Lions GM Brad Holmes reveals specifically how job has gotten ‘easier’
With the start of the 2024 Detroit Lions season around the corner where their record looks to be improved from last year’s, one has to wonder if the recent success of the team has impacted the league’s view of the once down franchise. Lions general manager Brad Holmes is a strong believer in that claim as he spoke to Eric Woodyard of ESPN Thursday about how the organization has changed compared to the last several years.
There have been a few teams in every sport that have been a free agent destination where in the NFL, Holmes claims that because of the success the last tw0 seasons, Detroit will start being that. Holmes would even say that he has noticed that the Lions franchise is “different” and that it “does make you feel good” that because of their accomplishments, “these agents want to send their players here.”
“It has been different,” Holmes said via ESPN. “In the past — I would say for the first two years, we were doing a lot of selling and convincing constantly just to try to get guys here. … But now, it does make you feel good that we’ve done something, and we’ve accomplished some good things that these agents want to send their players here.”
This era of the Lions really started going into the 2021 season when Holmes became the general manager alongside with Dan Campbell as head coach. After a struggling 3-13 record in 2021, the Lions jumped to 9-8 in 2022 then finally the dynamite season they had last year where they went 12-5 and broke their playoff win drought reaching all the way to the conference championship.
Lions GM spoke on team’s offseason approach
© Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK
Holmes noticed the biggest influx of free agents this past offseason where he noted that wide receivers and kickers were hankering in coming to Detroit.
“Now, the wide receiver front, that was even easier conversations,” Holmes said. “Every agent of a wide receiver wanted to send them here, and you know really the same thing happened with kicker too.”
One may find this shocking since the team did not make any huge moves this offseason though within those two aforementioned positions, the Lions did acquire Tim Patrick and Allen Robinson to be on their practice squad. Then at kicker, they did add Jake Bates who is a former UFL player who looks to be the starter.
Still, no major additions were made besides the defensive side of the ball trading for corner back Carlton Davis and signing defensive tackle DJ Reader. Holmes though was glad that the Lions didn’t fall for the pressure of being in a championship “window” and stayed true to their approach.
“I’m proud of us that we’ve avoided mentally putting ourselves into that, ‘We’re being in a window, and so we have to do something different,’ from a roster standpoint,” Holmes said. “We’ve kept our approach and our process very consistent in terms of how we build it, the opportunities that we provide players, and that’s what give us confidence.
The goal is simple for the Lions, getting better and winning the Super Bowl which they’ve never done.
“We’ve been saying this from day one: ‘We want to get better every single year.’ We’ve done that, and we plan to continue to do that.”
The post Lions GM Brad Holmes reveals specifically how job has gotten ‘easier’ appeared first on ClutchPoints.
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