The Detroit Lions selected eight players in the NFL draft over three days. Six of them play defense.
Was this the plan?
“We’re not going to say, ‘don’t draft offense,’” said Brad Holmes, the Lions general manager. “We are never going to pass up good football players. … It just happened to line up that way.”
That’s one way to look at what happened. Here’s another: the last three days were a referendum on Lions quarterback Jared Goff.
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Holmes and head coach Dan Campbell think they can win with him, at least for now. How else should you interpret stuffing the draft basket with two defensive ends, a safety, a linebacker, a hybrid defensive lineman/linebacker and a cornerback?
The Lions were awful on defense last season. This is true. The offense wasn’t great either.
So why so weighted one way?
Again, Holmes promises this wasn’t the plan. He also believes in Goff.
“We talked about Jared at length pretty much all spring,” Holmes said Saturday evening after the Lions had made their final pick. “We think that he’s a quarterback that we can win with. And obviously we’ve made some additions on the outside starting with free agency and we obviously did some things in the draft that we felt pretty good about.”
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Holmes signed receiver DJ Chark earlier in the spring. He felt settled at offensive line and while he said he and his staff didn’t want to ignore the offensive line spot in the draft, there wasn’t much pressure in selecting another guard or tackle or center.
The Lions also felt solid at running back and slot receiver, where D’Andre Swift showed he is a playmaker and Amon-Ra St. Brown broke out as a rookie last fall. What they needed was an outside playmaker, a downfield burner.
Holmes traded up 20 spots in the first round to nab Jameson Williams at No. 12. It was the boldest move of the weekend for the Lions.
If Williams returns to the same form he showed at Alabama before his ACL tear, Goff will have an improved receiving core along with a budding star tight end in T.J. Hockenson and potentially one of the best lines in the NFL.
Campbell said more than once last season that it wasn’t fair to judge Goff because he needed more help around him. Holmes was asked Saturday if it would be fair to judge Goff now that the Lions added Chark and Williams and the offensive line should be intact and healthy.
In other words, has Goff run out of excuses?
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“I don’t want to say no excuses,” Holmes said. “But I do think the more weapons and better resources that you surround your quarterback with … I think it’s just better and helps them out more. You can say that for any quarterback.”
Goff is on the books for three more seasons. He played in the Super Bowl for the Los Angeles Rams. He made the playoffs two other seasons. He’s a two-time Pro Bowler.
He struggled enough his last two seasons in LA that the Rams wanted to trade him. Still, he is capable.
How capable?
That’s the question, right?
The Rams had a dominant defense the year they made the Super Bowl with Goff. They also had Todd Gurley running in fine form. But they don’t get there without Goff’s downfield throws, either.
When the defense slipped and the running game slipped, Sean McVay wanted another quarterback. He wanted Matthew Stafford.
Goff doesn’t have Stafford’s arm talent. But if a quarterback plays in a Super Bowl once, then he’s good enough to play in a Super Bowl again, if the conditions are right.
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The Lions aren’t close to that level. But they are a little better today than they were before the draft. If there is a plan, this is it: the quarterback is solid for now, keep getting better everywhere else, especially on defense.
Thus: six defensive players out of eight taken. But also: spend a little extra draft capital to take a swing on the kind of difference-maker Goff didn’t have in the huddle last season.
If it collapses this upcoming season, then go draft a quarterback. In the meantime, there is Goff, and a front office and coaching staff that thinks he will show more than he did a year ago because he has more to work with.
Holmes said it. He showed it, too, the last three days by focusing on the defense.
“I really appreciate what he did and worked with last year,” said Holmes. “We expect him to be set up for success.”
They are counting on it. One selection at a time.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.