Turnarounds are one of the great things about sports. Any team can go from cellar dweller to playoff contender by making the right moves at the right time. The Detroit Lions are the supreme example of that in this day and age.
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They were an NFL doormat for 30+ years before they pushed all the way to the Super Bowl’s doorstep in 2023, leading the NFC Championship deep into the second half before collapsing at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers. This year, they look even better.
They are riding an NFL-best eight-game winning streak, and currently sit atop the NFC field at 9-1. On Monday, for the first time in the history of their franchise, they opened as favorites to win the Super Bowl. If you’d told someone before COVID that the Lions would be Super Bowl favorites just four years later, they would have given you the “oh, sweet baby” look and pitied you for having seemingly lost your mind.
Such has been the nature of Detroit’s massive and speedy turnaround. And while the players deserve the lion’s share of the credit, head coach Dan Campbell deserves some, and so does the team’s relatively unknown general manager, Brad Holmes.
Holmes had a successful college football at North Carolina A&T, a tenure that included a year he missed after he slipped into a coma following a car accident. Thankfully, he was able to make a full recovery and play his senior season.
But after he graduated with a Bachelor of Science, all he could find was a gig as a rental car agent at Enterprise Rent A Car. While working there, he pushed tirelessly for an entry-level job in professional sports. He earned a public relations internship with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks in 2002, then moved on to the St. Louis Rams in the same capacity in 2003.
From 2003-2012, Holmes served in various roles in the scouting department for the Rams. His titles included area scout and National combine scout. He was promoted to director of college scouting in 2013 and was instrumental in the team’s acquisition of many of their “Mob Squad” players, including QB Jared Goff.
He stayed in that role until 2021 when the Lions came calling with an offer to design a franchise turnaround as the team’s EVP and general manager.
Detroit Lions turning the table
He wasted no time. In one of his first moves as the new Detroit Lions GM, he traded franchise QB Matthew Stafford to his old employers in exchange for Goff (who he was involved in drafting while in L.A.) and a stack of draft picks. The trade was as mutually beneficial as you could ask for: the Rams won the Super Bowl in 2021, and the Lions acquired the capital to fund their turnaround.
The first year was rough for the Lions, as they went 3-13-1, including an 0-9-1 start. However, they did win three of their last six, and they drafted two future Pro Bowlers Penei Sewell and Amon-Ra St. Brown.
They had another rough start to 2022, coming out of the gates 1-6. There were already calls for Goff, Campbell, and Holmes to hit the unemployment line. But then, the project clicked. They won eight of their final 10 games, earning their first winning record since 2017. They had more success in the draft too, nabbing Pro Bowler Aidan Hutchinson as well as key contributors Kerby Joseph and Jameson Williams.
Last year, it all came together. They won 12 games in a season for the first time since 1991, made the playoffs for the first time since 2016, and won a playoff game for the first time since 1991. Again, they were snipers in the draft, nabbing Jahmyr Gibbs, Brian Branch, Jack Campbell, and Sam LaPorta, all four of whom have been massive contributors.
Brad Holmes has built the Lions in a clever way. He began with a blockbuster trade, but thereafter, stuck to developing in-house talent and building through the draft, creating a foundation not just for a couple of good years, but for lasting success.
Surely, his time at Enterprise taught him that it’s better to go for a long-term deal than a short-term rental.
