Detroit Free Press

NFL power rankings following the 2023 draft (previous rank in parentheses): 1. Chiefs (1): Barring extenuating circumstances − and none here − when you’ve got the league’s best player in MVP Patrick Mahomes and the Lombardi Trophy, you’re in the top spot until events warrant otherwise. Make no mistake, this team has been appreciably altered since

The Detroit Lions took Hendon Hooker in the third round of last week’s NFL draft, but that does not guarantee he will be their quarterback of the future. Lions general manager Brad Holmes said Tuesday on 97.1 WXYT-FM that the organization has discussed a new contract with quarterback Jared Goff. “Yeah, we’ve had (internal) dialogue

Brad Holmes finally did it, even though he probably didn’t mean to do it. The Detroit Lions general manager has at long last given us the potential to have a good, old-fashioned quarterback controversy — if not this season, then certainly the next. All thanks to Holmes’ bold decision to select Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker in

OK, this is going to get complicated. My colleague Jeff Seidel wrote a good column over the weekend about the Matthew Stafford trade and the doors it’s opened for Brad Holmes and the Detroit Lions in the past two NFL drafts. The shorthand version is the Lions traded Stafford to the Los Angeles Rams in

In any NFL draft class, the initial spotlight seldom strays far from the earliest picks. Over time, however, the players further down the draft board have a way of shaping our understanding of the event. With the 2023 NFL draft now complete, the biggest buzz should remain around the first-round selections for some time. After

Some give out post-draft grades. But I always hated report cards — maybe, that’s some deep-seated, high-school PTSD. Here are 10 awards and predictions after the Detroit Lions‘ 2023 NFL draft: Biggest impact Here is a bold, way-too-early prediction: Jahmyr Gibbs will provide plenty of highlights next season. But this Lions offense will have a

Before Brad Holmes left his house on Day 3 of the NFL draft, his 4-year-old son told him, “Daddy, I saw you on TV.” Great, Holmes thought. “And what was Daddy doing?” he asked. “He said, ‘You were beating the table, you gave a high-five, you hugged somebody and you were in glasses,'” Holmes said.

The Detroit Lions survived another three-day draftapalooza, reeling in eight new players during the NFL draft 2023. Brad Holmes, the team’s third-year general manager, made six trades in all, five while he was on the draft clock, to boost a roster and depth chart favored to win the NFC North crown. Draft grades, taken with

It’s gotta be the sweatshirt, right? After all, how many NFL general managers hit a news conference podium repping their coach on their chest? As Brad Holmes did Saturday afternoon at Detroit Lions headquarters in Allen Park when he sported a black sweatshirt with a large photo of Dan Campbell ironed onto it? (Not that

We won’t know for a year or three whether Brad Holmes made the right picks in the 2023 NFL draft. He landed five of the draft’s top 60 or so prospects, but eschewed positional value in Round 1, and took on injury risk to do so on Day 2. But in his third year as

The appeal of the NFL draft is that it’s shopping with someone else’s money. You get to cheer, criticize, yell “Buy!” or “Don’t buy!” and it doesn’t cost you a thing. The one person whom it does cost — and therefore the only one who matters — is the general manager. In the case of

With no real role for D’Andre Swift in the present, Brad Holmes had to do the right thing for the Detroit Lions‘ future. The Lions traded Swift to the Philadelphia Eagles on Saturday, two days after they used their first-round pick on Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs. In return, they received a 2025 fourth-round pick

The Detroit Lions took Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker in the third round of the NFL draft, but Hooker isn’t the only rookie signal-caller they’re adding to their roster. Former Kansas State quarterback Adrian Martinez agreed to an undrafted rookie deal with the Lions on Saturday. Martinez, who made a pre-draft visit to the Lions in

Jameson Williams will miss the first six games of next season because of a gambling suspension, but Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes said he is not concerned about the second-year receiver’s behavior as a whole. “Look, he made a mistake,” Holmes said Saturday in his first public comments about Williams’ suspension. “He made a

Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes jumped up and pounded the table. He charged around the Lions draft room, violently bro-hugging anybody he could find. Elbows flying — oops, sorry Dan Campbell. Pounding backs. Adrenaline fueled. Testosterone overload. Same as last year when they landed Jameson Williams. It’s a scene that never gets old for

The Detroit Lions have two picks left in the final four rounds of today’s NFL draft, No. 152 in Round 5 and 249 in Round 7. Here are 10 players they could target with their picks. OG Chandler Zavala, North Carolina State – The Lions addressed their most glaring positional needs in Rounds 1-3, but

No, Hendon Hooker is not the same age as Jared Goff. Nor is he a first-round pick. Or even a second-round pick. Or the quarterback of the near future. But he could be the future. Look no further than Philadelphia, where the Eagles took a flier on Jalen Hurts three years ago despite feeling relatively

Free Press sports writer Tony Garcia gives an instant grade for the Detroit Lions‘ second third-round draft pick on Friday night, No. 96 overall: Grade: D+ A pick that’s as off the board as this rarely ends up being successful. On top of that, the Lions gave up pick Nos. 122, 139 and 168 to

It’s only fitting, the most decorated kicker in the history of Michigan football set one last record on his way out. Jake Moody was drafted No. 99 overall in the third round of the 2023 NFL draft Friday by the San Francisco 49ers, the highest any U-M kicker has ever been selected. Only two had

Free Press sports writer Tony Garcia gives an instant grade for the Detroit Lions‘ second second-round draft pick on Friday night, No. 45 overall: Alabama S Brian Branch Grade: A For the second time in as many nights the Lions executed a trade, only this time they went up three spots — and gave up a fifth