any regrets. Keeping Stafford wasn’t really an option. Holmes took the job knowing the longtime franchise quarterback already had requested a trade. Stafford didn’t have the stomach to be part of another rebuild, so there was no point in trying to talk him out of the difficult decision he had already made.
“I mean, I think we’re in two different phases and that’s what I think he recognized,” Holmes said. “I respected his request, and we did the best thing we did for our organization and the best thing for him.”
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And in the end, Holmes is confident everyone benefited from the way things played out, even if the Rams are the only team presently reaping the benefits.
“He asked for the trade and I think it worked out for both sides,” Holmes said. “You know, Stafford’s a good player, and the Rams are a good team. So, it worked out for them, and in exchange, we got compensation that can help us along the way.”
Holmes got his start with the Rams, spending nearly two decades climbing the organization’s ranks and serving as the team’s college scouting director from 2013-20 prior to landing in Detroit. With that lingering knowledge of the team’s personnel and philosophies, he’s hardly surprised they’ve been able to return to the Super Bowl three years after their last appearance.
“I’m not surprised by their success they’ve had, or his success,” Holmes said. “At the end of the day, I got a lot of great respect for the people in that organization with the Rams. They have the leadership to really go far, and they have a really intentional build they’ve been doing for years. So, you know, when you’re building it for that long, and then you add a piece like him, I’m not surprised by their success. But all we can do is stay in the present, for where we’re at right now.”
Detroit used the first of the three draft picks they acquired from the Rams last year, a third-round choice to snag cornerback Ifeatu Melifonwu. They still have a pair of first-rounders coming back, starting with either the No. 31 or 32 selection this year, depending on the result of the Super Bowl.
It’s possible that pick ends up being used on a player the team spends time evaluating this week in Mobile.
“This is a critical phase in our process, and it’s all a puzzle you want to put together by April,” Holmes said. “Just so happens that this piece of the puzzle has a little more oomph because of the opportunity we have to coach the game. It’s a little more firepower, but having success is getting all our questions answered, and we might not get every question answered, but it’s just a great start both on the field, from an intangible standpoint, from a development standpoint, but also evaluations.”
jdrogers@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @Justin_Rogers
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