Brad Holmes is a general manager by trade. At heart, he'll always be a scout. That's why the Lions hired him, because Holmes identified some of the best players in the draft over eight years as director of college scouting for the Rams.
Forget three-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald, 13th overall in 2014. Forget former Offensive Player of the Year Todd Gurley, 10th overall in 2015. Just take the third round in 2017. Holmes pointed the Rams to one of the best safeties in the game in John Johnson III and the NFL's receiving king in Cooper Kupp. Both players, as it turns out, participated in that year's Senior Bowl.
It was the first time Holmes laid eyes on Kupp. He hadn't scouted on the West Coast that season, and who knows if he even would've stopped at Eastern Washington where Kupp was playing video games against the FCS. But when he watched Kupp over three practices in Mobile, Ala., five years ago this week, Holmes saw a star. Now everyone else sees it, too.
"I first saw him at the Senior Bowl, where we're about to go coach," Holmes said Friday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. "And I'm gonna say it, I thought he was the best player on the field the first time I saw him. It all goes back to how we see football players. You just know a football player when you see a football player."
A lot of teams that week were buzzing about Kupp. And a lot of teams were bummed by him at the combine, where he ran a slower 40-yard dash (4.62) than almost every other receiver -- and several tight ends and linebackers -- and also ranked among the bottom 10 for his position in the vertical and the broad jump. The Rams weren't swayed, because Holmes trusted his eyes.
"We remained interested and invested in him and then you enter that spring process of combines and pro days, but you keep going back to when you see the guy playing football," said Holmes. "So I was a big fan of him."
And so the Rams took Kupp 69th overall, the seventh receiver off the board. He led a first-place team in receiving in year one, cracked 1,000 yards in year three and spent year five torching the NFL. The average stat line this season of the four healthy receivers drafted ahead of Kupp: 42 catches, 602 yards, 3.8 touchdowns. Kupp's stat line: 145 catches, 1,947 yards, 16 touchdowns, all tops in the NFL.
"You see Cooper Kupp at the Senior Bowl, you know it's a talented roster that we're going to see at the Senior Bowl this year," said Holmes, with the Lions set to coach a team of 55 prospects next week through three practices and Saturday's game. "We have a unique opportunity to get up close to those players and take advantage of being hands-on with those players."
Like in 2017, when the Rams overhauled their passing attack, Holmes will surely be eyeing the receivers. The Lions are desperate for more weapons in the air. On the American Team -- which will be coached by Detroit -- watch out for South Alabama's Jalen Tolbert, a 6'3 deep threat, and Memphis' Calvin Austin, one of the quickest players in the entire draft. I mean, come on:
"There is gold to be found" at the Senior Bowl, Holmes said earlier this month. And there are holes to be filled across the Lions roster. Holmes is here because of his eye for talent, which spotted a receiving gem in last year's draft in WR Amon-Ra St. Brown. There wasn't much buzz for the fourth-round pick, until he couldn't be stopped. Holmes knows a football player when he sees one. The Lions will hope he sees a few more next week.
"What what we have to be mindful of when we finish up the week is, you can't just be anchored on those players that were in the Senior Bowl. And the players that were not there, we can't look at those players in a different light because we didn't spend all week with them," said Holmes. "I'm big on avoiding anchors. We gotta stick to our process all the way through the draft.