LIONS EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER BRAD HOLMES PRE-DRAFT PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTE SHEET
April 17, 2025
Opening Statement: “I want to give a shoutout and thanks and appreciation to everybody in our personnel department, all of our coaches, all of our operations staff. They’ve done a ton of work. A lot of work’s gone into this up to this point. Still a little bit of work to do. Still some I’s to dot and T’s to cross but wanted to give a shoutout and appreciation to everybody that’s been involved in this process so far.”
On how far he is willing to move up in the Draft to get the right guy: “Yeah, it’s always – it’s really case-by-case year-to-year. When we did the big one with (Lions WR) Jameson (Williams), that was the right – that was the guy. That was a little bit more probably pre-planned obviously because it was such a massive jump. It took a lot more conversations and discussions and planning to get into position to get him. But even the one last year, that was more – I think I told you guys that was more unexpected, just didn’t even think we’d get in position to get in striking range. We had a lot of affinity for (Lions CB Terrion Arnold) TA, and when we got in striking range which we felt was reasonable, then that’s when we made the move. It just depends who might be in striking range, who might – so it could be moving back, it could just be staying patient, it could be, ‘Oh, didn’t think this guy would’ – then you go up. You prepare for everything, so you go through all those scenarios and then you just kind of have to be ready for anything.”
On if there is anything about his philosophy that leans itself toward trading up: “I think it’s probably based on what the overall, let’s call it, what the talent level is and how high the talent level is in each Draft and it’s also relative to where we’re picking. I don’t really go into it as, ‘Man, I’ve got to trade up, I’ve got to trade up, I’ve got to trade up.’ But trading back is just how many of those players would be available and how much less of a player would you be getting or if the players are going to be the same and it looks – the more rational thing to get more assets, but it’s case-by-case.”
On the biggest lesson he has learned over his last four Drafts: “Probably a little bit about what you just asked about just staying patient. I think the first couple of years, there was probably a little bit more – because of where we were at as a roster – it was like, ‘Man we need this, this, this.’ Like I told you guys at the time, man, we need everything so there was not just a position or anything. We just needed really good football players. We have a lot of really good football players, but I don’t think that where we are now as a roster is going to lessen my desire to want to go get more better football players. Obviously, the more depth that you build and when the roster’s harder to make, sometimes it does say, ‘Look, maybe stay patient and just see. Or maybe go up and get the guy you really want and you don’t use those other Draft picks.’ But yeah, just kind of seeing the big picture in terms of not being as anxious because of where we are as a roster.”
On if they have taken calls from teams interested in the No. 28 overall pick: “No, I have not.”
On how much pride he takes in drafting six Pro Bowlers during his time with the Lions: “Yeah, I mean it’s – first of all, it’s not just us acquiring the player. It takes everybody. We can identify the talent, but we have great coaches who like I’ve said often can accelerate development and get the most out of these players. I think it’s more that I take pride in that we have the right people in our building just from a football leadership perspective and we’re all working as one, we’re all on the same page. We pretty much see things the same and we know what we want to get. I take pride in that of just having the right people because it is a process. It’s a lot of work that’s involved and it’s a lot of detail and it’s a lot that doesn’t get out to the public that it takes everybody. I’m the most proud of who we have in the building and who we’re working with on a regular basis because it really doesn’t happen if you don’t have everyone.”
On if they are looking for players that are ready to play now or developmental prospects similar to those they have drafted in the past: “Yeah, it’s a fair question. It’s got to be the right project. It’s got to be the right developmental upside guy that might not be ready to go because there’s a ton of them in every Draft. (Lions OL Giovanni) Manu is just one of those guys that was like, man, was really appealing and we had a lot of love for in the process and kind of just – we were in position to take him. But look, (Lions LB) Derrick Barnes was developmental when we took him and was kind of still learning how to play the linebacker position and all that kind of stuff. So it all goes back to the right intangibles and who we feel is a good football player. But I totally understand. It’s just that I think in the past we didn’t really – like when we first started in ’21, we didn’t have as much talent on the roster at the time and all those young guys had to play. And then we were fortunate enough to have all those additional picks after the (Lions QB Jared) Goff trade and I thought we made good use of those picks. Those guys are really, really good players that were like immediate impact. So we don’t really go into like, ‘Man we’ve got to get high floor, ready to go but the ceiling might be a little lower.’ Or, ‘We’re just going to take developmental guys.’ There’s no problem taking a developmental guy. Like I said, some of these guys, man you can take a late-round pick and it’s got to be the right guy or it’s going to be hard to make the roster.”
On if trading down is attractive if multiple prospects they are interested in are still available late in the first round: “Oh yeah, absolutely. If the compensation is right and it’s reasonable and it makes sense and like I said before, if we have the pool of players that we have kind of relatively in the same bucket, then yeah absolutely that could be an option.”
On if it is more important now to draft players that might be cheaper long-term to preserve financial flexibility for impending contract extensions: “The way that I kind of view it is let’s take care of the main thing first and just see if we can get the best football players for us first and then we’ll deal with what we have to do later. I’d rather have a surplus of good football players that we really, really like and increase great problems to have. That might increase great problems to have but I’d rather have those great problems instead of not having great problems to have.”
On if they have had further conversations since the Annual Meetings with former Lions DL Za’Darius Smith’s agent about a possible return: “No, we haven’t had any discussions since then. I think we kind of left it as that his agent would let us know if something was going on or if anything has changed or if we have any updates, but no we haven’t had any discussions since Annual Meetings.”
On balancing a prospect that might be the best player at a position but there may not be an opportunity to get them on the field with overlap on the current roster: “We’ve had those discussions. I think the interesting thing is that – and this is where I, not get annoyed, but this is sometimes when I don’t understand the whole need thing because when each season ends, it’s going to be something else. Another player’s contract is going to end, another player unfortunately might be coming off an injury. It’s going to be something different every single offseason. So if you’re trying to chase the what happened last season of this guy’s contract is up, you’re trying to chase that, this guy’s got an injury. You’re kind of just getting into a cycle that I think’s a little bit dangerous to get into. That’s why I’ve been more of a just get the best player. Look, we love (Lions CB Ennis) Rakestraw (Jr.) and unfortunately, he just wasn’t as healthy, so he wasn’t able to help as much last year. But we’re really excited and looking forward to what he’s going to be able to bring this year. I’ve said before, there’s just a level of patience that you just have to play, but when you start chasing need, it’s like well that need might make sense for right now at this time, but we make these picks for future investments. We live in a society that everything is right now, boom, right now, right now. I understand it, too. When a player gets drafted and there’s so much fascination made about the Draft and people are excited about it, people want to see it right now. They don’t want to wait and be patient. There is just patience – it’s no different than when we drafted – when we made that massive jump to get (Lions WR) Jameson Williams. He was coming off his injury. We knew maybe he could play a little bit late in the season, but we weren’t planning on it. So yeah, just got to play the patient. But I think you can get in trouble chasing these sometimes and then you’re dependent on a rookie. You do the best you can, but nobody’s got a crystal ball so it can be a tough world we live in.”
On what he thinks of the class of pash rushers and if there are particular players he is excited about: “Yeah, I think there’s some good players at that position. I won’t get into specifics or details about the actual players, but I know some will go before our pick, some might be available at our pick. Just like previous questions I’ve fielded, it might be an opportunity to trade back if that position is there. But yeah, there’s some good football players there.”
On how he feels about the current group of pass rushers on the roster: “The same as I felt when I told you guys at the owners meeting.”
On if the team is aligned on adding competition to the wide receiver room: “Yeah. Obviously, we talked about corner – you really can’t ever have enough of them. And obviously receiver, look – the only thing about receiver is I always felt like receiver is one of the more voluminous positions in each draft. It’s probably more of those guys that are veteran free agents that are available after the Draft as well. But yeah, just to add one, just to continue to add youth. We’re happy with the guys we have – very happy with the guys that we have – but obviously it’d be great to get younger.”
On if the team uses a value chart when considering Draft trades: “I don’t want to speak for everybody, but I would think most people have a chart. We have a chart. I do think it’s probably more of your philosophy of how you use the chart. I’ve spoken with teams during the Draft and they’re like, ‘The miniscule points are off,’ and it’s like, ‘Come on, man.’ Give me a break, but that’s their philosophy. We’re kind of like, ‘It’s in the range. This is the player that we want, this is the deal we want to do, and then we do it.’ Everybody has them. There’s multiple charts that exist as well, but I just think, ‘What’s your philosophy in terms of usage with it?’”
On what he will not do during the Draft: “Why is it so – imagine this. What I won’t do is what I’ve been saying that I won’t do that I know you guys get frustrated with me not doing, (which) is looking at our depth chart, like black-and-white names but no football being played, but looking at a depth chart and seeing a position and then saying, ‘Man, you’ve got to get that position.’ But a player has to play that position. That’s why I’ve always been saying, look, we want to get good players because if you get a guy that can play a position and say, look – what was the question asked about pass rushers? Well, you can draft a pass rusher every round. You could. It’s easy. That’s just like if a coach told me, ‘Man, we want a guy that’s 6’4’’, 250 pounds.’ To get a guy that’s 6,4’’, 250 pounds, that’s easy. You want a guy that’s 6’4’’, 250 pounds, yeah, I don’t know if he’s a good football player, but here’s 6’4’’, 250 pounds. Where the same as, yeah, you can draft a defensive end. If the player playing defensive end is not what we feel is going to be the right guy to really contribute to the football team, then what are you guys going to write about that player? You guys (will say), ‘Man, that’s not working.’ So, we’re not going to reach on players just to fill a position. That’s what we don’t do. But it’s like you said, you’re always trying to figure out what we’re going to do. When a movie comes out, I don’t understand – when you go to see a movie, you don’t know what the movie – you’ve never seen the movie. That’s the excitement. So, you’re fine just watching the movie. Whether the movie’s good or bad, you can – but I don’t understand why people can’t just watch the Draft. Like all right, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m watching the Draft, and get your popcorn ready and enjoy it.”
On the approach to conducting background checks on prospects who may have off-the-field red flags: “That’s a good question. It’s a lot more in-depth and a lot harder than some people may think. I do think it’s case by case. In terms of character evaluation, I wish it were as easy as seeing a headline. But there’s so much more depth and detail and research that’s involved. It’s literally, I tell our scouts, in terms of character, it’s year-round. It’s a house you have to build year-round and leads all the way up to the Draft, really. I have always said it’s case-by-case. Everything you may read may not be what actually happened and that’s the actual details of it or whatever the case is. That’s just it. It’s case by case. It’s a lot of depth. It’s a lot of research. I don’t want to get into specifics too much in terms of our process. It goes so much further than what’s available in the news.”
On the value of Top 30 visits with draft prospects and the Los Angeles Rams no longer conducting them: “I’m not surprised that (Los Angeles Rams General Manager) Les (Snead) goes that route. Back when I was there, we were doing them, but just knowing Les, I’m not surprised that he doesn’t do them anymore. I do think that you still get some value there in terms of yeah, it gets put out in the media, and it’s like, ‘Oh, you brought in this player.’ Those players are brought in for so many different reasons. It could be just the makeup, how well they retain football. It could be just the personality, how well they are going to fit in the locker room. They are human beings. They’re human beings that you are going to have to work with, so it goes past just what their job is on the football field. And it’s human beings that you have to really invest in. They’re really young kids that may need some growing up or development here or there. They come from all different backgrounds. It’s another opportunity to kind of dig deeper into the human being besides just the 15 minutes at the Combine. That’s what I feel great about is that our scouts do such a great job with that stuff, by the time we get to the Combine, we pretty much kind of know what it is. But it’s good to feel it too.”
On whether the public perception of being one player away, especially at pass rusher changes any of his thought process and approach to the Draft: “Again, it has to be the right guy. Even if it was the right guy at that specific position that we really wanted, just because you might want it doesn’t mean that you can get up there and get him. There’s been previous years, I know we did the (Lions WR) Jameson Williams trade that was pretty far up there from where we were at. That hasn’t been the only year that we have attempted to do that, not at that specific position, but just for a player. It takes two people to do a trade. There’s some teams that just don’t want to go that far back. It takes two. So, it’s hard to say like, ‘Man, we should do this.’ And even if we wanted to, there’s no telling that the other team is willing to go back.”
