NFL executives pick Lions brass to win end of season awards in midseason voting

With nine weeks (and now one game of Week 10) complete, we are at the halfway point of the 2024 NFL regular season. So naturally, it's time for midseason awards and predictions far and wide. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated polled 20 league executives to pick seven league awards at the halfway point.

The 7-1 Detroit Lions are widely considered the best team in the league right now, with quarterback Jared Goff garnering some MVP buzz. In Breer's poll, Goff got one MVP vote.

Lions general manager Brad Holmes is a natural candidate for Executive of the Year, and head coach Dan Campbell is a Coach of the Year candidate. It does feel like Campbell's candidacy takes a hit based on the expectations the Lions have, since each year's Coach of the Year winner tends to come from a team that defies preseason expectations.

Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes win awards in midseason vote

In Breer's poll, Campbell got the most votes (8.5) for Coach of the Year.

"My favorite stat from the Dan Campbell era … Prior to Halloween 2022, he was 4-19-1. Since, he’s 29–9. So on a dime, he flipped a .173 winning percentage into .763. That is incomprehensible, and a tribute to Campbell’s ability to reach, motivate and maximize people. For him to be able to get the guys to maintain a belief in his program, absent real on-field results for that long, is wildly impressive. Then, for that belief to be validated in such an emphatic way? Again, I don’t think there’s enough you can say about the job Campbell and his staff have done."

Holmes got the most votes (eight) for Executive of the Year in the poll. Breer made the case for Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year to come from the same team.

"To have Coach of the Year and Exec of the Year come from the same team would generally feel like a little much, but not in this case. Holmes’s draft record since becoming GM is incredible—with a steady stream of guys such as Penei Sewell, Alim McNeill, Amon-Ra Sr. Brown, Aidan Hutchinson, Kerby Joseph, Jahmyr Gibbs, Sam LaPorta, Brian Branch and Terrion Arnold selected. Those pieces have melded nicely with existing cornerstones such as Taylor Decker and Frank Ragnow, and veteran additions David Montgomery and Alex Anzalone. And then there’s Goff, who Holmes brought with him from L.A. as what most people regarded as a throw-in to the Matthew Stafford trade. Add it all up, and you have a team that’s winning now, and looks like it’s going to win for a long time. Holmes deserves a ton of credit for it."

Campbell and Holmes have played equal and synergetic roles in the Lions' rise. A sweep of their appropriate awards when this season ends feels unlikely, but it's certainly not impossible.