The NFL trade deadline passed on a Halloween afternoon without a lot of activity in Detroit. Lions GM Brad Holmes held a press conference to discuss the state of the team and his thoughts and experience at the deadline.
Holmes made it clear that a lot of the names that fans and some media fantasized about where just that: fantasy.
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“A lot of these names that you might see pop up, they look good in the media, and they are names, but that’s often – it’s not reality,” Holmes said. “Those same names that you see pop up, when you start getting into conversation, it just doesn’t work out for the best for us.
So, every team has a different plight, every team is in different place, different direction, different phase in their team building, but no, there’s nothing that we leave unturned or ignored or anything. We look at every position, we look at everything and this was the best one for us.”
Other teams did make some moves around the league. The Washington Commanders dealt away former first-round pass rushers Montez Sweat (to the Bears) and Chase Young (to the 49ers). Seattle picked up Giants DT Leonard Williams, while the Vikings dealt for one-time Lions third-string QB Joshua Dobbs from Arizona.
Holmes then explained the rationale behind the move the Lions did make, acquiring wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones from the Cleveland Browns for a 2025 sixth-round pick.
“Well, I mean obviously we – Marvin (Jones Jr.) had to step away, so we were down a receiver period, so we had to look to add another one regardless,” Holmes explained. “There’s a lot of different avenues that you can take, so this is the one that we chose.”