Personally, I’ve never once believed some of the things that I know other writers or Detroit Lions fans believe when it comes to Lions GM Brad Holmes. I totally get why people believe that they have Holmes figured out because during his time here, he’s largely showed us one way of acquiring players and that’s been the draft more often than not.
The thing is that I’ve never once felt that this was going to be the only way that he does things because the guy that he learned from in this business started out doing things the same exact way.
Les Snead and the Rams were very much a team that was all about building through the draft. They spent a few years getting that team together and then the infamous “F those picks” days began and the Rams started sending draft picks away for top players like Jalen Ramsey, Dante Fowler, Aquib Talib, Marcus Peters, Brandin Cooks and more. They also hit free agency with Ndamukong Suh and more.
A lot of credit for my thoughts have to go to Rams beat writer Jourdan Rodrigue from The Athletic. Years ago when I was with Pride of Detroit, she came on the PODcast and said she expects Holmes to start moving draft assets after year three or four.
Pretty much everything she laid out before that has come true. I think this one will too. But I believed it even more after talking to Holmes at the NFL Combine last February and asking him straight up if Sneads way of going about free agency and player acquisition inspired him. He told me this:
“Yeah, that’s a really good question. Because me and our assistant general manager Ray Agnew we were both with Les and he was actually a more integral point person in the free agent process because of his role as a director of pro scouting at the time. But we talked about how, When Les first got there in 2012, you know, obviously, he drafted for a lot of years, and you know, you’re attacking every single position in free agency. You’re trying to build the roster. When Ray and I got here in 2021, we had to take the same approach. But, as you kind of build the roster, and get more stronger in certain areas, your process alters a little bit because you can be a little bit more, we’ve always been strategic and selective, but you can even be more selective than you have in the past. So, we’re not quite there yet, where Les and the Rams are, you know, where he really started to be very, very, very selective there. But me and Ray were just talking about that and we are getting there, we’re getting closer.”
The Lions activity over the last month has showed that they’re closer than ever and that the Lions might be major players when it comes to free agency and player acquisition this coming offseason.
There’s a lot of proof in the trade that they actually did make, but there’s way more proof in the one that they tried to make. The Lions did call the Raiders to try to trade for Maxx Crosby. While that trade didn’t go down, the fact that the team called for one of the top pass rushers with one of the largest contracts out there shows that they’re willing to make a big move like that. There’s no doubt that if the Raiders had decided to make a deal, this would have been a huge “F them picks” moment for the Lions.
The trade deadline has passed and it’s not something we need to think about at this moment, but keep this locked in your mind when March comes along. The Lions are rolling over the rest of their cash ($26 million) and are expected to have the 10th most cap space ahead of the annual cap rise. They’re going to be in good shape to be buyers even after they work up some extensions. Don’t be surprised if they take some shots. I wouldn’t even be shocked if they called the Raiders back.