He's certainly no stranger to draft rooms, but for first-year Lions GM Brad Holmes, 2021's set up will obviously be a little different. After spending his entire 18-year career in the Rams' scouting department, Holmes will get his first chance at running the show when the Lions pick 7th overall in the NFL Draft next Thursday night.
Speaking with media in a pre-draft press conference on Friday afternoon, Holmes spoke at length about what the experience has been like so far. When asked about any advice he may have gotten from other executives around the league, Holmes quickly recalled lessons he learned under Rams Les Snead.
"I probably alluded to the main one from Les, which is that you definitely surrender the results to the process," he said. "And just through all the hard work, and then having a very thorough, diligent process and being about as thorough as you can be. It can often maybe feel exhaustive, but the importance of it kind of alleviates that a little bit.
"I would definitely say Les has always kind of taught me surrendering the results to the process, and I will say on top of that, just make sure you look at the players, especially when you get this close, it’s always an all-things-considered approach to it."
Predictably, Holmes wouldn't give a hard answer on what the team planned to do with that first round pick next Thursday night, but he did joke that the Lions' set up won't be too similar to the Rams' now-infamous draft beach house.
"I'll tell you what, I was actually on the phone with Les just the other day, and I actually had to put him on FaceTime because we had snow coming down in Detroit," he said. "I had to let him know that that beach house looks really great, but this is our draft set up.