Detroit Lions’ new GM Brad Holmes had his introductory press conference on Tuesday and was one of the most interesting and enjoyable introductory communicators we’ve had here in Detroit. Lions fans should know, they’ve seen some of these over the years. There were many things that stood out, here are our top four things that stood out for us.
Holmes is a very passionate man
Some may see this and read “passion” as a guy who likes to scream a lot or gets angry easily. What I mean by that is that Brad Holmes demonstrated on Tuesday that his belief in things is profound. From a football perspective, he talked about how he missed school to watch the 1993 NFL Draft and how it turned him into a scout. He talked a lot about how football is important to him and how it is part of his family.
Speaking of family, it became clear as the day that Holmes is a family man, and you have the impression that your upbringing came from a family that believes in hard work and love. Holmes just has a very warm disposition. I know it doesn’t mean anything when it comes to building a team, but you just can’t help but be happy to hear the guy.
Holmes also spoke about the importance of being black in this position. He looked at Ozzie Newsome as he grew up and hopes that someday people will admire him. Passion is oozing from this guy.
The front office will be a committee
Nobody said it openly. This is all reading tea leaves. Holmes talked about how Les Snead and the Rams don’t limit their Scouting department members to titles and they all work together as a team. You have a feeling that this will also happen in Detroit.
There was a clear hierarchy in Detroit under Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia. This led to rumors of internal fights and disagreements over who to write and sign. Under Holmes, it would appear that Lions would run things as a unit, rather than a single guy running the show.
You can see it in the way Holmes said things like, “There will be no ego in the process. Everything is about the team. ”
It seems that Holmes plans to build a scouting group that is not interested in receiving any credit for successes and is mainly interested in having those successes as a unit. This is a complete 180 from the previous Lions regime, and is something to be excited about if you are a Lions fan.
There are still questions about Stafford and the current list
I know everyone wants to know what’s going on with Matthew Stafford. It was difficult to say what the exact move will be for Lions in the quarterback this off season. Although Holmes mentioned that he thinks Matthew Stafford is very talented and his intangibles are shown on video, he also said that they would still have to evaluate the entire list as a whole before any decision is made.
In terms of the rest of the list, Holmes mentioned that he does not see this as a long-term reconstruction. Putting a length of time on this is not the mindset they are following. In fact, he doesn’t seem to like the word “rebuild” completely and prefers to “rebuild”. This kind of leads to the thought that Lions are not going to destroy everything to start a complete reconstruction under Holmes.
Although he said that he is “very well versed” in the 2021 draft class and mentioned how the team will build through the draft. So we didn’t necessarily come out with a lot of answers to burning questions, but at least we left knowing that there would be a lot of evaluations going on.
Not a self-made man
So, it really stood out. Holmes said he is not a big fan of the term “self made”. If you needed an example of how small this man’s ego is, there it is. That’s what Lions talked about so much before this hiring. Lions were looking for someone who could work well with others and focus on the team instead of themselves. They wanted someone they could let go of, but also someone who was open to listening to others and knew that you can’t do it alone. This seems to be Brad Holmes in a nutshell.
When you hear Rod Wood, Sheila Ford Hamp and Chris Spielman talking about these kinds of traits and then see a candidate who exhibits those traits, it really reaffirms that Lions have done their due diligence and have really found the candidate they believed to be right the job and fit your image of what that job in Detroit should look like.
If that means victories and success, we’ll find out later. Right now, Lions fans must be comfortable with the process that Lions went through to find Holme, if the process they went through before hiring him. We’ll see if it was right or wrong later. There is no way to say that now.