They’re not a single player away, so forget about opening the vault for a free agent, not that Brad Holmes would run from a game-changer eyeing what’s bubbling in Detroit. As head coach Dan Campbell said during his wrap-up news conference Monday:
“With the way we’re trending, I’d like to believe that anybody outside looking in sees what’s going on here. I think word gets around. I think this is a place you’d like to be, no matter who you are. … I think we are turning the corner on that.”
So, yeah, Holmes, the Detroit Lions general manager, and Campbell, the coach, aren’t going to ignore interest from the kind of free-agent difference maker who might have passed over the Lions in years past.
But the interest would need to be the right player at the right price, because Holmes has a plan. Although that plan may be ahead of schedule after the 8-2 finish to the 2022 season, he isn’t likely to stray far from it this offseason.
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He is trying to build something sustainable, which means focusing on the draft and player development and finding free agents who won’t destroy the salary cap as the draftees develop.
“We’re not knee-jerk,” Holmes said Tuesday, “we’re not impulse.”
The Lions’ second-year GM is surgical. He has shown that in small but smart moves in free agency. He has shown that in trades, such as when he sent T.J. Hockenson to Minnesota for draft capital when the Lions were 1-6; Lions’ tight ends Brock Wright and Shane Zylstra combined for eight touchdowns after the trade.
Let’s stay with Zylstra for a moment, though, because he was on the practice squad when Holmes made the trade. The Vikings signed Zylstra as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State and cut him during training camp. Holmes signed him to the Lions’ practice squad and then re-signed him earlier this season.
The 26-year-old may or may not be part of the team’s future. But Holmes and Campbell saw something in him. There he was Sunday night in Green Bay, pulling from the left side to block for a critical late-game run.
Which brings us to another practice squad alum this season, James Houston. The defensive end does look like a critical piece of the team’s future after arriving via the draft last spring from Jackson State. And when the sixth-round pick started taking down quarterbacks, well, Holmes’ late-round magic had struck again.
Houston was taken 28 picks after linebacker Malcolm Rodriguez (who was also taken in the sixth round) — an astonishing haul for that late in the draft, and one that probably isn’t repeatable.
Most GM’s would donate a kidney to find two starters that low in the draft, especially ones that could be real difference-makers. Even Holmes would admit drafts don’t usually work like this.
Then again, Holmes plucked receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown in the fourth round in the 2021 draft, and he has turned into one of the best young offensive players in the game.
Holmes also drafted Kerby Joseph in the third round in 2022, and Josh Paschal in the second round, and James Mitchell in the fifth round, and Jameson Williams and Aidan Hutchinson in the first round. Add in Penei Sewell and Alim McNeill from 2021’s draft class, and you’ve got the best two-year draft haul in modern Lions’ history.
Already, Sewell and St. Brown are among the best in the NFL at their position. Toss in McNeill’s sturdy run defense up front and that’s a franchise-changing class right there. That’s three starters, two of whom have All-Pro potential.
Holmes managed to follow up that class with a far deeper one which may also produce a couple of high-end talents. Hutchinson showed moments of star potential as he led the rookie class in sacks, and while Williams didn’t make his debut until early December and was only targeted in the passing game nine times, he also showed what he could become.
Seven of the eight players drafted last spring made winning plays in an NFL game. Six of them look like starters for the foreseeable future, and Mitchell, upon returning from an ACL injury suffered in college, revealed he could be a contributor, too.
It’s the deepest Lions draft in at least three decades, and if Hutchinson and Williams truly pop, it will rank as the franchise’s best. In the last 20 years, only the 2013 class has come close. That year, Martin Mayhew selected Ezekiel Ansah, Darius Slay and Larry Warford with his first three picks.
All became Pro Bowl players, and if we’re ranking draft classes of the last two decades, that remains the one to beat. But Holmes’ first two classes could surpass it. That’s not so easy to do, for those that think amassing three Pro Bowlers in a single draft is easy.
Holmes believes he can do it again. Oh, he didn’t say it directly Tuesday, but the tell came when he was asked if he was surprised at the level of the rookies’ performance.
“I’m not surprised about the success,” he said. “Now, you don’t know if Kerby Joseph’s going to pick off Aaron Rodgers three times in a season. You don’t know when James Houston gets going, that he’s going to have eight sacks. But we do know who they were as football players. Like, we knew Kerby Joseph was a … ball hawk. (We knew) James Houston had all the developmental attributes and traits, and he had the football character and the intangibles. We knew Aidan, what his skill set was and what his drive and determination were.”
Obviously, Holmes knows he needs some luck. He has taken chances with players with injury histories in college. His biggest miss to date is Levi Onwuzurike, his second-round choice from 2021. The defensive tackle had back surgery in early October and missed the season.
Now, there’s a chance he gets healthy and produces. That would require some luck. Because backs are delicate and tricky things.
There’s also the kind of luck when a player a front office wants falls to them because teams ahead of them didn’t see something. And the kind of luck when a player taken in the sixth round reveals a rare talent to get to the quarterback … on the practice squad, as Houston does.
Holmes can say he and his staff weren’t surprised by Houston entirely because they liked his build and his personality — they still let him slide five rounds. So that’s luck, too. Everyone needs at least a little.
Luck doesn’t mean much, though, without the ability to spot talent, and to project, and to imagine how a 21- or 22-year-old will mature and develop. Holmes has shown he can do that, and do it well.
The Lions haven’t had a general manager this good in a long time. They’ve never had someone find so many players in so little time.
As Holmes admitted this week, he and the franchise are ahead of schedule. This doesn’t mean they’ll scrap their plan. If anything, they’ll lean into it even more, and try to build on the most promising draft classes in years.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.