ALLEN PARK -- General managers talking about trading their first-round picks is a time-honored tradition that is roughly as old as the draft itself. Brad Holmes got the memo.
The first-year Detroit Lions general manager held his pre-draft news conference on Friday, and it took just two questions for him to be asked about trading out of the seventh overall pick. Sounding very much like a veteran of the draft, Holmes said the Lions were already open for business.
“Yes, there have been (trade) discussions with other teams,” Holmes said. “I will keep those in house, but yeah, there have been discussions.”
While Holmes is in his first months on the job, he’s a longtime veteran of the draft war room. He rose through the ranks with the Los Angeles Rams, where he started at the very bottom -- as a public relations intern -- before making his way into the scouting department and eventually running the Rams’ last eight drafts as college scouting director.
The Rams were active traders during Holmes’ time running the scouting operation, most famously trading up from No. 15 to take Jared Goff first overall in 2016. Holmes banged the table for Goff, who has since been traded to Detroit. The price for that move up the board: L.A.’s first-round pick, two second-rounders, a third-rounder, plus a future first- and third-rounder.
In fact, the Rams have wheeled and dealed so much that they still haven’t taken a player in the first round since Goff five years ago.
The Lions probably won’t move up the board on Thursday night. They still have too many needs and are still too many players away from competitiveness for that kind of aggressiveness, unless they’ve fallen for a quarterback such as Trey Lance, Justin Fields or Mac Jones. All could be gone by the time Detroit is on the clock. (Fellow QBs Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson are expected to go 1-2.)
More likely, the Lions will either sit on the pick -- where there are plenty of viable options, including four pass-catchers, two offensive linemen and perhaps a linebacker -- or trade down. They already initiated a major rebuild anyway when they decided to trade Matthew Stafford to L.A. for three draft picks, two of which won’t arrive until future years. So with the pressure off to win in 2021, they could continue to load up on more picks by trading down on Thursday night, giving them more opportunities to turn over the roster from the disastrous Quinntrica era that has left them decimated.
“Whenever you’re picking in the top 10, obviously it’s an extremely valuable pick, but it’s very exciting to be looking at this crop of players that would be worthy of selecting (there),” Holmes said. “Where I just came from, we weren’t really used to picking in the first round that much. So being up in the top 10 (is cool). But at seven, we do have a cluster of players that we’re comfortable with picking. But at the same time, we would be very prepared and also willing to move in either direction. So we’re still open in those regards, but there is a cluster of players that we would be comfortable with.”
Holmes has been illuminating in most of his chats with reporters since taking the top job in Detroit, but was noticeably more buttoned-up on Friday as he tries to protect the Lions’ draft plans. But it’s clear he likes where Detroit is picking and the quality of players that will be available there, noting there are a couple handfuls of blue-chip prospects in this year’s class.
Most of those players are offensive skill players, which the Lions need, although they need more help for a defense that just became the worst in franchise history too. Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons could make sense for them, but most of the defensive stars, including Parsons, make more sense in a trade-down scenario. Holmes said there is no floor to where he’s willing to trade down.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a floor,” Holmes said. “I think that that probably would be pigeonholing yourself or even -- I’m very, very leery of anchors, I would say. I try to avoid as many anchors as possible, so you always want to kind of go into it through having a sound process of doing all the work and kind of knowing, OK, if you did slide back here, then you’re looking at this subset of players potentially, and so how do we feel about those players? If you moved up, might be looking at this player. So I think that just goes back to the preparation period and not having to anchor yourself with a certain floor there.”
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