They say leadership starts at the top, and Detroit Lions Executive Vice President and General Manager Brad Holmes has changed the course of a downtrodden franchise in short order since taking over in January 2021.
The Detroit Lions are on the cusp of going to the Super Bowl if they can get past a stout San Francisco 49ers squad in the NFC Championship Game this weekend. Not since the days of head coach Wayne Fontes and Pro Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders leading the team has the atmosphere been this crazy and optimistic. The Lions, who won their first playoff game since 1991 on Wild Card Weekend and are now hunting their first pro football championship in the modern era.
The Lions were 8-23 the previous two seasons before Holmes’ arrival and then went 3-13 in his first season as GM. Then Holmes got settled in, and the rest is history.
The 44-year-old — who earned the Lions job because of key acquisitions he made working for the Los Angeles Rams’ 2021 Super Bowl-winning front office — reshaped the roster in the image of himself and rising head coach Dan Campbell to ensure that the Lions were above all else tough, hard-nosed and physical.
The Matthew Stafford era ended and the Jared Goff era began. Stafford went on to finally achieve Super Bowl success with the Rams and Goff reinvigorated his career by elevating the new Lions to the elite level of the NFL.
People questioned Holmes’ decision to let go of a franchise legend. Then they clowned his decision to hire Dan Campbell, who let it be known from the press conference door that he wanted players who were willing to scrap and scrape and bite off kneecaps.
The tone was set, and, slowly but surely, the franchise began elevating. After last season’s 1-6 start to finish 9-8, just missing the NFC’s final playoff spot with a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks, hopes were extremely high. Still, it was Detroit, so the football world had to see it to believe it.
Detroit’s Reputation Made Trusting Holmes’ Decisions Difficult
Detroit showed it all season, finishing with a 12-5 record and winning the NFC North Division. The talent on the roster started producing. Every move Holmes made seemed to work.
The greatest example of Holmes’ imprint on this roster was how he crushed the 2023 draft, leaving many so-called experts bewildered.
Holmes, whose team boasted one of the deepest backfields in the game, could have rested on his laurels and figured Detroit would win a couple of more games and at least make the playoffs this season without wholesale changes on offense.
Instead, he let elite tailbacks Jamaal Williams and D’Andre Swift leave via trade and free agency and used the No. 12 pick in the draft on multi-faceted Jahmyr Gibbs.
Gibbs has not only blossomed into one of the best rookies in the league, but he’s been a difference-maker in Detroit’s playoff run. Gibbs had 1,261 scrimmage yards in 15 games played with 11 total touchdowns, and 5.2 yards per attempt. Among running backs with at least 150 attempts, the only one who averaged more yards per attempt was MVP candidate Christian McCaffrey.
During an appearance on “The Season with Peter Shrager” podcast ahead of this season, Holmes already knew what Gibbs would add to Detroit’s offensive potential.
“When you look at it systematically, I do think we’ll be better offensively,” Holmes said. “That’s no knock on the contributions the other two guys gave us. Swift is a dynamic player, and Jamaal was a great leader for us. He had a great season. … Being able to add Gibbs, he’s just so dynamic as a receiver. Look, he’s a home run hitter as a running back, that’s the easy part. What he does as a receiver — he runs routes like a receiver.”
The usual critics and fans who refuse to believe the Detroit Lions can do anything right questioned Holmes’ decision to use such a high pick on a running back and use the 34th overall pick on rookie tight end Sam LaPorta
Again, Holmes proved to be the shrewd operator in this instance as well. Both rookies are playing star roles in the playoffs.
Campbell made sure to give Holmes his propers in a press conference after reaching the playoffs. “I’m just going to bring it back to Brad Holmes. It’s a hell of a job by him once again,” Campbell said. “He took a lot of criticism for those two picks. But they look like they are OK. I’m glad we got ’em.”
Brad Holmes Started From The Bottom
Not bad for a guy who was working at Enterprise Rent-A Car after graduating from North Carolina A&T with a degree in journalism.
Detroit has slowly and effectively climbed its way up the NFL food chain behind the leadership of Holmes, who took a steady but unusual route to Detroit Lions GM.
He started working for the Atlanta Hawks in 2002, and that’s how he got his NFL plug.
“My boss at the time was the president of communications for basketball (Hawks), and he said ‘Look, man, a lot of these PR directors from the NFL come to the (NBA) All-Star Game, so I can introduce you to them,” Holmes told reporters.
“So I met Duane Lewis and we did a kind of lunch interview and he offered me a PR internship. I just packed a U-Haul and drove to St Louis … for a shot to be a scouting intern.”
Holmes joined the St Louis Rams and was promoted to director of scouting in 2013 after working as a scout for nine years. As a member of the Rams’ front office brain trust, he was influential in the Rams signing a plethora of franchise-changing players, including future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald, Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and Cooper Kupp, among others.
The story of these Detroit Lions can’t be written without recognizing Brad Holmes’ football genius.
