Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell came to Detroit with a plan, and the product two years later is the deepest Lions team in recent memory. The frauds of the NFC North have become the favorites.
"I believe we’re right on track," Holmes said Thursday on 97.1 The Ticket. "You can make an argument that we’re a little ahead of schedule. We were able to hit on a lot of guys that were able to provide immediate production and play-time, some young guys, some rookies."
That was step two of the roster-building process. Step one was simple: Raze it. Holmes and Campbell assessed what they'd inherited from Bob Quinn and Matt Patricia and bombed pretty much everything that wasn't labeled 'OL.' Then they rebuilt from the rubble. Few NFL rosters, if any, have undergone more change for the better the last two years than the one in Detroit. Which was needed: few rosters, if any, had undergone more change for the worse in the three-year reign of Quinntricia.
We'll delve into it shortly, but the safeties alone will make you shudder. The 2020 Lions deployed Duron Harmon, Tracy Walker, Jayron Kearse and Will Harris to patrol the back of their defense, which would allow the most yards in franchise history and an NFL-high passer rating of 112.4, the worst mark in the last seven years and second worst mark this century. (Patrick Mahomes is the NFL's career leader in passer rating at ... 105.7.) Anyway, the 2023 Lions will deploy some combination of C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Kerby Joseph, Walker and Brian Branch.
When Holmes was asked about the Lions' roster now versus then, he couldn't help but laugh. It wasn't derisive. The differences are just that stark.
"Look, it’s widely known that we tore it down pretty good when we first got here, and it was intentional," Holmes said. "We had a plan of what we were trying to do. But the reason why I laughed is, yeah, I would say it’s night and day."
In addition to those safeties, here's a snapshot of Detroit's depth chart on defense in 2020. On the edge: Trey Flowers, Romeo Okwara, Da'Shawn Hand, Austin Bryant. On the interior: Danny Shelton, John Penisini, Nick Williams. At linebacker: Jamie Collins, Christian Jones, Jahlani Tavai, Reggie Ragland. And at corner: Desmond Trufant, Amani Oruwariye, Justin Coleman, Jeff Okudah. They conspired with Patricia to allow the third most yards in NFL history.
The picture wasn't much brighter in 2021. New names up front included Michael Brockers, Charles Harris, Levi Onwuzurike and Alim McNeill. Alex Anzalone and Derrick Barnes arrived at linebacker. Corner was a particular mess, where Oruwariye was the No. 1 amid a cast of undrafted free agents. Dean Marlowe joined Walker and Harris at safety.
Here's how it looks entering 2023. Edge: Aidan Hutchinson, James Houston, Harris, John Cominsky, Josh Paschal, Okwara, Onwuzurike. Interior: McNeill, Isaiah Buggs, Christian Covingon, Brodric Martin. Linebacker: Anzalone, Jack Campbell, Barnes, Malcolm Rodriguez. Cornerback: Cam Sutton, Emmanuel Moseley, Jerry Jacobs, Harris. Plus the aforementioned safeties, including the NFL's interceptions leader last season.
Gardner-Johnson would never have signed here last year, let alone two years ago. Holmes and the Lions were rifling through the reject bin in free agency and crossing their fingers on the waiver wire. They had little financial flexibility thanks to the failures of the prior regime, and even less appeal. When Holmes went shopping for receivers two years ago, he wound up with Tyrell Williams and Breshad Perriman, in part because the Lions were saddled with the most dead cap money in the NFL. This year, the Lions landed three of the top defensive backs on the market and still have plenty of cap space entering the season.
"I'm just thinking about free agency periods like that first one," said Holmes. "Minimal resources to work with and we were almost really asking players, do they wanna come? Then that narrative flipped and you felt that change of guys wanting to come here, and not just our own guys because of the culture that we put in place. But this year, external adds heard about what we’re doing and see the growth and they want to come here. It’s going to make for some tough decisions this training camp, and that’s a good problem to have."
Speaking of receivers, here's what the depth chart looked like in 2020: Kenny Golladay, Marvin Jones, Danny Amendola, Quintez Cephus, Mohamed Sanu. Here's how it looks now: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams (suspended), Josh Reynolds, Marvin Jones, Kalif Raymond, Denzel Mims. At running back, the Lions have upgraded from a 2020 trio of Adrian Peterson, D'Andre Swift and Kerryon Johnson to what Campbell calls a "two-headed monster" in David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. Tight end Sam LaPorta is a younger, cheaper and potentially better version of T.J. Hockenson. Jared Goff is younger and cheaper than Matthew Stafford, and better suited to a team on the rise.
By the way: Stafford, 35, has a passer rating of 97.7 and 51 touchdowns to 25 picks with the Rams. Goff, 28, has a passer rating of 95.8 and 48 touchdowns to 15 picks with the Lions. All things considered, are you not sticking with Goff in Detroit? That swap -- Stafford for Goff and draft picks that yielded Williams and Gibbs -- set the Lions on their way. (So did Holmes' first draft class. We'd be remiss not to mention Penei Sewell.)
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It was fitting that the Lions played their final season under Patricia and Quinn in empty, COVID-clouded stadiums around the NFL. They couldn't have been less relevant when Holmes and Campbell arrived. Even last year, the Lions all but hurled themselves at HBO's feet to be featured on 'Hard Knocks,' ahead of a season in which the NFL schedule makers didn't deem them worthy of a single primetime game. Think they're worthy now?
After closing last season with a thrilling win over the Packers on Sunday Night Football, the final flourish of an 8-2 finish, the Lions will open this season on Thursday Night Football against the defending Super Bowl champs. And two years after finishing dead last in the NFL in attendance with barely 50,000 fans per game, they have sold out of season tickets for the first time ever at Ford Field. The Detroit Lions are being picked to win the NFC North -- and maybe even a playoff game -- for the first time in 30 years.
Even Holmes admits the spotlight is a little dizzying. Has a team ever attracted so much attention coming off a nine-win season where it failed to make the playoffs? Has it ever inspired so much optimism?
"I will say it’s a little shocking to me, not making the postseason, the height of the so-called hype train," he said. "I didn’t think it would be to that magnitude, but we appreciate that people are taking notice of what we’re trying to do and we’re trying to do it the right way. But at the end of the day, we just block out that noise. We have our internal standards. Whether it’s high praise or low praise, we just stay focused on the mission we gotta get done."
That they've come this far is impressive on its own. The mission is far from accomplished for Campbell and Holmes, but even further from impossible as they enter year three.
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