I think we can all admit it hasn't been the best few months for the Detroit Lions. After one of the more enjoyable seasons in recent history (/ever?), there was the whole 'lose your first playoff game, at home' thing, followed swiftly by the whole 'lose both coordinators' thing. It was a lot.
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Then free agency arrived, and the Lions ... certainly did things! Moves to bring in guys like DJ Reed, Derrick Barnes, and Tim Patrick weren't necessarily bad, but they didn't do a whole lot to convince Lions fans that the team had figured out how to fix the roster's biggest holes.
[*Dramatic music] But! What if I told you that, actually, the Lions surprised themselves with how well they did in free agency? You'd be supremely underwhelmed? Ah. Well, sorry I guess? Because that's exactly the message that Lions GM Brad Holmes had when he talked about the offseason with reporters last week from the NFL's annual league meetings. If you ask him – which, surprise, people did – the team's outperformed their own expectations through the first few months of the offseason.
The Lions apparently surprised themselves with how well they did in free agency
"Look, I'm more than happy with how free agency went and I say more than happy because we were able to get guys that we really wanted to get," he said. "That's always the case. Like, we don't compromise and get a prospect that we're warm on, so happy with that. But more than happy because we actually were able to do more than what I thought we were actually gonna be able to do heading into it."
It's admittedly not the most inspiring quote, but that's exactly what Holmes has to say. It's not like he's going to publicly bemoan not being able to trade for Maxx Crosby. It'd honestly be more alarming if he came out and was just like, 'yeah we really dropped the ball this year. Lions fans: don't renew those season tickets.' Who among us hasn't turned in a test hoping it was an A all the while being pretty sure it's actually a C? NFL GMs: they're just like us!
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