Before he had even taken a question Monday, Brad Holmes was handing out answers. He took the podium for his end-of-season press conference, which came two weeks earlier than he would have liked, and shot down the notion that the Lions' run to the NFC title game as they aim for the apex of the NFL was spurred by pixie dust.
This story, says Holmes, is just getting started. And just getting good.
"This what I want to tell our fans. It’s only going to get better, OK? We’re only going to get better. I don’t want anybody to think that this was a one-shot, Cinderella, magical journey that just happened. No, it’s real. This is exactly what was supposed to happen. I understand that based on history, from what’s happened in the past, you have a season like this, it’s easy to feel like it was a magical, lucky, cute story, which I’m tired of hearing," said Holmes. "It was none of that."
The Lions reached all sorts of historical markers this season, but fell short of their ultimate goal. They won their division for the first time in 30 years, but failed to win their conference. They hosted and won two playoff games for the first time ever, but the playoffs went on without them. They won a franchise-best 14 games, but they lost their last one. They will watch the Super Bowl from the discomfort of their homes, if they can bear to watch it at all. What kind of fairytale ends like that?
As co-captain Alex Anzalone said in the wake of the Lions' 34-31 loss to the 49ers in the NFC championship game in which they blew a 24-7 halftime lead, the standard moving forward is "Super Bowl or bust." Holmes' mission in Detroit is to make a season like this one feel normal, the crushing conclusion notwithstanding. It should shine, but not like a shooting star. He pointed out Monday that both he and Dan Campbell came to the Lions from organizations -- Holmes from the Rams, Campbell from the Saints -- where winning "was normalized."
"That’s why we’re here," said Holmes, "to normalize what this is right now. We love where we’re at. This is supposed to be expected. It’s the standard. We love the window that we’re in. We just got finished with year three. We’re still building."
In three years under Holmes and Campbell, the Lions have gone from last in the NFC North to second to first, from three regular season wins to nine to 12. They have added pillars in every draft, which is exactly why Holmes says they're still building: they intend to add more. Would you doubt the NFL's Executive of the Year?
In his three drafts as general manager, you can conservatively say that Holmes has added eight cornerstones to the Lions' roster in Penei Sewell, Alim McNeill and Amon-Ra St. Brown in 2021, Aidan Hutchinson and Kerby Joseph in 2022 and Jahmyr Gibbs, Sam LaPorta and Brian Branch in 2023. And that's before mentioning Jameson Williams and Jack Campbell, among others.
And it goes without saying that Holmes has secured the most important piece of the roster for any contender in quarterback Jared Goff, who's likely to sign a long-term extension with Detroit this offseason. Goff, by the way, has more passing yards over the last two seasons than any quarterback not named Mahomes, more touchdowns than any quarterback not named Mahomes or Allen, and more wins than any quarterback not named Mahomes, Allen or Hurts. $50 million a year, in this market? You bet.
Holmes brought receipts to the podium partly to flex, mostly to stamp out any concerns in the fanbase about regression. He cited the criticism he received after his first draft when the Lions passed on a quarterback with their top-10 pick and didn't take a much-needed receiver until the fourth round, and after last year's draft when they dared to take a running back and a linebacker in the first round and a tight end and a defensive back in the second, and said, "Trust me." His point was that negativity might drive news in the offseason, but good players win games on the field.
Sewell and St. Brown were first-team All-Pros this season. Gibbs and LaPorta were finalists for Offensive Rookie of the Year, Campbell and Branch were key contributors on defense. Goff is the best example of the virtue of patience, panned as a castoff and a penalty for a better return in the Matthew Stafford trade when he arrived in Detroit, dismissed as a bridge quarterback by just about everyone other than Holmes and Campbell. A bridge, indeed: Goff has led the Lions over decades of disappointment.
Holmes, talking to the fans, said "don't get spooked this spring by speculation or negative talk or the entertainment news feed. Don’t get spooked by that to think that we can't sustain what we’re building."
"I don’t want the fans’ joy to be derailed," said Holmes. "They should be proud of their football team because the fans have earned and it and deserve it. And also, I want them to know that over the next few months, every move that we make is to win in December. It’s not to win March, April and May, which it’s easy to do. If that’s your aim, you can win headlines. You can win March, April and May. But no, everything is intentional. It may look strange, it may look like, 'Well, why did they do this?’ Trust me: it is to win in December. That’s why we made the moves that we have made."
December leads directly into January and February. That's where the Lions plan to define themselves in the seasons ahead. Holmes has work to do this offseason, a defense to upgrade, an offensive line to solidify in the trenches, a roster to weaponize at every position to be left with more than blanks in the fourth quarter of the final game. This story only continues if the Lions keep writing it, and dangers lurk at every turn in the NFL. Plot twists are the norm; repeats are not.
But Holmes isn't planning a re-run, and doesn't "want anybody to be worried about" a letdown. Amid a steady climb, he just wants the Lions to continue their ascent.
"I just wanted to reassure the fans that what you saw this year is real," he said. "It wasn’t some magical thing."