At first glance, Brad Holmes' first draft as the Lions GM was an objective success. Draft analysts had plenty of praise for Holmes' first draft class, and shortly after the event ended, Holmes spoke at a press conference about how he felt it went.
"It's not a monkey off of my back, it's an accomplishment to get through the first one," Holmes said. "That feels good. It feels even better to do it with great people. And I think we came away with really good football players that we feel really, really good about, [guys] the entire organization is excited about. So that's just a good feeling.
"My mom shot me a text this morning. I guess she saw me on the last press conference. She just said, 'you got to make sure you get some sleep.' We couldn't be happier with how it came out."
Holmes joked that he should have worn a Pac-12 t-shirt to his press conference, given that four of their seven picks, including first round pick Penei Sewell came from that conference.
"Shoutout to the Pac-12 for having some good football players," he joked. "It feels great. We still have work to do."
The team is still talking with undrafted free agents -- a process that Holmes said is something where "you don't have to hurry up and slide into home plate," and that the team's in no rush to fill every empty roster slot tonight. For now, Holmes plans to take his mom's advice and get some much-deserved rest.
"There were other times where I feel like I got back to the bed around maybe 2am or so," he said. "Hopefully I can get in there early tonight. My mom always gives me the bags-under-my-eyes test, and she always gives me hell for that."
