Entering free agency, Brad Holmes and the Lions had a pool of money set aside for Jamaal Williams. Both parties wanted to and expected to extend their relationship. In the end, the Lions signed David Montgomery to a three-year, $18 million deal and Williams wound up in New Orleans for significantly less.
"It was mutual interest," Holmes told reporters Monday at the NFL owners meetings. "We wanted Jamaal back. Me and Jamaal had a good conversation at the end of the season about his desire to want to come back, and that was legit. When we left the combine, we had had conversations with his agent and I thought that it was headed in the right direction."
From there, communication apparently broke down. Asked about his breakup with the Lions on his first day as a Saint, Williams called Detroit's offer "very disrespectful." But according to Holmes, the Lions had offered Williams a deal similar to the one they gave Montgomery. Williams and his agent settled for a three-year, $12 million deal with the Saints.
"From a budgeting and planning standpoint, pre-free agency, we had an allotment of resources set aside, really for Jamaal," Holmes said. "Didn’t really even consider another running back higher than that amount of resources that we set aside for Jamaal. Business happens. That’s part of this business and it just didn’t work, but we tried.
"When the market crystallized and it got to a point where David was in play within the range of resources that we had set aside, that’s when we went forward with David, which we're extremely excited about."
In general, Holmes said the Lions value "transparency and openness" with player agents. He also said they always let the agent know if "we are under some kind of deadline or timeline" to make a decision on the agent's client, to avoid being left without a seat at the end of a free-agency carousel.
"You can put all this emphasis on this one player, but you don’t know you’re going to get that one player. If you’re putting all your marbles in that basket, all those other players (and agents) that you’re having dialogue with, they might be signing elsewhere," said Holmes. "So we just always keep open, transparent dialogue with them."
Holmes said he and Dan Campbell used to talk frequently about Montgomery, who's two years younger than Williams, before the Lions' matchups with the Bears because he always posed a threat to Detroit's defense.
"He's a hard guy to bring down. Ever since college at Iowa State, he’s always been at the top of forced tackles missed. He’s a tough runner, he’s good in the passing game, so he’s a great addition. But definitely we tried to make it work with Jamaal and it just didn’t happen," said Holmes.
Holmes reiterated his admiration for Williams, one of his first free agent targets as Lions GM. Last season, Williams became Detroit's first 1,000-yard rusher in nearly a decade, broke Barry Sanders' franchise record with an NFL-high 17 rushing touchdowns and emerged as the heart and soul of the Lions' best team in several years.
"I love Jamaal," said Holmes. "One of the great stories is when we first signed him, Jamaal was a target to add in free agency when I was interviewing for this job, just to be able to pair D'Andre Swift with a guy like him. And then when we signed Jamaal, we were in this conference room that’s got a big old Lions logo and he just banged the wall and said, 'Man, this ain’t gonna be the same!'"
In his introductory press conference with the Saints, Williams said he "could tell" by talks with the Lions that "they been done with it," but echoed Holmes and added, "It's all love."
"I know my teammates and everybody there at the Detroit Lions has love for me and all that, but at the same time, it's just, we couldn’t come to terms on things. It’s just funny, that’s all. It’s funny to me because at the end of the day, I know the blessing are still coming just for me being who I am," Williams said.
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