Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes is open to trading the second overall pick in the draft, and one of these four teams could make him an offer he can’t refuse.
Back at the Senior Bowl in early February, Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes made it clear he was not married to keeping the No. 2 overall pick in April’s draft. No general manager will ever shut the door on anything until it’s absolutely not possible, but Holmes was saying “hey call me” in Mobile.
At the NFL league meetings on Tuesday, via Kyle Meinke of MLive, Holmes said he has taken multiple calls about the second overall pick in the draft.
“Yeah, we’ve had dialogue with a couple of teams,” general manager Brad Holmes told a small group of reporters on Tuesday during a break at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Fla. “I wouldn’t say it’s been a lot, but it has been a couple teams we’ve had some dialogue with.”
Holmes is not going say anything other than what he said. Draft smoke screen season is not quite in full-force yet for this year, but he’s not going to say no one has called–even if that was the case. As Meinke noted, Holmes said the same thing about fielding trade calls a year ago when the Lions had the seventh overall pick, and they were ecstatic to get Penei Sewell. It probably would’ve taken heaven and earth to get Holmes to move down and off that pick in 2021.
As for waiting until draft night to make a deal with the No. 2 pick, and perhaps seeing who the Jaguars take No. 1 overall, Holmes said he wouldn’t necessarily do that.
“Definitely we could pull that trade off, if the other team is willing, before the draft,” Holmes said.
Moving up to No. 2 overall is a glitzy idea, and too rich an idea for a lot of teams even if they want to. But which teams might be willing to do it?
Will there be an offer Holmes can’t refuse? An offer along that line to compel a move down for the Lions still feels more unlikely than likely, but if this NFL offseason has proven anything it’s that nothing is out of the question and deals might look bad for one end in the immediate aftermath.
Note: For hypothetical trades, I used Jimmy Johnson’s classic draft pick trade value chart as a reference point.