| Detroit Free Press
Here’s who the Detroit Lions will play in the 2021 NFL season
A look at the Detroit Lions’ opponents in 2021, at home and away, in the NFL’s first regular season in 17 games.
Marlowe Alter, Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Lions have a new general manager: the director of the Los Angeles Rams, Brad Holmes, looking for universities.
The Lions have agreed a five-year contract with Holmes after questioning him a second time on Wednesday, a source told the Free Press on Thursday.
Holmes, the cousin of the former Lions’ first-round pick, Luther Bradley, has spent his entire NFL career with the Rams. He joined the organization in 2003 as a public relations intern, joined the reconnaissance department as an intern months later and worked his way up to manage the team’s past eight concepts.
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Wilbert Montgomery, a former NFL runner and Lions assistant who helped Holmes as a reconnaissance intern, compared Holmes to the legendary Ozzie Newsome, former Baltimore Ravens GM.
Newsome, the NFL’s first black general manager, built the Ravens into two-time Super Bowl champions.
“Ozzie Newsome is a dear friend of mine, a good, good friend of mine,” Montgomery said. “Ozzie and I are going all the way back to high school and I had the pleasure of working with Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore. I would now say (Holmes) is very, very young Ozzie Newsome at this stage of his career. . “
Holmes was one of at least twelve candidates the Lions interviewed for their GM post after firing Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia in late November.
The team handed over its list to a handful of finalists, including GM Terry Fontenot, assistant to the New Orleans Saints, but first met with Holmes for a second personal interview.
According to NFL rules, Fontenot is not allowed to meet with teams in person yet because the Saints stay in the post-season and Fontenot works out of the team headquarters in Louisiana.
Holmes, who hails from Atlanta and was also a finalist for the Atlanta Falcons GM work, is known for his clear, detailed exploratory eye and curious nature.
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He wrote investigative reports as an internist who, according to Montgomery, could not be distinguished from those produced by veteran scouts and coaches, and former Rams CEO Tony Softli recalled that Holmes made an impression with his comprehensive , yet digestible offers as a young combination explorer.
“His reports were on the same level,” Softli said. “I mean, people come to me who’s part of the poaching for National (Scouting Service) and say, ‘Hey, this guy can write some reports. “I’m going, ‘Yes, that’s why we hired him.’ I mean, he was good. And he undoubtedly doubts that he will soon be a university director. ‘
As director of university reconnaissance, Holmes was part of the decision-making team that Aaron Donald took with the 13th pick of the 2014 NFL draft, after the Lions passed the three-time defensive player of the year in favor of tighthead Eric Ebron.
He helped lead the choice of Jared Goff over Carson Wentz with the No. 1 pick in the 2016 draft. And he helped keep the organization competitive – the Rams play the Green Bay Packers in a playoff division on Saturday – despite not having had a first-round pick for the past four years.
Holmes, 41, has never managed a building before, but Bill Hayes, former coach of Holmes at North Carolina A&T, said it should not be a problem for a former team captain who has a natural leadership ability. do not have.
“I think he’s going to do an excellent job (as a GM),” Hayes said. “I know he’s going to do the job. That’s the first thing about it, he’s going to do the work, he’s going to make the effort and he’s a team man. He’s not one of those selfish maniacs. He’s going to be a team man. He can be trusted. He is extremely reliable, so I feel strongly that he would do a super job. ‘
Holmes, who joins Quinn, Martin Mayhew and Matt Millen as the first GMs to hire the Lions in the past two decades, is expected to select the following Lions coach along with owner Sheila Ford Hamp, President Rod Wood and adviser Chris Spielman . someone who believes league observers will have experience complementing Holmes’ youth.
The Lions have announced interviews with six head coach candidates: Darrell Bevell, who ended the 2020 season as interim head coach; former Bengals coach Marvin Lewis; Saints assistant coach Dan Campbell, who briefly served as the Miami Dolphins’ interim head coach; and coordinators Robert Saleh of the San Francisco 49ers, Eric Bieniemy of the Kansas City Chiefs and Arthur Smith of the Tennessee Titans.
The Lions will meet with a seventh head coach candidate later this week, Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense coordinator Todd Bowles, the former New York Jets coach.
The team also showed interest in at least one university coach, Pat Fitzgerald, Northwest, during the search process, but never interviewed Fitzgerald, who is not a candidate for the job.
Prior to Holmes’ appointment, the Lions met personally or virtually with their own candidates, Kyle O’Brien, Lance Newmark and Rob Lohman, ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, former NFL GMs Thomas Dimitroff, RIck Smith and Scott Pioli, and the current personnel managers Fontenot, George Paton, Jeff Ireland and Ed Dodds.
Paton on Thursday agreed to a six-year deal to become Denver Broncos GM.
The Lions also had serious communication across the channel about the appointment of Pittsburgh Steelers GM Kevin Colbert, two people who are familiar with the talks but who are not authorized to speak on behalf of Colbert or the Lions, told the Free Press .
The Lions never made a request to interview Colbert, a former Lions manager in the 1990s who is in the final year of his contract in Pittsburgh, after helping the Steelers win two championships.
ESPN was first to report the hire of Holmes.
Contact Dave Birkett at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.