Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes held his annual pre-draft news conference Thursday. Here are the highlights of his 35-minute session from Allen Park, one week from the 2023 NFL draft:
• Holmes said the Lions are in a “unique” situation with an abundance of draft capital and a roster that already is expected to contend for the NFC North title. The Lions have two first-round picks next week, Nos. 6 and 18 overall, and five of the first 81 selections, and Holmes said it is important to make choices that keep the Lions on their upward trajectory.
“You definitely want to take advantage of having this kind of capital,” Holmes said. “You’re not going to put too much pressure on yourself, but it is a unique opportunity. Those opportunities don’t come every year, so you want to take advantage as much as you can.”
The Lions are not the only team coming off a winning season with a chance to add high-end talent early in the first round. The Seattle Seahawks (with picks 5 and 20) and Philadelphia Eagles (Nos. 10 and 30) also have two first-round picks, including one in the top 10. Both made playoff appearances last season and, in theory, should contend again in the NFC this fall.
“We’re just focused on our process in this draft and regardless of what we did in free agency, regardless of how we ended the season,” Holmes said. “Again, we just got to just stay aggressive still, just keep our foot on the gas and just make sure that we’re acquiring the best players. But it does feel good that we have this opportunity with the capital that we have.”
• Holmes reiterated something he has said multiple times in his two-plus years as GM, that it is crucial for the Lions to maintain the culture they’ve built while adding talent to their roster.
So how much risk is acceptable?
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“Everything’s case by case,” Holmes said. “And some of those players in the past that I’ve been part of that the headline didn’t look as good and then you dove deep and then you say, ‘Oh,’ and they were really key contributors and trusted guys in our locker room, so it’s just a lot of work that’s done and we just do the work.”
Naturally, that led to the follow-up question of how the headlines about Jalen Carter, the Georgia defensive tackle who is one of the most polarizing prospects in the draft, match up with the person the Lions have gotten to know throughout their process.
Carter is widely considered one of the top talents in the draft, but he has off-field concerns related to both practice habits and legal issues.
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“Yeah, he came in and he did a nice job,” Holmes said, referencing Carter’s top-30 visit earlier this week. “Yeah. I mean, again, it’s always case by case. Came in, we enjoyed our time with him, did a nice job and I’ll say even after he left his visit, I felt better about him.”
• People can read into that comment, and Holmes’ body language as he answered it – he was shaking his head as if to say “no” while he talked – however they want.
Maybe Holmes was protecting his draft plans. Maybe he was trying to avoid the question. For what it’s worth, I came away thinking Holmes and the Lions are less likely to take Carter at six than I did before, and I have not given Carter to the Lions in my previous mock drafts when he’s been available.
• As you’d expect, Holmes said part of his job is to make sure Lions owner Sheila Hamp is informed of any character risks when it comes to “acquiring a player that may stir some headlines.”
“You definitely want to make sure that she’s aware and that’s kind of how we’ve always ran our process and our approach,” Holmes said. “She’s an excellent listener, she thinks all big picture and she has a lot of wise counsel. Obviously, you wouldn’t do anything to compromise our culture or the integrity or put her in a bad spot or the organization in a bad spot, so definitely make sure that all things are communicated with her, especially when it comes to that stuff.”
Holmes said he has never brought a player to Hamp he was interested in drafting and had her tell him that player was a no-go.
“There’s times that I was like, ‘No,’ and I told her the reason why I was a no and she was on board with it,” he said. “But I haven’t had a situation where it was reversed. But I think the reason (is) that we’re so collaborative in everything that we do and she has so much trust in what me and Dan’s process is and how we’re building the team. It’s very comforting, it’s very appreciative, but we just haven’t experienced that.”
• Staying with the collaborative aspect of the Lions’ draft approach, Holmes touted the working relationship he and Lions head coach Dan Campbell have and insisted he won’t draft a player Campbell or the player’s position coach aren’t totally behind.
“We got to have buy-in, man,” Holmes said. “I’m not going to draft a player that he doesn’t like. I’ve been in regimes that I’ve seen that happen where a player’s drafted that the coach wasn’t on board with. It doesn’t really lead up to the visions of success that you have for that player because the coach has to have buy-in. And our assistant coaches, they live with these players, they have to teach them, they have to develop them. So you want that buy-in.
“That really doesn’t happen (where we have stark differences of opinion on players), just because we just see players eye to eye, we see players the same. We have the same vision, we’re aligned. And again, the really rare cases that it’s happened, because it has happened, it was always a good learning experience. And we sharpen each other’s iron and we go from there.”
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• Holmes said this year’s draft has a little different feel to it than his first two drafts as Lions GM because of where the Lions are picking and how unpredictable the draft seems up top.
Alabama quarterback Bryce Young is the betting favorite to go No. 1 overall to the Carolina Panthers, but the quarterback-needy Houston Texans are a wild card who many feel could pass on the position at No. 2.
Last year, the Lions knew they were taking either Aidan Hutchinson or Travon Walker with the second overall pick, and in Holmes’ first draft in 2021, the Lions felt confident they would get one of a handful of blue-chip talents at No. 7, when they ended up with Penei Sewell, based on three quarterbacks going early.
“(This draft is) a little bit more unpredictable and it’s just having those two picks, they’re kind of in unique spots just depending on what’s going to happen in front of you, what’s going to happen behind you,” Holmes said. “And then like I was saying before about kind of where we are right now, I just think we have a lot of flexibility, we can go in a lot of different directions and we feel good about that. But just a little different.”
• As many as five quarterbacks could go in Round 1 next week: Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Florida’s Anthony Richardson, Kentucky’s Will Levis and Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker.
The Lions are surrounded by teams in both directions that, to some degree, could be in the quarterback market, which is part of the reason they brought in players like Stroud and Hooker for pre-draft visits.
“Just like I’ve been saying all the time, when you’re picking in the top 10, you just want to make sure that you’re pretty thorough on the quarterback market and I believe that we have done that,” Holmes said. “So we have a good idea (on where they’ll go). It’s always going to be a surprise on draft night. That’s what makes it fun, but we’ll definitely be prepared and got an idea but you just never know when a curve ball might be thrown.”
• Whether they take a quarterback early (doubtful) or later in the draft (possible), Holmes said the Lions do plan to add a third quarterback to their roster at some point before training camp.
Currently, Nate Sudfeld is slated to serve as Jared Goff’s backup, though the Lions could add a rookie to their room or try and sign a veteran like Teddy Bridgewater after the draft.
“Just like I said at the owners meetings, going through free agency, Nate was one of the few guys that we kind of were looking at to fill that backup role,” Holmes said. “It just didn’t work out with some of those other guys, but we were happy to get Nate back. But again, it just goes back to the flexibility that we have in this draft in terms of we’re not pressed. Obviously we like what Nate did, that’s why we signed him back, but we’re not pressed, we’re not pinched. If it works out, it lines up, it does. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. but we’ll be fine.”
Asked if the Lions could draft a quarterback, Holmes played coy.
“Yeah. I mean, of course. It’s a position on the football field that you got to have,” he said. “And I’m not trying to be a smart ass about that, but yeah. I mean, we’d like to add another one. Whether it’s through the draft, whether it’s after the draft, just like I talked about to you guys probably in Arizona that some of these quarterbacks, they’re waiting till after the draft to see what teams do. Guys that have had a lot more experience. That’s always a possibility, but we won’t be pinched, we won’t be forced to do anything that doesn’t line up and doesn’t match. But we’ll get, by training camp, when we get in there we’ll make sure that we’ll have another quarterback at some point.”
• Holmes is a noted film junkie whose draft day decisions are made largely off what he’s seen on tape, and he said Thursday his staff has to sometimes remind him traits are important, too.
Though he did not divulge specifics, Holmes said the Lions have a baseline arm length for players at certain positions, and baseline speed and explosiveness scores for others.
“They’re higher in some positions, they’re more important in some positions,” Holmes said. “At other positions, it’s a little bit, you can kind of get by with the physical traits might not be as good but what I call this kind of the central nervous system wiring is a little bit higher. So there’s a balance, but it is the NFL. … You’ve got to make sure that these guys are able to match up physically.”
Among top prospects with less than ideal traits, Pitt defensive tackle Calijah Kancey (30 3/4 inches) and Northwestern offensive linemen Peter Skoronski (32 1/4 inches) have faced questions about their arm length realtive to the positions they play.
• Asked for insight on what Hamp is thinking as the Lions embark on an important draft that is the final piece to their buzzy offseason, Holmes said she is “really excited” and “really proud of kind of where we are as an organization.”
“Just kind of how the process has gone along since the season ended with that big win up in Green Bay, I know that meant the world to her,” Holmes said. “Giving her the game ball, that was awesome. But how free agency went and just kind of this process leading up to the draft, she’s excited, was talking with her the other day. I think she’s confident about the place that we’re at right now headed into this draft. But yeah, it’s always happy to see her excited. Always happy to see her excited. That’s what we do it for, and one day just want to put that trophy in her hand and so that’s what me and Dan are striving to do.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.