The Lions purged their team of head coach Matt Patricia and GM Bob Quinn after the team’s Thanksgiving Day 41-25 blowout loss at the hands of the Houston Texans, and since that time the team began their search to fill both positions.
Today they found their new GM, Brad Holmes.
Holmes, the Rams’ Director of Scouting, is Rams career lifer. He began with the organization as a PR intern in 2003, moved into the scouting department as an intern a few months later and then moved up the ranks to ultimately run the Rams’ draft for the past eight years.
Holmes comes to the Lions with words of praise from former NFL running back and Lions assistant, Wilbert Montgomery, who compared him to Hall of Fame player and legendary Ravens’ GM, Ozzie Newsome.
“Ozzie Newsome is a dear friend of mine, a good, good friend of mine,” said Montgomery. “Ozzie and I go all the way back to high school and I had the pleasure of working with Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore. I would say right now (Holmes) is very, very much a young Ozzie Newsome at this point in his career.”
According to the Detroit Free Press, Holmes was going up against at least 12 other candidates for the position, but he was the only one to meet with the team for a second, in-person interview.
Holmes’s work ethic and scouting skills were praised by Montgomery and former Rams executive Tony Softli.
“His reports were on par,” said Softli. “I mean, people were coming up to me that were part of the combine for National (Scouting Service) saying, ‘Hey, this guy can write some reports.’ I go, ‘Yeah, that’s why we hired him.’ I mean, he was good. And there’s no doubt he was going to be a college director soon.”
His resume includes being a part of the team that decided to select Aaron Donald with the 13th pick in the 2014 NFL Draft and Jared Goff over Carson Wentz with the first pick in the 2016 draft. These choices helped the Rams make the Super Bowl in 2019 and put the team in playoff position again this year.
Holmes, 41, is a graduate of HBCU University North Carolina A&T, and his former college coach, Bill Hayes, added to the praises being sung by the Lions’ new GM.
“I think he would do an excellent job (as GM),” Hayes said. “I know he’s going to put in the work. That’s the first thing about it, he’s going to put in the work, he’s going to make the effort and he’s a team guy all the way. He’s not one of those egotistical maniacs. He’s going to be a team guy. He can be trusted. He’s extremely trustworthy, so I feel strongly that he would do a super job.”
Now that Holmes is on board, he will work with team ownership to select a new head coach for the team from a list that includes the Chiefs’ Eric Bieniemy, former Bengals’ coach Marvin Lewis, the Bucs’ Todd Bowles and the 49ers’ Robert Saleh.
Holmes now becomes the NFL’s third Black General Manager, joining the Dolphins’ Chris Grier and the Browns’ Andrew Berry.
