Stop us if you've heard this before, but turns out Brad Holmes knew what he was doing. We shouldn't have doubted him after his first two drafts as Lions GM. After his third, critics decried the positional value of his first four picks, his first two in particular. They wondered why Holmes invested such premium capital in a running back, a linebacker, a tight end and a safety.
"We’re trying to win games," said Holmes. "That’s why we acquire these players."
They're trying to win games now. And they won Thursday night's season-opener, on the road, against the defending Super Bowl champs, because Brian Branch housed an interception, because Jack Campbell made a diving pass breakup two plays before it, because Sam LaPorta was everywhere on offense and because Jahmyr Gibbs was a demon whenever he touched the ball. The rookies weren't the only reasons the Lions took down the Chiefs, but Detroit wouldn't have done it without them.
"They’re football players," Holmes said after bringing them to town. "If you believe that they can have an impact for you on the field, you just go ahead and take them."
In other words, you don't fret their positions. When it came to Gibbs and Branch, Holmes didn't even see positions. In Gibbs, he saw "a multiphase, elite, explosive, position-less weapon" who could threaten a defense from anywhere on the field. The only letdown Thursday was that Gibbs didn't get more than nine touches. He still churned out 60 yards. In Branch, he saw a safety, a corner and a nickel all at once, a ballhawk and a thumper rolled into one, a “FOOTBALL PLAYER in caps." He was all of that against the Chiefs.
"When he came in on his visit, just looking him in his eye, you can feel that he wants to be great," Holmes said of Branch. "That put it over the top for me."
He caught a similar vibe from Campbell, who would say in his introductory press conference that he likes to do three things outside of football: "Go to church, hang out with friends and hunt." He didn't mention that he hunts on the field. While Campbell can be more traditionally categorized as an off-ball linebacker, Holmes and the Lions saw athleticism in him that transcended that label and instincts that would allow it to shine. Dropping into coverage in the third quarter Thursday, Campbell read Mahomes' eyes, swung his hips and dove to deny a pass intended for Kadarius Toney (who, let's be honest, probably would have dropped it).
Campbell split reps with Derrick Barnes and Malcolm Rodriguez next to green-dot linebacker Alex Anzalone, but it may not be long before he and Anzalone are a two-man show. Gibbs and David Montgomery are already a two-headed monster. Campbell and Gibbs, in the Lions' estimation, were two of only about 10 first-round-grade players in the draft, but Holmes was knocked, in some cases mocked, for drafting a running back No. 12 and a linebacker No. 18. He heard all of it. He even acknowledged that "if you put them in boxes on a sheet of paper and you run mock draft analytics," you can poke holes in the logic.
"But all the hours and research and time that we put into what we can get from these players, it becomes very visible what kind of impact they can bring," he said.
And then there's LaPorta, who's assimilated so quickly into the Lions' offense that it feels, at times, like they lost nothing in T.J. Hockenson. At others, it feels like they've gained a more complete (and much cheaper) tight end, like when LaPorta cleared out Chiefs star linebacker Nick Bolton to help pave the way for Montgomery's go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter. He also caught all five of his targets for 39 yards, production that will only increase as the season goes on.
LaPorta, who was second in snaps to only Amon-Ra St. Brown among the Lions skill players Thursday, proved exactly what Holmes said about him after the draft, that "he can align in a lot of different spots," that he blocks with "urgency and willingness in the run game," that he’s "active with his hands" and that while "he's not the biggest guy, he plays a lot bigger in-line than what you think."
Positional value is often viewed through a vacuum. Through the lens of the Lions' ready-to-contend roster, Gibbs, Campbell, LaPorta and Branch are exceedingly valuable as instant-impact players. The former three were always going to be Day 1 contributors at positions of need. Branch has been so good since he arrived that the Lions reconfigured their secondary to get him in the starting lineup. He might wind up being the best of the bunch.
"It’s no disrespect to the mock drafts," Holmes said in April. "Frankly, we don’t care. We feel really confident about the work that we put in and what those guys are going to do on the field. I’m not saying like a year or two years (from now). No, we believe that these guys are ready to go right now.”
With the whole country watching, the Lions went into Arrowhead Stadium and took down the defending champs because four rookies stepped up in their NFL debuts. What could be more valuable than that?