Grading Brad Holmes’ first year as Lions general manager

While the NFL playoffs roll on, the Detroit Lions are at home and begin their plans for the offseason. Following Brad Holmes’ meeting with the media, it’s time to discuss how the first-time general manager has done in the past year.

It wasn’t easy to get started, as Holmes was immediately tasked with finding a trade partner for Detroit, to offload long-time quarterback Matthew Stafford; he managed to pull in a haul of picks and Jared Goff from the Los Angeles Rams. He followed that up with seven picks in the 2021 NFL Draft, and a mixed free agency draft class.

There’s certainly been limitations: the salary cap was far from ideal, and it was clear for the first year in a rebuild there was a temptation to get veterans versus finding young talent to give it playing time. In his end of season press conference, Holmes addressed some of that, and we start there breaking it down on the latest Pride Of Detroit PODcast.

PODcast never sleeps in the offseason, and we’re dedicating this whole episode to examining the job Holmes has done, with grades, considerations, praises, criticisms and reservations. It’s the full gamut, and we have plenty of time to discuss this matter—especially as we look down the road towards impending Lions free agency and the 2022 NFL Draft.

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